About The Gap

ou would think that after visiting thirty-six states and twenty countries, that we would have become accustomed to visiting paradise. Places like Key West or Venice fit pretty beautifully into the picture of paradise, right? You would expect to find something unreal there. Something stunning and unique. You would expect to fall in love with those places. But sometimes finding paradise is a lot more unexpected. On Wednesday, January 13th, we received a message through our blog from a guy named Tony saying we needed to take a road trip to some place called Cumberland Gap. Never heard of it. But sure, we’ll road trip anywhere. We were excited, but we were planning so many huge trips for 2021 that Cumberland Gap wasn’t at the forefront of our minds. Little did we know, Tony and a group known as the ‘Guardians of the Gap’ were planning the most incredible adventure for Joanie and Jenni B. We drove through the beautiful roads of Kentucky and Tennessee, and hit the ground running as soon as we arrived in The Gap. We had an incredible group of people taking us around downtown Cumberland Gap, introducing us to every business owner and sharing their own personal stories about the area. From that first moment, that first interaction with Tony in person, we felt something. It was kind of like a small shock of static electricity. Just enough to make us stop and think, “Wow. This place is really something.”

When we travel, we’re normally in a town for three days. Tony said three days just wouldn’t work. He needed six. We immedietly went to Google Maps to see just how big this Cumberland Gap was. Six days?! That was insane. The next several pages will be a written version of the adventure we had. Sit back, relax, and walk the Gap with us. We hope that we’ll be able to make you feel at least a fraction of what we did on this crazy trip.

Our first minutes in Cumberland Gap weren’t wasted. We were given our day one itinerary and started our adventure. The first stop was the Little Congress Bicycle Museum. It’s free admission for the public and the curator, Judge (yes, he’s a real judge!), knows just about everything you could want to know about bicycles. He’s collected them for more than forty years, and has been riding them longer than that. With that passion he has creat-

ed something absolutely fascinating. His collection is ever-changing, but while we were there we saw a Hopalong Cassidy special edition bike, a 1968 Lemon Peeler, a 1950 Monark Super Deluxe in Strato Blue, and so many more. After the Bicycle Museum, we explored some of the downtown Cumberland Gap shops like the Artist Co-Op where artists from all around the area sell their work. They have everything from paintings to t-shirts. We were able to meet a couple of the artists, and the common inspiration denominator seemed to be the beauty of this Cumberland Valley area. We certainly weren’t surprised by that. If you purchase art that isn’t framed, The Frame Shop is just down the street. Steve takes pride in every piece, and works with you on selecting colors for the matte and the frame. He also sells some stunning pieces by area photographers and artists. One of our favorite stops was Flour Baby’s Bakery. The owner, Kayla Owens, bakes fresh, scratch-made sweets daily and they are always changing. Brownies. Cookies. Wedding cakes. All things sweet and delicious can be found at Flour Baby’s Bakery, and we are certain everything is delicious. Flour Baby’s actually just celebrated it’s second birthday. Kayla, just now in her early twenties, has created something special based around the memories she had with her mom and grandmother. Family recipes and pastries made with love. There will be many, many more birthdays for Flour Baby’s Bakery. Once we had a box filled with delicious sweet treats, the Guardians took us into Papa Chum’s, a local father-son owned music shop. We walked in and marveled at the wall of guitars. Some of which owner, Dan Chumley, created with cigar boxes. The selection of instruments is incredible, and in the back of Papa Chum’s there’s a small recording studio where many artists have cut their records. Dan’s son (and co-owner), Daniel,