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Kentucky 101

Im about a week into my Kentucky experience. Im still alive. Im very much in the middle of nowhere. Having Ty here helps SO much. The first week we were staying in a lodge about 20 minutes from the Kentucky Reptile Zoo. It was beautiful there. It was a log cabin style hotel and we mostly had the place to ourselves. There was a full kitchen that we were able to use and breakfast was included. It was so nice to be able to leave the Zoo and go there every night. 

Now we are staying in a cabin about 15 minutes from the Zoo. Its inside the Red River Gorge Geological Area, Daniel Boone National Forest, at a place called Red River Gorgeous. Someone who is working with the Reptile Zoo was able to hook us up (one benefit of being here in the off season) so we have a two bedroom, two floor place with a kitchen. Tyler and I like to cook a lot. Because Ive been working, Ty has been doing a lot of the cooking and its great. He makes some pretty delicious food! (pasta last night, tacos tonight)

The guys that stay here and work at the Zoo on some construction stuff, are pretty cool. They go climbing on the weekends and I hope that before the weather gets too shitty, Ill be able to join them. I don’t have weekends off though, just Wednesdays and Thursdays… That kinda blows. But it wont be bad come Jan/Feb when I probably wont be doing anything with my time off anyway. Ty leaves at the end of the month and then Ill be moving in to a room at the Reptile Zoo. Its intern housing so Ill be living in a small place with another Intern. Its not a bad set up and its better that there are only two of us so we both will get more space. Not as nice as this two bedroom cabin that y'all should come visit! We like to have friends hang out!

 Its beautiful here. Especially in the gorge. Mountains and trees and the Red River. Where we live now we have to drive through the Nada tunnel which is a one lane tunnel that was dug through the mountain in the early 1900's. We were able to get some hiking in on my days off last week in the gorge. We saw a bunch of natural arches and beautiful meandering streams. I bet its even more stunning in the summer with all the leaves on the trees. As well as it not being so cold, though its been above freezing day and night for a few days. for three days we woke up to frost on the car and we dont have a scraper... 

So, at the Zoo. I know y'all wanna know what Im doing there! The first few days I was learning. Theres so much that I dont know about the different species but the basics I figured out pretty well after my experience at the Nature Centers I worked at in CA and GA. Right now I can pretend that Im not really an intern cause Im staying off property, but its a strange feeling to be an intern. This summer I had my own interns and now I am one… I feel like I have a lot to give this place. I already have ideas on how to improve it. My education experience is an asset. 

Anyway, there are mostly venomous snakes there but we wont be handling any of them. They have a bunch of nonvenomous reptiles that the interns take care of. We feed and clean them but don’t really get to handle which Im pretty sad about. We also do a lot of cleaning in general. That is an important part of running a facility like that. Im an intern and get to do a lot of the basics stuff but I can't wait to get more into it so I can branch out and start developing different things for them! And learn tons more to take with me on my next adventure. Its not easy but an interns gotta do it. :)

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