Open new window with pictures taken today.

May 21, 2003

Start:   Cumberland Mtn State Park, Crossville TN
End:     Canal Campground, Lake Barkley KY (Corp of Engineers)
Miles:   260
Hi Temp: 77
Lo Temp: 61

We left the campground a little before 9:00, in keeping with our new-found leisurely style. It had rained a good part of the night and it was still raining lightly when we unhooked and departed.

We stayed off the interstates today. We crossed the Cumberland Plateau on US-70 until we had to get back on I-40, then TN-155 (the beltway around Nashville), then US-41 northwest into Kentucky. Finally, we used US-68 west to the Land between the Lakes park operated by the US Forest Service. 

We had lunch in the American Cafe in Guthrie, KY.  Very working-class breakfast-and-lunch place. We ordered hamburgers and fries and watched the local folks. They all knew each other and were chatting all around. We caught, out of the corners of our eyes, the accident when the grill cook handed our trays to the waitress and one was dropped (Dolores's). They apologized and quickly cooked up a replacement. We finished and I went to the cash register to pay; they only charged for my meal and wouldn't hear of taking money for Dolores's. I left a good tip.

We stopped at the Forest Service's Visitor's Center and got some local information.  One of those items was that there is a Elk and Bison Drive just north of the center. We bought a token and went there. The place is strongly fenced and a cattle guard gate keeps the animals from using that. We drove slowly through the enclosure, finally spotting an elk family including the baby, and then a herd of about eight bison. Dolores shot pictures that probably won't show anything due to the distance.

We drove on out the north end of the park. Immediately after that, there's a canal that connects Lake Barkley (the lake created by a dam on the Cumberland) and Lake Kentucky (the lake created by a dam on the Tennessee).  Our CG is on the north side of the canal, on the shore of Lake Barkley.  These rivers drain almost all of Kentucky and Tennessee and enter the Ohio only a few miles apart. Both carry barge traffic.

We backed into our site off the circle at the end of Brown's Point and unhooked. The site is about 25' from the lake.  The lake is several feet above normal.  Folks say it's going down.  Six geese with seven young geese came up from the shore, looking as though they were begging for food.  We didn't contribute to the delinquency of young geese. There were several boats running around at mid-to-high speed.  A tugboat and barges hovered offshore for a while, then moved off up-river.

We drove into Grand Rivers (not much, mostly places designed to separate tourists from money), then over the Lake Kentucky dam. The dam has locks for boat and barge traffic.  There were several "tugboats" with barges moving up and down the lake. They're still called "tugboats" even though they are all of the design that pushes the barges.

At the trailer again, we raised the antenna and tuned in the TV for some news. We probably shouldn't have bothered.

Then we put together a chicken-and-stuffing thing and had salad and a table white from Rockbridge with it.  Very nice.

As we were finishing dinner and doing the dishes, Kentucky Public TV served up an hour-long bluegrass show with Rhonda Vincent and her group, including Kenny Ingram on banjo. The group is sponsored by Martha White Flour, an old name in bluegrass sponsors.  The show was very good.

Now I'm putting these characters into the machine while Dolores catches up on Wednesday evening TV.