Today we visited Cumberland Falls State Park. The park was fairly deserted of visitors, as was a nearby lodge that we stopped at for food and entertainment. People who are dependent upon seasonal enterprises often find themselves in growing need as the off season progresses. The park and nearby businesses get the vast majority of their business during a 4 to 5 month period when the weather is best. What do they and their employees do for income during the rest of the year? How easy can it be to find additional employment or income in this economy, especially located in a poor county?
While keeping in mind the conditions that inspired our service trip, we had a lot of fun today exploring the park and getting to know some locals. Half of the group walked a 1/2 mile trail called Cumberland Falls Trail which is one of the most popular walking route to the falls. The trail offers an excellent view of the river and Gatliff Bridge. The other half of the group walked the Eagle Falls Trail which was 1 1/2 miles long. This trail follows the cliff line of the state park and gave us some of the best views of Cumberland Falls and the Cumberland River Gorge below. We also spent some time relaxing in a historic Civilian Conservation Corps shelter at one of the scenic overlooks. While on our hike, we ventured from our path and discovered an abandoned country-western "town" by the name of "Six Gun City." We crossed a quaint but beautiful stream that led to Eagle Falls, and followed the path down to the river. Along the way we found massive rocky outcroppings that provided great opportunities for climbing and pictures.
Both groups enjoyed bag lunches before reuniting at the Eagle Falls Lodge. After a bit of conversation with the locals, most of our group had fun taking turns on a zip-line across the lake! Many of those who participated had very interesting dismounts at the other end of the lake. The people we met who helped us across the zip-line were really interesting to talk to and extremely friendly. Half of us returned to the Eagle Falls Lodge to enjoy their homemade root beer floats, pizza, and ice cream sundaes. They originally didn’t have any root beer or ice cream for our orders so they drove down the street to get some but then ended up finding the ingredients after they returned. They didn’t have a set price for anything so they were really relaxed about the charged price so they only asked for $2 each for each person no matter what we ate. The other half of the group drove back to the apartment to shower and prepare dinner. The dinner crew (Brennan, Limaya, Kaitlin, Grace, and Natalie) all prepared spaghetti, baked chicken, salad, and garlic bread with two choices of red and white sauce. It was DELICIOUS and so filling!
We all took time to digest our food before we returned to our common room for reflection. During reflection, each team member had a flash card and was asked to write, “What does service mean to you?” Not everyone had to share what he or she wrote but those members who did share made some very interesting points. Some mentioned that their idea of service is giving back and taking time out of our own daily schedules to contribute what we can to our surrounding community. We can also continue service verbally by expressing to others the importance of lending a helping hand to those in need and helping others realize the affects of the social issues that are troubling our world today.
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