Getting Away

Wow! It’s already Wednesday.

As I mentioned last time, we took a short trip for the first half of our fall break. It was very relaxing and we enjoyed perfect weather.

LAND BETWEEN THE LAKES (LBL). If you've never heard of it LBL is a national recreation area located between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. The Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers run side by side for many miles before joining the Ohio. The area between the rivers was home to many farms and mining industry back in the 1800s, but area never really recovered from the Civil War. When TVA came along and built Kentucky Dam and Barkley Dam this area was impounded for public use.

Vicki and I took a trip to LBL in April 2002, leaving Jenna and Ben with Pauline when she was living in Camden. We decided this was a great time to come back with the kids so we found a campground near Eddyville, Kentucky, that rents cabins and booked three nights.

ARE WE THERE YET? One thing different about this trip is that after two hours of driving we were there. This really threw the kids off because they are used to getting in the van and hunkering down for a drive that will last several hours as our goal is to get to our destination as quickly as possible making only the necessary stops. This time we felt more at ease to make side stops along the way.

We left Sunday morning (the 9th), having slept in enough to recover from the previous evening's concert. We ate lunch a Barkley Lodge (a Kentucky state park on the east side of LBL) where we enjoyed a really nice buffet. After lunch we spent some time exploring the lodge and then playing ping pong in the game room before leaving.

It was a short drive from Barkley Lodge to LBL's Golden Pond visitor center where we looked at exhibits on LBL's history and picked up information about activities in the area.

Our next stop was the Nature Center where we got to see rescued animals indigenous to this area that can no longer live in the wild. Some of these animals have been wounded too badly to live on their own while others were orphans who were picked up by people at an early age and never learned to live in the wild. We got to see the snakes at feeding time and several of the birds as they were put away for the night.

After the Nature Center we headed over to the Elk and Bison Prairie. This is a large pasture with a paved driving trail where you might catch a glimpse of the herds (about 40 or so of each animal). We drove the 3.5 mile loop twice and only caught one, fleeting glimpse of and elk. Then, just as we were about to drive out the gate we saw about half a dozen elk grazing near the road. They are big, impressive animals.

TRAINS, TRAINS, TRAINS. Back in July when I wrote about the Threshermen's Show I told of how much the boys enjoyed spending time with Mr. Wally Watts and his model steam engines. We've seen him there for several years and each time he's handed me his card and invited me to bring the boys up to see his model railroad. Since he lives near LBL we decided to take him up on his offer and Monday (the 10th) was devoted entirely to trains. He was delighted when I called.

This train layout is a joint venture between Mr. Watts and a friend of his. The O-scale layout fills the 30x60 foot basement of his friend's house. (O-scale is the size of the Lionel trains we normally associate with the train set that runs around a Christmas tree.) We were blown away by the sheer size of the track. The layout features three switching yards and has three main lines that run the perimeter of the basement. Everything is built on tables at about four feet high for easy viewing and operation. We estimated the layout has at least 1000 feet of track with hundreds of rail cars and dozens of locomotives.

To say that Ben and Nate were in heaven would be an understatement. Mr. Watts was so good with the boys -- basically there were three kids running the trains. He let them run any train they wanted to run and could tell them a lot about how the prototype locomotive worked and what it did in real life. Many of the trains made sounds as they chugged along and had prerecorded conductor calls when they stopped.

We took a break for lunch and also went to see some real trains switching in a local rail yard along with other points of interest in Mr. Watts' hometown. All in all, it was a very enjoyable day and we topped it off by having fun playing UNO Spin and Spoons when we got back to our cabin.

PATTI’S 1880s SETTLEMENT. Tuesday (the 11th) was our lazy day. We got up late. After breakfast we took the boys down to the dock so they could fish. No luck. Even the other fellow fishing off the dock wasn’t getting a nibble. I thought I was going to have to fish Ben out of the lake at one point when he stumbled near the edge of the dock.

When the boys got bored we headed up to Grand Rivers where we stopped to look at Kentucky Dam before eating lunch at Patti’s 1880s Settlement. Their 2” thick pork chops were really good! When lunch was over we played a game of miniature golf and strolled around all the shops before heading back to the cabin for another fun filled evening of cards and games. This time we introduced Nate to The Settlers of Catan which he says is his favorite game now.

HEADING HOME. We packed and headed out last Wednesday morning so we could do a couple of other things before leaving the area. The top of the agenda was to take in a planetarium show back at the visitor’s center. I’ve seen several planetarium shows over the years, but never one that used the facility to just show me what to see in the current night sky. This show did just that.

Our final stop was at the Homeplace which is a recreated farm from the 1850s. What you see at the Homeplace depends what time of year you visit as the interpreters are doing what an actual farm family of that time would be doing at any given time of year. The Homeplace is one of the most well done living museums of this type we’ve ever visited.

We were back in 2011 and back home before dark. It was a short trip but very fun and relaxing. Best of all, we had fun together.

Joe