A few days into our Kentucky trip, Derek hurt his toe badly. He had microwaved a plate of pasta, and the plate was balanced on the edge of the counter. Unfortunately, the plate fell and crashed side first onto his big toe. It was excruciatingly painful and quickly turned purple. This stopped the rest of our hiking plans. Luckily we had already done some fantastic hikes.
Several days later, when we were back in Maryland, Nate took Derek to get an x-ray of his toe. The doctor (nurse?) on call saw the x-rays and thought his toe was broken in two spots and I felt horrible that we hadn't taken him to the doctor sooner. However, the radiologist the images were sent to came back a few hours later and said nothing was broken. Derek did however get a special stiff shoe that made walking much more comfortable. A few weeks later, his still blue toenail fell off.
Anyway, with Derek's foot injured in Kentucky, it meant our last couple of days were more relaxed. We spent lots of time in the hot tub. The timing of Derek's injury also worked out in the sense that we were able to hike on the days with 75+ degree highs, and then when the extreme cold front suddenly came in, and we had a few snow flurries, we maybe wouldn't have hiked anyway. The cabin had nice views overlooking the woods:
One of the activities Derek was most looking forward to was the Kentucky Reptile Zoo. They specialize in venomous snakes as they provide snake venom to pharmaceutical companies worldwide. They keep hundreds of each kind of venomous snake and milk the venom for the medical researchers and ship it to them. There were also several portables with (mostly venomous) snakes from around the world for tourists to view. Derek and Lydia had a great time seeing all the cool snakes.
Banded cobra:
Each building housed snakes from a particular continent. I'm sure we spent more time at the snake zoo than most tourists. Derek and Lydia both kept asking me to take a photo of them by particular snakes.
The coolest part of the reptile zoo was seeing the owner milk venom out of rattlesnakes. He said he milks the venom from about 150 snakes in a single setting, and does this several days a week. The day we were there, the tourists were divided into three groups, and our group saw him milking about 50 rattlesnakes. The venom is then shipped off to whichever medical research facility has ordered it for their research. Interestingly, the snake zoo owner/snake milker had been bitten several times over the past decades doing this and had technically 'died' several times because of it, with his heart stopping. Pretty crazy line of work!
Milking a rattlesnake:
Back at our cabin, the kids found the journal for renters to write a few words and say where they are from. Derek decided to be silly and continue a theme that someone earlier in the book had started. Lydia found what he wrote and then wrote her own response :-)
Our last day in Kentucky, we went kayaking in an underwater cave in clear bottom boats at The Gorge Underground. The mine began as a surface mine (for limestone) in the 1800s and transitioned to underground tunneling in the mid 1900s. Then it was abandoned in the 1980s after miners hit aquifers, flooding the tunnels. Later it was reopened for kayak tours. The guide told us some horrible stories about how the mine workers were treated. Kentucky coal mine workers of the early and mid 1900s lived in company-controlled camps, where they faced oppressive conditions, including paying rent for company-owned housing and relying on company stores. Workers were frequently paid in scrip—not US currency—redeemable only at these company stores, where prices were higher, creating a cycle of debt.
The kayaking tour was really fun. Lydia was excited to pretend to be 13 so that she could be in a kayak by herself (the company policy was 13+ to use a single kayak). Derek shared with me.
The underwater tunnels also had fish. Apparently, trout were originally released into the tunnel waters in the hope that the fish would show the people the way out. However, there was no exit, and when it was decided the tunnels would open to tours, the owners kept feeding the trout (there is no natural food source down there).
We also saw a bunch of bats living down in the caves.
Some of the bats:
The trout in the cave were huge. You can see one below Nate's kayak here.
We drove home on December 31st. For New Year's Eve, Lydia decided to go to bed early. Derek and Karina decided to stay up late and watch movies. You can see the result below. Derek insisted the next day he was only 'resting' and never really fell asleep.
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