Life on the Road

If you look on a map of Kentucky and Tennessee, you’ll see two long lakes, with a lovely strip of National Park land in between.  This is The Land Between the Lakes, an amazing park with over 1,000 acres of camping, fishing, nature preserves, and programs.

 On our first day, we arrived after the offices had closed, so we pulled into one of the more primitive “self-service” campgrounds where we could drop our payment envelope in a box and register. 

Wolf came back from a trip to the water faucet carrying a turtle.  Needless to say, she was quite frightened and stayed well inside her shell for a long time.  I was the first to notice her timidly peeking her head out, and called to her, “Hey, Honey, it’s okay.  We won’t hurt you.”  Jewel quickly joined me, coaxing the turtle out - and calling her “Honey.”  Probably not too many turtles out there by that name, but it worked for us.

 Wolf has really enjoyed having the chance to do some fishing.  That very first night he caught (and released) five fish, including a crappie, a bluegill, and a trout!  As so often happens, though (or at least as you so often hear!), the big one got away.  True, in this case, and he took Wolf’s favorite lure with him!

We moved from that site to one of the “back country” sites.  A flat, clear area, a table and grill at the site, a pottyand trash dumpster nearby, and right on the lake…  All yours is you just get a $15 annual permit!  It’s amazing.  Wolf fished there, too, and the kids enjoyed trying to catch the many frogs (toads?) that seemed to be breeding in the area.

Now we’ve actually relocated to one of the paid camping areas.  We’re enjoying having electricity to run the a/c all the time, as well as microwave and watch a family movie at night.  These campgrounds are also the only places with designated swimming areas.  Nick really wanted to swim, and I was afraid to take Jewel out other places - stepping on a fishhook didn’t sound like fun.

We watched a show about the most spectacular features of the Solar System projected on the 40′ domed interior of the Planatarium, and took a walking tour of The Homeplace, the working 1850’s farm that Wolf talked about.

Jewel’s favorite was the drive-through Elk and Bison Prarie.  She’s been fascinated with bison ever since we saw them in Oklahoma (where people typically call them buffalo), and the bison stuffed animal we got her there has been a consistent companion.  

There were plenty of bison … 

And elk …

A group of each of them was actually hanging around at the same water hole.  Fortunately for us, I suppose, it was hot enough out that all the animals had decided it was time for a water break.  Also fortunate, of course, that when they designed the park they put all three of the water holes near enough to the road for good critter viewing.

Jewel was particularly taken with the many baby bison that were present in the herd we saw.  She eagerly pointed out the baby bison nursing - God’s plan for all the mammal babies.

We’ve also been swimming in the lake, watched the birds and squirrels at our campsite, and enjoyed sunrises and sunsets over the water - with lakes on both sides you don’t have to go far!

We’re going to try to get over to see the Nature Station before we leave today.  We’re heading out Bowling Green, so that we can be parked and relaxed when it’s time to take Nick to camp tomorrow.  Guess we’d better get going then, eh?