Kentucky Weekend

So this past weekend Melissa and I took off for the National Paddling Film Festival in Frankfort, KY. We had been planning to go since early fall. It was well worth it! I would highly recommend it to anyone with a paddling interest! Great people and location. Lots of history.

We took off Friday around 1pm and headed north for Frankfort. We drove 100 mph the whole way there because I was misinformed that the RavenFork film was supposed to start at 6pm. I was looking forward to this film more than anything! I had been trying to catch it since July. We got to Buffalo Trace Distillery at 6:30pm and went in to find out we still had an hour to spare! I was very happy. We watched a couple short films then RavenFork came on and was awesome. So much local scenery and people I really enjoyed it. Melissa went down stairs to get a snack while it was on, and they had a waiting list to buy a copy when it is released next month. She signed up to get a copy of it for me. I did not find this out till the next day when talking to Thomas Oliver, the director, and he told me about the sign-up sheet. I told Melissa she was very sweet for thinking of me!! After, the films ended for the evening we discussed going downtown with some of the people and partying, but we were pretty tired and still needed to check in to the hotel. We got checked in to room #813 at the Crown Plaza after a half hour of bickering with them on why Rick was not able to make it. We got unpacked and settled in for the evening.

Saturday we were going to get up and go paddling but we laid around a talked till after 11am. It was nice. We decided to go to a little cafe in downtown for brunch and had healthy food. It was a neat little place. I had a ham & swiss panini. Melissa had a blackbean vegan tortilla thing. She said it was good, I was not brave enough to try it. We then headed back over to the distillery to find out what the plan for the afternoon would be. Melissa wanted to do a distillery tour, I was hesitant due to her not liking the smell of sourmash. At 2pm we got on the last tour of the day and did the hour tour with a tasting following the tour. The tasting allowed us to try their vodka, that was good and they make a rootbeer that was really good! The films resumed at 5pm and we stayed and watched them till after 11pm. It was a lot of sitting but the beer was cold and free and the films were exceptional. After the films ended we went downtown to a bar called the Brick. They had a DJ and played dance music all night. It was not bad. the beer was cheap and the bartenders screwed up so our tab was $15 and our friends only got billed $10!! Melissa, had a few shots and they went straight to her head. As we walked back to the hotel she was all sweet at first, then by the time we were back at the hotel she was off in some other world. We went straight to sleep with out much talking.

Sunday I got us up at 7:30am, because we had plans to meet our new friends at Shoney's for breakfast at 9am and then go to the Elkhorn and paddle. Our friends were late and we were starving so we started without them. Breakfast was good, but the campanionship of us boaters was best. I love boaters!! We talk rivers, camping, and hiking. Never a dull moment with all the stories going back and forth across a table or campfire. They live down in Alabama and gave us an open invite to come down for a weekend and paddle the Little River Canyon. That really made me happy. I would love to take them up on that this fall. After we finished breakfast we headed for the river. We got there figured out parking and hooked up with some other people who were like minded about the weather and river. They offered to show us down in case we ran into anything sticky, so we took them up on the offer and I ran shuttle for the group. they were awesome and we got on the water about noon. The level on the Elkhorn Creek was 3030cfs and I would not do it at 3100cfs!! The dam that you have to portage on the left, would not be safe to get near at the point. You have to paddle right up to the pourover adn there is a concrete ledge that you use to get out on and walk around it. There was 2" of concrete showing. Any more water in there and there would have been no way to get out. I also don't think that run would be any fun at all below 2000cfs, but I could be wrong. The locals run it down to about 800cfs, but that is all they have. That makes a difference. We got off the water at 2pm and started our trek home.

The trek home was far more interesting than the ride there. We got back into Frankfort and decided to get lunch at Arby's for the ride home. As we pulled in the oil light came on in the car. I pulled the dipstick and it was dry. So there was an Advanced Auto next door so I walked over bought two quarts and dumped them in the car. After we ate, we went to leave and it started to rain. Turned on the wipers and the driver side one peeled off and was hanging a 12" piece of black wiper loosely flopping around. Great! Back over to Advanced I go. Install the new wiper, I only bought the driver's side since that's the only way the sold them. We pull out and get on the road at 3:30pm. We drove down to the Jellico exit in TN and stopped for gas. As we were getting off the exit, Rick called and informed us his mother had passed away Sunday morning. I talked to him for a while and he said he would be up there for a few weeks getting things taken care of. Upon stopping I thought I would check the oil situation again to make sure we were good. I lifted the dipstick out and it was wet but not really registering anything. So I ran in and got a 3rd quart of oil and dumped it in. Then I checked it again and we were finally in the full position on all fluids. Once back on the road we made it successfully back to Hendersonville where stopped for fries and frosty. the snack was nice and we got home at 9:50pm. Tired and ready for bed, we turned in without unloading a thing!! Another great paddling weekend came to a close!
~RF