Nick, Mindy and I went camping at Red River Gorge this weekend, some much needed time away from the hustle and bustle, stress and frustration of “city” life. We set up camp Friday night at Koomer Ridge Campground and spent a day and two nights relaxing, having no schedule, enjoying the beauty of God’s creation and fellowship with each other.

When we got there, Nick wasted no time doing what he does best - playing with fire. I tell ya, one of my favorites things in this life is sitting by a camp fire on a pleasant evening. I can get lost in watching a fire for hours.

We had absolutely great weather the entire weekend. - no rain, pleasant evenings and not too hot or humid days. This is in great contrast to my brother’s weekend. He’s out west on vacation (Rocky Mountain National Park at the time) and Saturday night I got a message from him saying the temperatures were in the 30s with 10 inches of snow on the ground and blizzard conditions. Um, wow…I know it’s the mountains, but it is August, right?

We hiked a few trails on Saturday - Gray’s Arch-Rough Trail-Rush Ridge loop and Auxier Ridge towards Courthouse Rock. Hiking/walking/running is a time when I find myself pondering much and “writing” blog posts. This weekend was no exception. God planted several thoughts in my mind, some calming, others deeply unsettling. I intended to post some of these but now that I’m back home, I just feel too laid open and raw, too physically and mentally exhausted and don’t feel like putting these thoughts out there. Maybe later…

All in all, it was a great trip. We had some deep discussions, I beat Mindy at Uno (okay, so I might have lengthened the game until I won, but I still won!), the views were gorgeous and it was nice to relax.

Sadly, my camera is still in pieces on my desk and no one else brought a camera, so there are no pictures of the great views…