Chasing the Moonbow: Our First Airstream Adventure

campsidephotos
Aug 13
2 min read

After a whole summer of adventures without the Airstream, it was finally time to put our shiny new travel buddy to work. And what better way to christen it than by chasing something as rare and magical as a moonbow?

If you’ve never heard of one, a moonbow is a rainbow made by moonlight. They’re about as picky as a cat in a sunbeam—everything has to be just right. Cumberland Falls State Park in Kentucky is one of the few places in the world where you can catch one regularly. So of course, we had to go.

We hit the road from Chicago and—because we are fueled by equal parts coffee and questionable ambition—drove to Corbin, KY in one day. Seven hours, many snacks, and more “are we there yet?” moments than I’d like to admit later, we pulled in for a week-long stay.

Corbin turned out to be more than just a base camp. It’s also the birthplace of a certain finger-lickin’ empire: Kentucky Fried Chicken. The original KFC café is still there, now part museum, part functioning restaurant. We learned that Colonel Harland Sanders wasn’t just a chicken visionary—he was a man with a temper and a gun. Legend has it that when a competing restaurant tried to undercut him, things got heated. And by heated, I mean Sanders walked over and shot the sign out front. Somehow, that story feels exactly like the origin tale of a fast-food chain that would go on to conquer the world.

When the night of the moonbow finally came, we stood at the edge of the falls in the dark, watching that soft arc of light shimmer in the mist. Magical, in the same way only something you’ve driven hundreds of miles to see can be.

And then came the trip home, which was just another excuse to pack in more stops:

Mammoth Cave National Park — miles of underground passages that made us feel like we’d accidentally joined an Indiana Jones movie.
The Corvette Museum — shiny, fast, and so tempting we had to remind ourselves our Airstream hitch doesn’t fit on the back of a sports car.
Lincoln’s Birthplace in Kentucky — a little piece of American history tucked in the hills.
A stop in Nashville to visit friends, eat way too much BBQ, and listen to enough live music to last us until the next road trip.

By the time we rolled back into Chicago, the Airstream was already starting to feel less like a big purchase and more like part of the family. And just like that, our list of “places we want to go” doubled… maybe tripled.

Next on our list was the adventure of a lifetime — a road trip from Chicago to Banff, Canada. The journey promised breathtaking landscapes, endless memories, and the most important destination of all: finally celebrating our wedding surrounded by the stunning beauty of the Canadian Rockies.