Aug. 31: Campbell Point, Shell Knob, MO

This deer photo was from our last camp. These deer weren't very afraid of people. Along with these several in front of me, there was one standing behind me not hardly 10' away.




We settled into our second camp site at Campbell Point at Shell Knob, MO. After about 20 minutes of working to get into the first spot, we found that when you opened the door, you would be stepping out on the side of a small hill. So we moved. This site is much flatter and was way easier to get into. We have a huge area and that's good because all the kids will be here, in shifts, over the weekend and into next week.

We've already been for ice cream in town twice with friends, Doug & Janie, that live in the area; and they had us over for supper one evening. They have a really pretty place overlooking the lake.



Rebecca and Trina arrived yesterday morning and we went to a show, Magnificent 7, in Branson. It was a dinner show: about a 6 oz prime rib with small chicken breast, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, bread and, for dessert, cake. The Magnificent 7 was music from the last 7 decades--starting with the 40's.

Today we went grocery shopping and spent some time on the lake. Rebecca brought her boat so we ventured out with a few hundred other friends on a Labor Day weekend. Really, really busy day on the lake. But we found a quiet spot and went swimming. Notice Larry with his car keys that he dove into the lake with. See Samson hanging on for dear life to Larry.










And, as promised, here's a photo of Larry airing up the car tire with a bicycle pump.









Willie, the son-in-law, will be driving down tonight with both the grandsons. Trina will head back to Wichita in the morning--she has to be to work Tuesday. Rebecca is taking time off work and the boys will be missing school. Willie doesn't have to be back to work until Friday. So, they're all staying until Thursday morning.

Aug. 25: Geo Caching

Swimming, eating and cruisin' seem to be all we're doing. I did loose a pound this last week but I'm not sure how. Larry's lost 3 but that's because he spends more time polishing the car and not eating.

We went to town today because the car has a cracked wheel. We've decided that Larry can pump it up daily with his bicycle pump (I'll be sure to get a photo of that) and get it fixed when we get to Wichita. While in town, we ate at the Grand Buffet - lots of choices and most of them are good.

Came home and sat for about a couple hours and Larry was ready to go do something again. I pulled up some geo's and we headed out. Found 1 out of 2 in Branson West and decided we were hungry again so headed to Steak & Shake in Branson. After that filling meal (there goes my pound) we headed back to the area around our camp around where the other two geo's were. Found both of the ones we were looking for plus a small herd of deer. They mosied up ahead of us on the trail for awhile before we got too close and they bounded off further into the woods. They sure are pretty when they're in the wild. We have seen deer here about every day and they aren't too afraid of anyone.

Notice the road we went 4 wheeling with in the Crossfire. The jeep people would be proud of us. The last geo was in the woods off to the left that you can't see.

Aug. 22: Cruisin

Here's a photo of camp even though we've not spent a lot of time here. You can see a sliver of a road behind us - that goes to the marina. We stayed close today but Larry thought we absolutely had to go to Wal-Greens today to pick up a prescription.

For those of you who have been to Lambert's just south of Springfield, it's still great. I got the small chicken fried steak and it came in a large skillet with mashed potatoes, corn and cottage cheese (my choices). Not to mention the two rolls that were thrown to us; or the fried potatoes and black eyed peas (for Larry) that came around in large kettles to add to our plates. They also came around with fried okra and stewed tomatoes & macaroni but those two items weren't even close to anything we wanted to eat. Larry got the chicken dinner on a normal plate - made me look like a real pig. But he did end up finishing off about 1/3 of my steak and the corn.

While in Springfield, we stopped by one of the branch offices of my work. It was fun to visit with everyone and get updated on the company gossip.

I did finally get Larry into a beauty salon. We both needed hair cuts and I knew I wasn't going into a barber shop so he agreed to go to the salon. I sat across the room and he was quite the Chatty Cathy. He talked the whole time we were there.

The car has had 300 miles put on it since Monday and two car washes. Can't wait for the new to wear off. The truck also got washed this week and it's rained here several days so the car washes were a waste of time except the truck was kinda scummy so that's cleaned up. It does have road tar on it so we'll have to get after that some cool day.

Got down to Branson Landing again because I needed the washing instructions for the quilt I purchased there last year. Also, Branson Landing is the home to a Haagen-Dazs store and a Chocolate Factory store. Right across from each other - how convenient.

Still trying to walk or ride bicycles but we'd have to do marathons to get over the calories we're consuming. No plans for the rest of the week - playing it day-by-day - just like we're retired.

Then I walk away from my computer and Buster decides to use it like a warming plate. He is so cold blooded and my keyboard is a little warm. One day I came back and he was sitting on the keyboard and I could hear the keys going like when you hold one down forever. Now my e-mail has a whole new look but I can deal with it - I don't know how to get it back to the way it was before he used it as a butt warmer.

Aug. 19: Indian Point @ Tablerock Lake, MO.

Well, Larry sat at the computer every night at Wappapello and researched a new car. We had decided that the jet ski really wasn't for us old folks. It was jarring our muscles and joints too much to make it fun. Trading in the jet ski for a car that was more reasonable on gas than site seeing in the truck seemed like the thing to do. Larry's research was for a Mazda Miata.

We came to Branson prepared for a Miata. We also came to Branson early. We weren't suppose to be here until Wednesday but our spot was open so we came in early. We dumped the trailer and hooked up the jet ski and headed for the dealership. It was at the west edge of West Branson. They had a little red convertible that Larry had spotted on line. We drove it, looked it over pretty thoroughly. However, with only a 4" clearance, Larry couldn't slide under it and take a look at the under belly. So much for checking for oil leaks and linkages. About the time we had decided we'd take it, we found out that it had no air conditioning. This car came from Florida - HELLO - I'm sure Florida requires a/c in their cars too. If it had come from Montana I could have understood it - but Florida??? Anyway, we said no thanks.

However, sitting not a couple hundred feet away, was a cute little black Chrysler Crossfire (we did not come prepared to look at Crossfire's). Well, long story short, that's what we ended up with. It was a year newer, 2004, and $700 more. As my brother-in-law, Dean, so aptly put it "It's a Mercedes SLK in Chrylser clothing...". Mercedes engine and assembled in Germany. Even better, they did take the jet ski as trade without us loosing an arm and a leg on it. I haven't driven the car yet, but I'm sure I will before the week is over. Just not sure that Branson is the place to learn to drive a 6 speed hot rod which is spec'ed to top out at !!! 149 MPH!!!. Somehow I don't think I will ever see that with me in the driver's seat.

The car does have a/c and power steering (the Miata did not even have power steering but Larry said on a car that size it really would not have been a problem). It also has heated, leather seats which we may have to use someday. We did take it out on a bypass around Branson and Larry got the spoiler on the back to come up - which will happen at 59 MPH which is no big deal. It goes down at 29 MPH.


Back to camping, I'm not real happy with the camp ground. Almost all of the picnic areas are on the back sides of the camper. To use our table, we have to walk out the front door and around to the other side of it. However, we're in Branson - lots of places to eat - but hopefully not too often. We're already resupplied on sweet corn and peaches. There are no sites on the water and few with actually lake view. We haven't even taken time to really set up much - we will - we just haven't been home much. Yesterday and today we messed with the car dealer and getting paperwork completed. Ate at the local BBQ place - again, not Hog Wild. Then did laundry. Went to eat at Wendy's and home for a quick walk and watch the Olympics. Tomorrow we head for Springfield for Lambert's home of Throwed Rolls, Best Buy to buy new walkie talkies to communicate between car and truck when we travel (another reason I need to practice driving the car) and another satellite receiver for XM Radio for the car, and Camping World for a new portable ice maker - ours quit. We'll be visiting Berry Tractor while we're there too. When we have time to set up the flags and make it look like home, I'll get a photo. We do have a double drive-way which is handy for the two cars.

Aug. 15: Peoples Creek on Wappapello Lake, MO.

Again, we have arrived at another beautiful campground. The Corp of Engineers build really nice places for us to camp. However, this particular site that we are on is a wheel chair spot. We feel bad about taking this site but had no idea when we booked it that it was wheel chair accessible. It was also listed as "lake front" camp site. As you can see from the photo, it's more like "lake view" property. You can see the jet ski in the parking area down by the lake.

The whole area is really very well kept. The swimming area has a long sand beach with a cement wall and benches between the beach and the road. The boat ramp has two ramps complete with a courtesy dock between them.

We went into Poplar Bluff the first night to eat (Pizza Hut) and pick up some prescriptions from Wal-Greens. After a minor falling-off-the-bike incident with my bike yesterday (the bike's OK), I stayed home today (and took drugs) while Larry went back into town to get the oil changed in the truck. Tomorrow we head out on the lake - if my neck will hold up my head that long.

I did a little research on the lakes we've stayed at to compare the sizes at conservation levels:

Wappapello Lake: 5,200 surface acres
El Dorado Lake: 8,000 surface acres
Cheney Lake: 9,500 surface acres
Barren Lake: 10,000 surface acres
TenKiller Lake: 10,900 surface acres
Lake Ouachita: 40,060 surface acres
Tablerock Lake: 52,300 surface acres
Barkley Lake: 57,900 surface acres
Cumberland Lake: 63,530 surface acres
Lake Kentucky: 160,300 acres (not sure which level this is)

Mostly this was for my information only.

The way I see this, we should see all there is to see of this lake in one afternoon. The water here has been glass smooth - remember, Kentucky has no wind. So on the days we don't jet ski, Larry also can't sail his boat or fly his kite. Just quiet days of swimming and bike riding and/or walking.

We also don't have the Olympics here. Last week, we barely had NBC on the local station (we can't get them on satellite unless our local stations send DirectTV a letter stating we can't access them - about a 45 day process). This week all we can get is ABC. We watch the satellite stations during the day that show the Olympics and see the reruns from the night before. We're sitting around more campfires now. Larry bought a little electric chain saw last week at Wal-Mart so he's been cutting us up some nice size logs and splitting them for our little fires.

Aug. 12: Camp Activities

Just so you don't think we just sit around all day basking in the sun drinking umbrella drinks here's some of the stuff we've been trying to do to stay active.

The big sailor put his boat in the water one day.






Larry injured his knee back at Cumberland Lake. He does walk but doesn't like coming down hills so we are walking as much as we can between hills. Today, I decided to go on the small hiking trail here without him. I charged up my ham radio over night and headed out with water, phone, camera and radio. We had complete communication the whole time I was gone and I ended up on the shore just across the cove from camp. We waved to each other and I started back. Took an hour for the whole hike. Notice the two small logs between my feet. During my running back to the trail before the camera took the picture (10 secs), I saw that I was off to the side too far. I side stepped keeping my eye on the camera to get the right angle and nearly twisted my ankle on those two little pieces of wood. That would have been a long way to haul my ass out of that area. Of course, it might have made for a great picture.

Our ventures out on the big lakes have been fun. Both lakes support barge traffic but who knew we'd actually see one. We ended up seeing several. I wanted to run circles around them but Larry didn't think that would be a good idea - ha, ha. We stopped on the canal between the two lakes for lunch. Lots of activity here too with many different kinds of boats. The day we went to LBL, we saw a barge on this canal - now that would have been fun to meet that big boy on a narrow body of water. But there were other large boats to watch. We went to a local marina's open house and toured one of the house boats that they rent. For a mere $8000/wk you too could rent this 80' house boat complete with 6 bedrooms, full sized kitchen, dining and living areas; and on the top level was a hot tub and bar - not to mention the slide going off the back. During the off season, it rents for just $3000/wk.





Wappapelo Lake is our next step tomorrow on the road back to Wichita. This lake is located just north of Poplar Bluff, MO.

Aug. 9: Land Between The Lakes

Originally called Between the Rivers, the area came under the Tennessee Valley Authority as part of Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930's. The Tennessee River was damned first, forming Lake Kentucky. Later the Cumberland River was damned making Barkley Lake (the one we're camped on) by the Army Corp of Engineers. The two lakes were joined by a canal eliminating the need for a lock and making for faster shipping of goods to the Port of Gulf of Mexico via the Ohio River and then the Mississippi River. The Land Between the Lakes is the largest peninsula in the United States.

"All of this came with a large price, human as well as financial. A great number of the area residents resented immensely the condemnation of their lands, especially when it was explained to them that most of the area was not to be flooded but rather to become a park. Some felt that they were being singled out as the mostly-impoverished and poorly educated of society to be taken advantage of by their government. Several even armed themselves with shotguns, determined to stop the condemnation, but beyond perhaps a few punctured tires, little actual violence ever occurred." Wikipedia

If I remember correctly from my reading at the headquarters located at Golden Pond in LBL, there were 3000 people had to be removed from this area. There are over 200 cemeteries still accessible and cared for by volunteers all over this area. Most are family plots; a few are associated with the local churches.

There is one whole area set aside for ATV's, Jeeps and dirt bikes - no rentals so we didn't get to play here. Lots of biking and hiking trails.

The Elk & Bison Prairie is a section that has been fenced off to allow these animals to graze and raise their young. Since 2001, 56 elk from this prairie have been reintroduced into North Carolina and Tennessee. This is a drive thru area, so chances are good that they will be walking across the road right where you are; however, that happens mostly in the morning and evenings. We were there at about 2:30. We saw some of the buffalo (there are 69) and one female Elk that had her back to us (there are 33 Elk in this area somewhere).

The Homeplace is a living history farm of this area from the mid 19th century. Aside from the local entertainment, others working the farm were in period costume. This house is called a "two pin" house. There are two living area separated by a "dog trot" or walkway. The kitchen is behind the house connected by a covered roof. The slot mid-way up the roof is where I
took the picture showing the tobacco crop out in front. Quilting was done on the front porch where there was ample light. Some can be done inside but sun light thru the windows and candle light are not good for small stitches. This particular quilt has been being worked on for a year and they're on the last row. Everything produced at the Homeplace is kept here - nothing is sold to the public.

Tobacco, however, is another story. The tobacco firing barn is where western Kentucky and some counties down into Tennessee cured or dried their tobacco crop. The leaves or "hands" were hung from the barn and a low, smoldering, smoking fire was kept burning on the floor to finish out the tobacco. This is used in chewing tobacco. Air dried tobacco is used for cigarettes and then there are all kinds of blends. The farmer we were talking to said that tobacco was a labor intensive crop and a complicated crop. The crop produced here is given away to anyone who wants it, so we walked out with one "hand" of chewing tobacco. This will be brought back home for our chewer friends - Brian and John Betzen from Larry's work and Keith from my work, to name the ones we know.


This is the tool shed. They make everything required for the farm at this shed. A couple of logs had been hauled in by horse and they were splitting some of it to make new chairs for the two houses on the property.




The day on the farm wouldn't be complete without some entertainment. Again, I had made a short video of this but the file will not load. They were serving watermelon for you to eat while the group was playing and Larry, of course, had some. They were playing bluegrass music.






At the end of a grueling day we needed sustenance. There is a place just north of LBL called Patti's Settlement. The waiting time for the Patti's Restaurant was 1 hour because we didn't have reservations, but Bill's Place got us in 10 minutes. Same menu, same kitchen - just a different setting apparently. Larry had a steak (again) and I had the local flavor of a Kentucky Hot Brown: Homemade slice of bread, toasted, with slices of turkey breast, slices of Black Forrest Ham, tomato (which I left off) covered with cheese sauce (last one I had was covered with white gravy) and a slice of bacon on top. Served hot. Really, really good. For desert, Larry had Dutch Peach Pie and here's the recipe for Sawdust Pie that I had:

7 egg whites, unbeaten
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 cups pecans
1 1/2 cups coconut
9-inch unbaked pie shell

Mix all ingredients together and stir by hand. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake in preheated 325 deg. oven until glossy and set (about 25 to 30 minutes).

DO NOT OVER BAKE! Serve warm with sliced bananas and whipped cream.

I guess her kids told her it looked like baked sawdust. It was wonderful. We each took half of our desert home. It was definitely better served warm. The web site is pattis-settlement.com.

The rest of the week will be spend at camp.

Aug. 7: Barley Lake

Barkley Lake (some of you may remember, Barkley was the VP under Truman) is one of two lakes that wrap around Land Between the Lakes. We're located right at the swimming area. We jumped in last night and it wasn't very refreshing. We think the water temp is about 95 deg. It's not even too refreshing when you get out because THERE IS NO WIND - NOT EVEN A BREEZE.



We went to do laundry and grocery shop today. AND, this was DQ's day for donating all proceeds from Blizzard sales to the Children's Miracle Network - sooooo, we had to stop by there to do our civic duty. It was hard but we forced ourselves.

This crop is tobacco. Larry and I had never seen it so I took several photos of it. The farm in the background is a dairy farm. To the left in this picture is a large corn crop and you can see behind these crops is a hay meadow. I asked about tobacco and how it was processed. Whole plants are inserted in the ground with a special planting machine . Two people, one on each side of the planter, place each plant into the machine as it sticks them in the ground. (This may be the story of the two bottom plow I get from Wayne and Larry - these were old guys I was talking too - for all I know these machines could be 4 or 8 man units). It is a year round crop, so we saw plants ready to harvest (the leaves turn yellow) and newly planted ones. When it blossoms on the top, it is cut off so the plant will get taller. These plants at the farm were from 3 to 5 feet tall depending on where it fell in the field (sun light, drainage, not sure what the variance was). The plants are cut and put into sheds for drying and then sold at auction. Most of the plants here go to Asia and China.



We really thought we would see lots of thoroughbred horses. Not so much. Apparently southern Kentucky (central to western) is more interested in feeding the country. Huge fields of corn and beans. I've never see so much corn. And those bean crops look awesome. And dotted between these crops is the occasional tobacco field. The barns and sheds here are painted black which is something we're starting to get used to.

We had our jet ski anchor stolen at our last camp so we spent some of this afternoon rigging up a home made one that maybe no one will want. Plus we rigged up the staring line anchors and the 3 marks that Larry will need to play with his sail boat - IF WE EVER GET ANY WIND!!!

Aug. 5: Rest & Last Day

Well, another week and another camp ground. We're heading out tomorrow morning for Land Between The Lakes. We'll be camped on Lake Barkley which is right next to Kentucky Lake. They both run on opposite sides of a section of land that has several things that we can go to. On this jetty of land is a Welcome Center, Elk & Bison Prairie, Planetarium, Bison Range, several resorts and campgrounds and The Homestead which is a 19th century farm. Plus there are planned programs throughout the week. I think we'll have plenty to do in that area - just not sure what the communication will be.
This was taken two days ago when we went for a picnic out on the lake.







This is a picture of a moth. Look at how well it is camouflaged - not so much on the black frame on the edge of our window.

I continued to feed at least one hummingbird this week, but Larry's bird food never got touched. At the last camp ground, we went thru about 3 small scoops of bird food a day. Maybe we'll do better at the next one.

Yesterday, I crashed. Guess we'd been doing too much or I had dehydrated - not sure - but I was exhausted. I spend most of the afternoon in bed, resting. Today we were back out on the jet ski. Took a tour of the lake and stopped in at a marina for our usual ice cream. Hopefully, tomorrow or Thursday, depending on the signal, I'll be able to upload a photo of our new campground.

Aug 3: Camp, Cars and Caves

Here is our camp picture. The back of the camper is to the west. We only today attracted one hummingbird and Larry's bird feeder hasn't been touched since he put it out. You can see Larry put his sail boat in the water. He used me as a mark to sail around. Again, not a lot of wind to play with. This is the first time the boat has been off of the fishing line. Note the jet ski for retrieval.

Thursday, after an all night rain shower, we went to the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green. They make approx. 150 Corvettes a day - 18 an hour. Their goal the day we were there was 128. Almost 90% are already sold to customers and the other 10% are sold to dealerships. Black is the number one color with red coming in second. We saw lots of red and yellow but only a couple of black cars. No cameras were allowed; however, we were presented with a lovely parting gift of this post card so I uploaded it for your enjoyment.

We also learned that you can tell the difference in Corvettes by the color of the brake calipers. Black is the regular Corvette ($40,000 and up) and red ones indicate the Z06 Corvette ($71,000 and up) the really fast one with lots of horse power. Blue calipers will show the newest addition to the Corvette family - the 2009 ZR1. It has a 620 hp engine, 0 to 60 in 3.6 seconds and starts in around $100,000. The first one has already rolled off the assembly line and was sold for a million dollars - the profits going to the local United Way.

Then we drove over to the museum. This is the largest non-profit museum in the world devoted to a single car. It was an amazing display of artifacts and Corvettes. On display was the very first 1953 white with red interior Corvette. Many of the cars were on loan from their owners. Several brand new ones are on display waiting for their owners to show up for a special VIP treatment (more money).


Yesterday, we drove up to Mammoth Cave. This cave was established in 1941 as part of the National Park system. In 1981, it became a World Heritage Site. That being said, Native Americans used this cave 4000 years ago. In the 1800's it was rediscovered by a hunter chasing a wounded bear. Tours were conducted in 1816 too. For $4 you could take the extended tour of 18 hours with a whale oil lantern shown in the picture with the ranger. She's holding one up. On this extended tour, you were given fried chicken lunches to pack in with you. That's why the whale oil lamps became fried oil lamps - the ranger said whales were hard to come by in Kentucky.

In the 1930's, during the depression, the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) helped pave roads into the cave area and paths thru the cave. These men, ranging from 17 to 25, were paid $1 a day. Hence came the expression "another day, another dollar". They were only allowed to keep $5 total for the month and the rest was sent home to family to help keep their homes and feed the remaining kids in the family. These were also some of the first men called up to serve in World War II.


Graffiti is always a problem anywhere. Graffiti before 1941 is considered "historial graffiti". Any scratchings or markings after that are called "federal offense". As you can see I have a picture of both. The 1839 marking is OK; Mr. Bob Eickholt was in trouble.



Going down 310 feet meant that at some point we had to come up. There was a total of 457 stairs - about 90% of them were right here at the end. I was sweating like a plow horse (pigs don't sweat) by the time I got out of that cave and the temperature down there was about 54 deg. Felt good going down - in fact I was hoping for a hot flash. But not for long. After bending down under what I called the "Tall man's misery" and squeezing thru the "Fat man's misery", I had worked up some warmth. And walking up those steps into the Kentucky 90+ degrees and 60%+ humidity, I was really rung out.

But the end was in site - with more steps. By the time we got back to the Visitor's Center, our clothes were wringing wet.

Mammoth Cave is a "dry" cave with very few stalactites and no stalagmites that I saw. And it was mammoth. It is the longest known cave in the world. There are 14 different tours - some several times a day - some only once a day. The Grand Avenue Tour was 4 1/2 hours and 4 miles with 670 steps. We took the Historical Tour. which was 2 hours and 2 miles.