June 12, 2013: Land Between the Lakes

 We are still waking up East Coast time in this central time zone.  I wanted to get on the road north to Land Between the Lakes (LBL) before it reached the forecasted high of 90 degrees, but fate was against us.  Jack had a slow morning, so we didn't get on the road til around 9, then we decided to stop at the local Factory Supply store to get our leaking waterproof cargo bag replaced.  We keep the boat and its gear on the bottom of the bag and it was swimming (haha) in water, but that was okay because it IS a boat!  But, my clubs were on top of the boat and my golf bag and everything in it was damp and icky, which was NOT okay.  The replacement bag looked good, so we unloaded all our stuff from the old bag and repacked it in the new bag.  By then, it was 10am.  Then I plugged the wrong data into the GPS, so we went 1/2 hour out of our way making it 11:30 by the time we entered the Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area southern Welcome Center and it was already 90 degrees.

After getting my required fix of every pamphlet about the area known to man, we took a short nap, had some lunch and headed north on the Trace.  The Trace runs up the narrow peninsula between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake beginning in Tennessee and ending in Kentucky. 

It was way too hot for the hike I had planned, so we found some indoor entertainment -- a planetarium and observatory about halfway up The Trace.  We watched a fascinating film about the IBEX explorer that is mapping the edges of our solar system.  Then the guide put up the night sky and showed us how to find various stars and constellations for that evening.  It is an excellent place for stargazing at light pollution is minimal.  A nice, cool, afternoon in the air conditioned planetarium.

Our campsite taken from our kayak

We finally hit a stroke of good luck by getting the last electric site at the LBL campground right on the lake.  While Jack napped, I set up the kayak and launched it from the beach right behind the RV and took a little tour along the shoreline that we share with a small sandy swimming beach a few campsites away.  Then Jack and I went out together, but the wind came up, so we didn't get far.



Enjoying a snack lakeside

I made some appetizers and we sat on the shore enjoying the lake.  After an air conditioned dinner in the RV, we returned to the lakeside to watch the sunset.  

Once it got dark, the tree frogs and cicada type bugs got humming and by the time we went to bed, there was a thrumming roar around us.  Went to bed at 10 and it was still 89 degrees.