Another one of those days that you cannot plan for.
We left the campsite in the peril at around 9 of the clocking, and headed for The Trace. This is the road which runs north between two lakes, on what is known, surprisingly, as Land Between Lakes!!
The two lakes are Kentucky Lake, formed when Kentucky Dam was built across the Tennessee River, and Lake Barkley, formed when Barkley Dam was built across the Cumberland River. Land Between Lakes is a huge peninsular, which is a National Recreation Area, full of wildlife, campsites, boating ramps, and hiking trails.
We saw deer, tortoises, turkeys and bison this morning.
After crossing the Kentucky state line, we turned east on highway 68, went over Lake Barkley, and stopped at Golden Pond. This is a historic town, with a plaque and everything, but Marlipops wandered around the area and all she found was a dried up patch of land that could have been a pond at one time. Not a Fonda in sight!
On we went, towards Hopkinsville, and we were looking for a Post Office, so we turned down a side street to the “town” of Gracey. We got to the Post Office, which was one of about five buildings in the town, and as we pulled up, a woman came out of the front door, looked at us and said ”Are you looking for me?”
She was the only employee of the Post Office, and was just closing for lunch!! Fantastic!! A U.S. Post office closed at lunch time!!
Still, the woman opened up and served us, and also gave us some really helpful info.
She highly recommended we go to Cadiz.
So, we changed plans at the drop of a hat, as we do often, and went to Cadiz.
A really neat little town.
Every year they have a Hamfest, celebrating pigs and bacon and anything porky, and the town is festooned with concrete pigs, decorated in all kinds of fashion, similar to the cow parade of Houston, or the fishes of Anchorage.
There are lots of antique stores, and of course we spent ages looking round.
In one store, Loose Treasures, we had a great time with the owner. Her name is Cher, an ex hippy, who gave us all sorts of wonderful info about Cadiz. For example, the town is pronounced Kay Deez, not Ka Dizz. Interesting.
I found a working HO gauge model train, and Pullman cars, in the Baltimore and Ohio colors, and logo. ( see report from Branson) so I bought it. I have a train set in storage in Houston, thanks to Beff, and one day, when we finally settle down, I will build a layout.
We also added to our duck collection.
After we left Cadiz, we took the back roads, and as we came around one bend, we saw what we thought was a building on fire. So we stopped, thinking to call 911, and it turned out to be a tobacco smoking/curing barn.
The owner showed up, and told us that after the tobacco is harvested, it is hung on trolley things, and put in these barns, and smoked for up to two months. It is then graded into three different grades, pressed into 800 or 1000 pound boxes and shipped off for cigar making. The US Government is involved every step of the way
Interesting that the owner person is a non smoker.
We then moved on, again, and came to the national battlefield at Fort Donelson. This was a fort occupied by the Confederates at the start of the civil war, and was attacked by ironclad ships of the Union Army, led by U.S. Grant, and basically beat the crap out of the boats, but Grant pushed ahead with his troops on land, the confederate generals made some poor decisions, and lost the fort. Interesting to note that all captured officers were allowed to keep their guns!!
The rest is history, the Union won the war, after extra time!!
Back to the campsite for an early curry dinner.
Wildlife watch today was deer, turkeys, bison, tortoises, herons, and squirrels.
