23 May Dandridge, TN - Golden Pond, KY 331 miles 9 hours
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| Our campsite in the woods |
Another major delay on the interstate so we took 9 hours to get here. We're headed back west so we gained an hour.
Hillman Ferry Campground in Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area offers 374 lakefront and wooded sites for a variety of camping units from tents to large motorhomes. Basic, electric, water, and sewer sites are available. There are also cabin rentals.
We are staying 4 nights and our site has full hook ups, cost $174.00.
24 May Kentucky Dam & Locks
The Kentucky Lake Lock & Dam is part of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) which manages several dams along the Tennessee River Valley. It provides hydroelectric power to local power companies.
We parked our car and walked about a mile across the dam and enjoyed the views. Once we got to the other side, we found that the visitors center was closed, so bummed!
But we still got to enjoy the area. We walked out on a concrete pier and got a great view of the complete dam.
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Then across the parking lot we stood on the bank and watched the barges and tugboats that work their way through the locks. It's a very slow process. The best view we had was on our walk back, we stood on a bridge that said "no pedestrians."
25 May 2 hikes today
Our first hike was on the Hematite Trail. Nice hike around the lake with boardwalks around the swampy areas. Very well maintained trail, scenic and peaceful. Little hills here and there but nothing too strenuous.
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At the end you have to go across cement stepping stones. What a great hike!
Then we did a short hike called Center Furnace Trail. An interpretive trail where we saw evidence of how this busy community thrived over 150 years ago and the impact the iron industry had on the land and its people.
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| Hearth |
To produce charcoal, hearths like these were made of 50-60 cords stacked timber, covered with a thick layer of dirt and leaves. The wood would burn slowly until it became charcoal Once lit, a single charcoal hearth would burn for about two weeks and produce about 2,000 bushels of charcoal, almost enough to fire the furnace for 24 hours.
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This oak tree may have been 20 to 30 years old when the furnace first opened in the late 1840s.
26 May Elk & Bison Prairie
This is a drive-thru attraction. You pay $5 per car to drive through the Elk & Bison Prairie 3.5 mile loop. Elk and bison roam free within this 700 acre enclosure. Once you enter you can go around the loop as many times as you wish.
The best times of the day to visit the prairie are in the cooler times early in the morning or in the late afternoon or early evening.
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| Herd of bison |
We got up a little early on this cold and windy day and was at the gate at 7am. It was a slow start but about a mile in we saw a herd of bison. Beautiful, massive animals. We parked and watched the herd as they grazed.
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| Wild turkey |
We continued the drive around the loop going very, very slowly. We saw a lot of wild turkeys, they're all over. Then as we turned to go out of the park we came upon a couple of elk grazing a little ways from the road. We parked and watched as they continued to graze and make their way closer to us. Then more elk started to come out from behind the bushes and trees. They ended up crossing the road right in front of us... so cool!
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| Elk grazing |
Paying $5 to drive around this loop was worth it. I'm so glad Joe had the patience to drive very slow and kept looking for the animals.
No, it's not Custer Park, or Yellowstone, or Grand Canyon where there's an abundance of elk and bison but it was so cool to see these animals thriving in Kentucky.
27 May Golden Pond, KY - Mountain Grove, MO 268 miles 6 hours 20 minutes
Our plan was to drive all the way to Springfield, MO and spend the night at another Harvest Host location. This was another brewery and I was looking forward to it. But as we drove into Missouri I checked the weather and found there was a severe weather warning for the area. Lots of rain and wind, possible hail, possible flooding. We decided to pull off and hunker down at a Walmart in Mountain Grove. We pulled in around 1:30 pm, went to Burger King to eat, and it starting raining around 2:30 pm. Our plan was to wait a couple of hours and if it cleared up, continue on to Springfield. It never cleared up. Kept raining with thunder and lightning so we just ended up camping for the night in the Walmart parking lot.
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| Walmart parking lot |
28 May Mountain Grove, MO - Fort Supply, OK 479 miles 10 hours 15 minutes
We had a very long drive today. We stopped to fill gas and we went shopping at Costco. By the time we checked into Fort Supply Lake Campground it was almost 6 pm.
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| Our lakeside site |
We lucked out at this campground. The original site that I booked was no hookups but when I checked the other day, a lakeside site was available with water and electric. This is Memorial Day weekend so we're very lucky that someone cancelled at the last moment. The weather forecast is not very good so I guess that's the reason for the cancellation. For four nights we paid $96.
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| Canadian Geese |
This campground is very crowded for this holiday weekend. The first two days was nice with lots of water crafts on the lake. Our lakeside site was wonderful. We had a front row seat to all the activity and every morning and evening there would be Canadian Geese swimming right pass us.
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We did a hike to the top of the dam. The scenery was beautiful overlooking the lake and the campground.
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| Beautiful views |
Sunday night the weather changed. We started getting weather alerts for flash floods and severe weather. Our camp site is right next to the water so we were a little concerned. Then at about 8pm we noticed our neighbors getting ready to head out. We went out to talk to them because earlier they told us they live about 1/2 hour away and if the locals were leaving, that's not a good sign. They assured us it was safe to stay and they were leaving because the forecast was rain through tomorrow so might as well go home.
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| Sunrise over a misty lake |
Around midnight the rain came down. Thunder and lightning...Joe kept getting up to check if the lake was starting to overflow. It rained all night and on Monday it was very gloomy. Most of the campers left early in the morning because of the weather but we got one more night here.
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| Dark skies |
It seems like we're always having to check the weather on this trip. It also seems like we're dodging these terrible storms. Cross our fingers, we're almost back to Vegas.
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