9/10/00 Kentucky Backroads (First One)

Here is the first of my Ky Backroads stories from way back in 2000.

9/10/00 Backroads of Ky by Cavey (Stupid) Davey

Greetings to all of my faithful readers, I thought that I would send out a "form type letter" that one usually only gets at Christmas time in with your X-mas cards. To update those that I have not written in awhile, the following events have taken place with me over the last month or so:

A About a month ago, I was at O'Charley's in the bar portion doing some "walk around magic" for the patrons. (I get free beer and food and have real people to practice my magic on.) A couple evidently liked my work and hired me to do some "magic" at a party they were giving for the Doctors of Frankfort. As it turned out, Kim (wife) worked the same party with one of her caterer friends. She slaved for 7 hours, and I walked around drinking, eating, bullshitting, and performed close up magic for about 3 hours. I still made more money on the gig than she did.

B Business is still going good. Now having a rertired lady work with us each Thur and Friday night so we can get done at a decent time, and have the weekends free.

C A few months ago, I kind of got back into an old hobby from years ago: Photography. I was coresponding on the net with a lady from Florida that was searching for waterfalls in Ky. So, I went out and hunted down a couple and shot pictures of them for her. I enjoyed it so much, that I got " The Varmit" (Marisa) envolved in it. She took to it like a duck to water, and is constantly bugging me to "Go waterfall hunting".

D A few weeks ago, I organized a "Get Together" with some old friends, and we went down to Torrent Falls in Wolfe County and rented a cabin for the weekend. We got to sit around a campfire and swap lies, tell ghost stories, drink booze, sing along, and even got to sample some "local moonshine" (that was surprizingly pretty good). After everyone else left on Sunday at noon, I went up to Morgan County and visited with an old friend that I hadn't seen in about 20 years. He was not familiar with magic and could not catch me at my sleights, so he was certain that I was somehow in league with the devil. He said several times that he'd pray for me.

On Saturday of that weekend, we went out to photograph and try to find some new waterfalls. While enroute, I went up a highway in Lee County that I had never been on before. As we were driving along, I spotted some very large and beautiful flowers in someones yard. We all were curious as to what they were, so I pulled up in the driveway (much to the dismay and panic of my fellow travelers) I think that they watched the movie "Deliverence" too many times. I then proceeded to announce my presence by yelling the old country method, before stepping up to the porch, " HAllo in the House". A couple came out and I introduced myself and queried the lady about the beautiful flowers. She proceeded to go out and make some "cuttings" for us to take home to start our own plants. While she was doing that, I stayed on the porch and shot the bull with the man, and found out that his uncle was a second cousin of mine from up in Owen County. So, out in the middle of nowhere, I meet a long lost cousin! The "Get Together was a real blast! If anyone else wants to try this some weekend, please contact me and we'll work it out!

E. My old buddy from college named Darryl Tedder was supposed to come down for the long "Labor Day Weekend". I had planned on Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night to spend time down at the farm and staying at the "hunting lodge", then Sunday to go spelunking down at a big cave in Rockcastle County that we used to frequent while at EKU, then Monday to go canoeing down beautiful Elkhorn Creek. Alas, he was unable to come down due to his wife having some pretty serious surgery the week before.

However, Marisa decided we needed to go on alone, which we did. We spent Sat night at the "lodge", then proceeded on Sunday to go caveing. It was her first "wid cave" and she loved it! It was the first wild cave that I had been to in almost 18 years, and I had forgotten just how grueling that this damned cave was. We had a blast, and even got some pictures from the event. We were in the cave for 4 1/2 hours and didn't even see 1/10th of it. I was sore as hell for three days!

F Marisa took the pictures of the caving trip to school along with a description of how much fun she had. So, on Saturday, we took off again to go caving: Me, Marisa, and 4 other 13 year olds (2 boys and 3 girls) We proceeded to go back to Sinks Cave (1 1/2 hour drive from Frankfort). Some of the photos that I tried the week before didn't turn out, so I was determined to try again...only from a higher vantage point. While in the "Big Room" they were appox 100 yards across the room, and I was perched about 60 feet up on some rocks near the ceiling trying to photograph them. Then "ole Cavey Davey" did one of his typical dumbass moves. He stepped back to lean against the wall while awaiting the time lapse photo to do it's thing. He stepped back into thin air, bounced off the wall and plunged head first down into a small crevace. His short fall was interupted by a nice limestone boulder and side wall only about 4 feet from where he was standing. However, there he was, upside down, wedged, light knocked off, and slightly dazed and feeling a little pain.

I first checked that I had not broken any bones, then checked to see if my cigarettes and lighter had stayed in my shirt pocket (they had). Then I groped around and was able to get the light back on, then started squirming around to get my head up and ass down, so I could climb back up on the rock. Brandon, one of the boys came back to help me out, but I was back up before he could get back to me. I then shot a couple more pictures and muttered to myself, " If these damned pictures don't turn out, I'm gonna be one pissed off hombre!" Due to the soreness in my lower back and neck, I sent the kids up in a couple of "safe side passages" to explore, while I layed down and "rested". That wasn't real smart because the floor was cold and damp which didn't help with the stiffening of my muscles. I called the kids back after about 1/2 hour and told them we needed to go back the way we came in. Marisa wasn't too happy with that, because she wanted her friends to have to go through the torturous climbing and crawling route out the back entrance that she had to go through the week before. However, I knew that I'd never make it out that way. So, with the two boys on either side of me, I managed to limp my way out and back to the car. I am ok with the help of a bunch of tylenol. My lower back is still a little sore and the neck is sort of stiff, but I'll be ok. Marisa wants to go back again next week...I told her that I need awhile to get over this trip.

G I thought that I might add to the end of this that not one of those damned pictures that almost got me killed turned out!