Sunday, October 17

Lincoln Memorial University, The President's Home.

Hiking the Wilderness Trail from Cumberland Gap.

The Iron Furnace. I had a picture taken here of me and my grandfather when he came to visit in 1970.

Inside the new Tex Turner Arena.

Sunday morning at the Pinnacle Overlook.

Just had the most fabulous weekend in a very long time. I went to my college homecoming with two of my friends who also attended LMU at the same time, and we had a blast. It was as if we had never left. We had so much fun reminiscing about our college days. It had been a while since Phyl and I had been on campus and there have been some tremendous changes during that time. The enrollment is no longer a mere 700 students, there is a veterinary tech center, college of osteopathic medicine, a business education building, a center for health sciences, a new baseball and softball field, sports arena and several new dormitories. The main campus is just about as we remembered it but it is certainly growing everywhere around it. We stayed at The Olde Mill Inn B & B in Cumberland Gap about 5 miles from campus and really loved the atmosphere and the breakfasts there were awesome. We had time to do some hiking up the mountain behind the Inn as well as attending some sorority functions and touring the campus and visiting the bookstore. Saturday afternoon we drove to LaFollett, a town about 30 miles southwest of campus to visit Barb's cousin. Phyll and I had done our student teaching at LaFollett High School and the first thing we noticed was how much it had grown since we were there last. We watched the Ohio State/Wisconsin game. We were so frustrated during the game that we had to break out the "moonshine" before halftime to soften the blow of the inevitable defeat. This morning we had another fabulous breakfast before checking out and then driving up to the Pinnacle Overlook. It provides a beautiful vista of the Cumberland Gap and the tri-state area. From the overlook you can see Kentucky and Tennessee while standing in Virginia. We made really great time driving home until we hit Cincinnati where there were 2 lanes closed at the bridge crossing the Ohio River. Traffic stopped for almost an hour getting across the bridge. We made it home around 6:30. I'm so very glad I decided to go to the homecoming and even happier that Barb and Phyllis were able to join me.