Maumee Bay State Park (OH) July 31, 2010

What a nice park this is.  The set ups are spacious and I think there isn't a bad site in the place. There are 256 sites in this campground.  The park was packed when we called; but there were two openings when we got there.  Once we were set up, we got on our bikes to ride around and figure out where we had camped there before a while back with our annual camping friends.  We think we found it; but we will have to check with our group to verify.  We rode to the beach and low and behold; the Lake Erie beach had a water advisory posted as well.  It was not up to the state standards and they were recommending that the elderly, children and ill persons not swim in the lake.  What is going on here??  All our lakes are being polluted right before our eyes.   There was an inlet lake that people were swimming in but we passed.  We stopped at the lodge which was beautiful and tried to get in to swim at their pool but they said they only allowed it on Sunday - Thursday at $12.00 per person.  And here we thought $4.00 was high when we wanted to swim in Franklin D. Roosevelts park in Georgia.   At the lodge they were getting ready for a wedding and we thought what a pretty setting they had for a wedding.  We rode back and went to the local Catholic church for mass then into Toledo for a rib barbecue.  By the time we got there it was pouring rain so we opted out and had a deep dish Chicago pizza in a local restaurant there.  Driving to this park, I remarked that this was our first overcast day since we left in April of this year.  It was always sunny down south.  But it was nice to enjoy the cooler weather and get out of those high 90's.
Well, we are now off to Sterling State Park in our native Michigan.

Harrison Lake State Park (OH) July 29 - 31st, 2010

Harrison Lake State Park was a slightly different campground then St. Mary's.  In fact, it was very nice and quite packed as well.  There was basketball, volleyball, hiking trail around the lake and even a doggie swim area.  There  was a beach also, but once the DNR mentioned the rain run-off water dumps into the lake making it muddy looking; I could only think of St. Marys and their "run-off" problem.  So we did not swim in this lake either.  Very clean and nicely set up this park was.  We walked/rode our bikes around the camps because it is fun to see the various set ups and you rarely find one alike.  Again there was the north campground which we were in and a southeast and a southwest campground in the park.  I think the shower set up was the best of all the setups we have seen in the campgrounds down south.  Our 2nd day Mike did some work on the motorhome and I worked on my insurance project and finished another novel.  The night we had new neighbors right across the street from us who had a very noisy dog and they did nothing about it.  This went on from the time they got there until after 10:00 p.m. at night.  I made a little visit to the host to put in a complaint after that and it was quiet by the time 11:00 p.m came around.  I felt sorry for the elder couple set up right next to them and knew they went to bed early.  The next morning it started again.  We were so happy to pack up and get out of here fast -- onto Maumee Bay State Park.

Grand Lake St. Mary's (OH) July 28 - 29th, 2010

Well, while our visit was supposed to be 2 nights; it was abruptly halted due to hazardous conditions of the Lake.  The air smelled awful (like manure which we thought it was).  However, the reservationist told us it was the lake that smelled because it was full of algal toxins.  In otherwords, the lake was closed down due to the algae toxins in it from sources such as high levels of nutrients from livestock and row crop agriculture, use of lawn and garden fertilizers, failing septic systems and other minor sources.  Because the lake is warm and slow-moving it became a breeding ground of this toxic algae.  No swimming, no boating, no fishing.  There were dead fish along the shoreline, geese do-do all over the campgound and it smelled bad.   Over 200 sites and there were maybe 10 campers -- five of them being hosts.  Thank goodness it rained that evening which forced us to stay inside the camper.  We left the next morning for Harrision State Park in northern Ohio.

Wouldn't recommend this campground to anyone.  STAY AWAY IN THE SUMMER MONTHS!!!!!

Brookville Lake Mounds SP (IN) July 26-28th

From the RV Rally we drove though downtown Louisville and crossed the Ohio River into Indiana's back-roads on the eastern side of the state to Brookville Lake Mounds S.P. Another lake dammed by the Army Corp. of Engineers back in 1975 for flood control in the Whitewater Valley and contributes to the reduction of flood flows in the Ohio River. This campground by far the largest we have stayed in so far with 368 sites; of which 56 sites have full-hookups, which we ended up with and rest are electric only, paved, or tent sites. The park is clean and well maintained and it had plenty of hiking trails to choose from .7 to 16.5 miles long. In order to get to the bench you have to drive about 2.5 miles all within the park. On our last day here I decide to kayak the East Fork Whitewater River starting at the tailwaters. Buddy wouldn't let me go without him.  We went as far as where the East Fork meets the West Fork Whitewater River and then we radio'd Darlene to rendezvous at Morgan's Canoe Livery. It's not the best time of year kayaking this  river because the water level too low going though the rapids. So you know who had to get out, and he didn't mine it at all. We seen plenty of ducks, geese, cranes and hundreds of different kinds of Trout. Some good keepers I might add. Too bad I forgot my waders in storage. Told those Trout I'll be back someday. We're northward bound and over one state into Why-O Ohio!!


                             For More Information Go To:   www.camp.IN.gov.
                                                                             www.lrl.usace.army.mil/bvl/
                                                                             www.morganscanoe.com

Louisville, KY. RV Rally (July 21 - 26th)

Arriving at the RV Rally (celebrating their 100 years in RVing) in Louisville, Kentucky at the Exposition Center which was just Big and beautiful.  It sat right next to Six Flags Amusement Park which had closed this year and filed for Bankruptcy -- another sign of our ailing economy.  We arrive for our official packet and we were assigned to Lot 3 which was about 1 mile away.  I do believe that our RV at 32' long; we were probably one of the smaller big boys in the lot.  However, through the complete 4 1/2 days we were there, we had shuttle buses transport us back and forth and we have no complaints -- they did a great job.  The day we arrived there we toured lots of Class A motor-home dreaming for an upgrade.  Not this year though -  we will keep what we have for now.  Spent all three hours just walking through the hundreds of coaches they had in the center.  The next four days we sat in seminars most of the days.  We enjoyed all of them and even though we have been RVing for a few years; there was always something learned in each seminar.  Things like:  Learning how your suspension works, Maintenance Care and Tips,  Awnings 101, RV exterior care, full-timing experts with their experiences, computer safety and security, generator care, insurance and even Mexico travel, and a whole lot more, and they even offered local tours. The highlights of this experience was the night time entertainment of Bob Newhart and Kevin Spinner and Darlene winning a $250 visa gift card at an insurance seminar.   Darlene was even fortunate to have a picture taken with Kevin Spinner and his autograph on his first released CD.  Kevin Spinner was the humble guy who won 1 million dollars on the Americas Got Talent show.  When the judges asked him what he did for a living he honestly said he chased chickens and they all laughed.  But when he sang his song and played his guitar they were no longer laughing but were very touched.  He went on to Win that show.  He is from Kentucky so it was a nice surprise we received on the last evening.  We met some great people, survived the 115 degree heat index, and Buddy even fell in love.  We thoroughly enjoyed the rally and would love to attend next years Rally in Redmond, Oregon.

General Butler SP (KY) (July 18 - 21st)

General Butler S.P. is located in Carrollton, Kentucky close to the both the Kentucky & Ohio Rivers.  Very nice shaded park with a lodge, golf course, swimming pool, putt-putt course, little lake for fishing or paddle boating, and a very nice veterans war memorial.  Still being in the high 90's the pool sounded enticing for sure.  We set up camp and headed to the pool for a cool dip.  The 2nd day we golfed in the middle of the day (around 95 degrees).  This was Darlene's first official golf game of the season and Mike did not want to golf best ball because he said we would always be using his hits.  Of course that would have been true!!  Though I hit it straight, it was always short so I felt I crawled along the course -- though I stopped  the scoring at 6 on each hole.  Mike did pretty well with a 41.  He just lost more balls then I did.  After the sweaty hot game, we stopped at the pool for another quick refreshing swim.  The last day there we did our house chores like laundry and then we took a little tour of the area and did our grocery shopping in preparation of the RV Rally in Louisville, Kentucky.

Taylorsville Lake SP (KY) (July 14 - 18th)

Taylorsville Lake State Park was the park we were going to stay at during the RV Rally.  However, we were about 45 minutes away and decided at a later date that we wanted to stay right at the RV Rally in Louisville, KY.  So we bumped our dates back and this was where we were headed.  The park was actually geared to horse camping with many equestrian trails for horseback riding, shared with Mountain Bikers. While there was a lake, there was NO swimming, in 95 degree + temperatures we didn't want to stay here too long.  Most of the park was not shaded; however we had the best site with the one tree for shade.  We ended up waxing the camper and washing windows; and Mike cleaned the roof's air-conditioning units since they have been working over-time. Hiked  the trail behind our camper and hear an owl that night and of course our laptop went dead.  So onto Frankfort, KY (yes the capitol) to find a repair shop.  First we visited a public library in Shelbyville,KY. to look up a computer repair shop.  Found a local one and they couldn't get to it in our time-frame.  It started once the battery was removed and put back into it.  So we moved on to Frankfurt which happened to be a very old historic town.  We stopped by the Capitol; verified the time on the floral clock near the Capitol and paid our respects at Kentucky's Vietnam War Memorial.  The surrounding countryside was very nice with large homes and horse farms.  By the way it was our 32nd anniversary and we celebrated with a good Italian dinner at J. Carinos in Frankfort.  We visited the local fair going on; but they only had the tractor pulling contest going on so we passed.  Final day we packed up and moved on to our next destination, General Butler State Park (where there is a pool!!!).

Lake Cumberland (KY) (July 11 - 14th) Army Corp of Engineer Park

We camped at Kendall Campground, one of five Army Corp of Engineer Campgrounds on Lake Cumberland/Cumberland River/Wolf Creek Dam.  In fact, it was right below the dam which gave us a very eerie feeling especially since in our camping packet they gave us an" evacuation plan."  They have been repairing this dam for many years and it is still not to be completed for another couple of years. If that dam were to break we would have no time to evacuate anyway-- we would be buried in water instantly. We are a little familiar with Lake Cumberland since we have houseboated here a few times in years passed. They do claim this is "The Houseboating Capital of The World"  and we ended up just renting another fishing boat from Grider Hill Dock. This boat had an 15hp. motor and was a lot faster than the last one as we headed out to check the 76 Falls and we cruised to some old houseboat landing spots. We haven't seen these falls the last couple of times we houseboated  there since the lake been lowered for Dam repairs. I did some fossil hunting while Buddy was entertained with fetching a stick in the water.  And then he met Rosebud another Golden Retriever (female) in the park.  However, his heart was still attached to Haley in Clarkston, his old neighborhood girlfriend.  Our 2nd full day it rained most of the day; however, we visited the Wolf Creek Fish Hatchery where they had a museum and raised trout fish.  For some odd reason, on our departure date we decided to leave early like around 6:00 a.m. because we wanted to eat at the Bread of Life restaurant which was about an hour away; and an hour ahead of us in time. What a great restaurant -- they sold Amish products and had many interesting knick knacks hanging on their walls.  They were famous for their yeast rolls but we setttled on a loaf of homemade bread to go.  Back to the 6:00 a.m. departure time; as we were dumping, an alarm started going off at the dam.  Thoughts of an evacuation "flooded" our minds as we left rather quickly.  Haven't heard any news of the Wolf Creek Dam breaking in the past couple of days so I think we just let our imaginations run wild that morning.  Now on our way to Taylorsville Lake, KY State Park.


More Information Go To:
                   www.griderhilldock.com
                   www.wolfcreek.fws.gov

Dale Hollow Lake (TN) (July 8 - 11th) Army Corp of Engineer Park

Of the four Army Corp of Engineer parks on Dale Hollow Lake, the only one with available sites was the Willow Grove Resort in Allons, Tennessee. After the first night (camping near the host), we were privileged enough to get a site right on the water for the next two days. However, the drawback of these parks was the 16 mile ride -- winding, hilly back-country road, however paved. We visited the nearby Lillydale campground which was full; nice campground as well as long as you have the water sites but they were pretty close together. Took cover in the day-use pavilion at Lillydale as a thunderstorm rolled by. Rain was most welcome in this area. The next afternoon we rented a fishing boat from Willow Grove Marina right next door to the campground and headed north up to Lillydale campground. Just as we were having lunch on the side of an island a rainstorm hit upon us; thankfully we had an umbrella and all three of us were huddled under it. We then buzzed across the lake towards Dale Hollow SP in Kentucky. Until these Black Storm clouds were approaching, I did quick U-turn and full-throttle across the lake, with 6 hp.motor probably 3 knots. It was neat to see bark shadows right behind us as we stayed ahead of it in the sunlight all the way back to camp and docked the boat at shore. We made it before a little rain at camp but it must of poured in Kentucky and Lillydale Camp. Since we had this boat for 24 hrs.[min.] the next morning we headed South on Dale Hollow Lake but not as far this time with fishing rods and tackle aboard. What a site to see was Darlene Fishing for the first time let alone casting the reel. No luck at fishing after trying several of my lures, But we did take time outs for swimming and watching Buddy try to swim after some ducks again as that morning sun was already reaching the 90's. We broke camp and hit the road by 2:pm for our shortest trip to Lake Cumberland, KY.

J. Percy Priest Lake (TN) (July 5 - 8, 2010) Army Corp of Engineers Park

Of three Army Corp of Engineer Campgounds on this lake, we camped at Seven Points Campground.  Very nice park -- some great sites on the water though we were not.  Toured around Nashville close by; it was remarkable how they recovered from the great floods of May, 2010.   The Locals claim the Army Corp of Engineers let the dam open during the 3rd rain day because they were afraid the dam was going to break and did not want a repeat of  (New Orleans).   Opryland and beautiful Opry Mills Mall next door are closed until November of this year.  No sightseeing there. Did catch a Duke of Hazzard car at the Dukes of Hazzard Museum in Nashville. Most of the restaurants downtown were reopened after their flood damage however.  Spent a day on the beach and another day waiting for repairmen  for our water heater hose.  They do make campground calls for a price of course.  Went to nearby Smyrna to have dinner with an old co-worker from Pentastar Aviation.  Got offered a job hosting the campground for the rest of the summer.  Again in the 90's all three days we were there.

Old Stone Fort SP (TN) (June 29-July 5th)

As We Move Northward into Tennessee to the Distillery Areas around Lynchburg, Tullahoma and Manchester, we settled in at Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park in Manchester, home of Bonnaroo [Famous 4 Day Multi-Stage Camping Festival held on a 700 acre farm). Tennessee State Parks are on a First-Come-First-Serve-Basis. That is Why We Ended Up in Manchester]. Our first day was to Lynchburg to Tour the "JACK DANIEL Distillery". Quite a fabulous and historic place where Mr. Daniel discovered a natural spring back in 1866 and learned how to make whiskey from a his uncle, a preacher. Here Mr. Daniel’s believed that everything should be recycled – from the charcoal chips made from the burned oak pallets that was used to sift the whiskey and then afterwards made into charcoal chips for sale for your bbq; to the mash that was sent to the farmers to feed their cattle which is where McDonald’s gets their beef and that is where the Happy Meals came from. The Welcome Center was very inviting and informative as well as the smells of the tour itself and how he made his Whiskey and how the Oak Barrels are made and are used only once in the distillery process. Since I'm a “Tennessee Squire” I own a plot of land up on the hill behind the Visitor's Center. Or so they say!! Thanks to a Dear Friend of Mine, we were invited after the tour to a special room for only Squires to see and we sit and chatted awhile with our tour guide. I was presented with a little gift box for the Squires who stop in. Two blocks away is the Town of Lynchburg, where we had Lunch early that day. Quaint Little shops, restaurants, boutiques surround the town square with an Old Historic Courthouse that is still being used in the middle. Another Distillery we toured in the area of Tullahoma,TN. is " GEORGE DICKEL" Tennessee Whisky of Cascade Hollow. Mr.Dickel discovered this Cascade Spring in the winter of 1870 and found his Handcrafted Whisky to be smoother when the whisky is chilled before it goes into the charcoal mellowing vats. Mr. Dickel wanted to be different from the others and removed the "E" from the word Whisky. His operation is a lot smaller and unfortunately was not producing any Whisky at the time of our tour. To round off our Cascade of Hard Liquors we decide to mellow it out with some Fine Wines from BEAN CREEK WINERY in Manchester,TN. After tasting half a dozen or so we decided on 3 different ones including the "Bonnaroo" wine. About this Old Stone Fort Sate Park. It’s NOT one we would recommend to camp at, but it was probably a special and mystical place for the Indians some 2000 years ago. This ancient ceremonial site consists of 50 acres enclosed by mounds, bluffs, and cliffs in the fork of the Big Duck and Little Duck Rivers with some beautiful waterfalls. There’s a stone museum where we thought was the fort; only to find out after our tour hike with the park ranger and we found out the farmers up-steams dump their animal fecal in the rivers making them unsafe for swimming. That is as BAD as the LITTER in this State. NO RECYCLING, NO DEPOSITS ON BOTTLES OR CANS, IT SHOWS THEY DO NOT RESPECT THEIR BEAUTIFUL LAND THAT GOD GAVE THEM. “WE GOT TO GO!!! “

FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO:  www.jackdaniels.com
                                                                 www.georgedickel.com
                                                                 www.beanscreekwinery.com