Starting the day off with Climax

I am not the type to buy fancy bottled water, or even plain bottled water. I would rather go thirsty than drink tap water. The taste makes it hard for me to swallow. I fully admit that I am a water snob. Every two weeks, Darin drives down to Climax spring in Rockcastle County. He picks up his daughters in Berea every Thursday and swings by Climax while he is down there. Climax is a gem among gems. It is a mainstay for people near and far. It doesn't look like much when you drive up. A simple concrete slab with an L shaped pipe jutting out of the ground next to a small creek. Out of the pipe flows the best water I have ever had the pleasure of drinking. There is no cost for getting water here and you can get as much as your heart could ever desire. Back your vehicle up to the spigot and fill her up. People come from miles around to fill up on this free, clean water. We have 14 five gallon water bottles that we fill up. While there, you encounter everyone from a redneck wearing a rebel flag shirt filling up a 1,000 gallon cistern in the back of a truck, to an old married couple, filling up hundreds of 12 ounce plastic bottles, one at a time. I will never forget the day I was filling up and an old man came up and started talking while I was filling my jugs. He asked if I was from around here I said no, and he told me that he lived just a mile down the road. He said he had been coming here to fill up on water for as long as he could remember. He told me with a quivering voice of receiving a knock on his door late at night 57 years ago, from two police officers. They bore the bad news that his 16 year old daughter had wrecked just up the road from Climax. Here he was, 51 years later, still heartbroken over the loss of his daughter. I think of him each time I am there.