We had no rain yesterday. All the thunder and dark clouds moved right around us, but we were untouched. I worried about the doves all night, but as darkness fell they disappeared. I hoped no harm would come to them, but this morning was relieved to find that they were back and huddled together near that same picnic table. Momma dove left for a bit to find some food, I think, leaving the baby hidden from view in the grassy area near a log. The baby was very hard to see so that made me feel better. Momma dove was back before we left and the two of them sat hidden together. I must still be on Eastern time because I woke up at 6:30 this morning. I got up and let Bob sleep another hour. After all, he does all the driving. I don’t even know why I feel so tired. All I do is navigate. We did our morning routine and were on the road by 9:20. The first metro area that we had to pass through today was Birmingham.
 Downtown Birmingham |
Traffic slowed with road construction going through town, but we were moving again with no problems. The skies were sunny starting out the day at 84 degrees. We did have a pop-up shower, just as we crossed the border into Tennessee and the huge drops came down hard.
It dropped the outside temperature to 73 degrees, but it didn’t rain long as we crossed the Tennessee River. The river looked high for this time of the year.
 Tennessee River |
The Rest Area at the border was marked by this huge rocket, symbolic of Huntsville, TN (nicknamed Rocket City) and the NASA Space Flight Center and Space Camp.
The second metro area that we would pass through was Nashville. Semi-truck traffic was intense as we made our way on I-65 to I-24 near the downtown area. The Nashville skyline was beautiful looking down the Cumberland River as we crossed the bridge.
We checked the radar on our phone and it kept showing storms popping up all around us. We were trying to outrun a huge band of showers as it approached from the west. Nothing caught up to us and we were soon out of its path. We made a final fuel stop for the day at Flying J after crossing the border into Kentucky.
Gas was $2.55/gal with a 5 cent per gallon discount and our Good Sam membership. You can’t beat that! Our original plan was to stay 2 nights in Kentucky so we could visit our friends, the Osbornes, near Benton. Unfortunately, they went to Texas to spend time with their grandkids, so it wasn’t meant to be. We’ll connect with them on their next visit to Florida or our next trip through Kentucky. We adjusted our plans to spend only one night and move on tomorrow. We crossed the Tennessee River again where the water level looked low here and found the exit for our campground.
 Tennessee River |
The road took us parallel to the dam on Kentucky Lake which is formed from the Tennessee River.
 Kentucky Lake Dam |
We finally arrived at our campground–Kentucky Dam Campground, which is a state park, but under the federal campground system.
Our drive today was a long one–326 miles and we arrived around 3:30. Our reservation with the Reserve America reservation system assigned us to site # 175. Upon arrival, there was no ranger in the office nor was there a campground host to answer any questions. Our site had low hanging branches that were going to be a problem, so we decided to change to a better site– #177.
 Site 177 |
The park was beautiful with large spacious campsites. There were lots of shade trees and the sites were grassy. It was very empty for a Tuesday, but we were told that it never fills up even on the weekends.
It would be a place that I would love to come back to and spend more time here. This area of Land Between the Lakes is very beautiful. We disconnected the truck from the trailer because the pad was a little short and got all set up. Auggie enjoyed roaming around outside looking for squirrels. We relaxed after the long drive and cooked dinner. Bob set up the Tailgater Dish System so we could watch a little TV. Tomorrow we have a shorter drive to Mahomet, IL.
