We stayed at a number of lovely parks along the way home; three that stand out the most were Hartwell State Park, South Carolina, Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park in Birmingham, Alabama and Tyler State Park in Texas.

Hartwell State Park is a sleepy little park right off the highway 85 on our route to Alabama.  The RV sites are on a peninsula of a large water reservoir so that each site has a water view.  It was a convenient respite from a long day of traveling.  In the early morning there was a fog or as I like to call it, smoke on the water that gave the area a wonderful mystical feeling about it.  At one end of the park was a very nice open area for Vegas to have a little off leash time to expel some energy.  She was running around at full speed until she came to an abrupt stop just short of going over a 20-foot drop off the cliff into the lake below.  I think we both almost had a heart attack, I know I am still traumatized by the event.  Needless to say, she was quickly put back on her leash and we headed back to the RV to get ready to depart for the days travel.

Tannehill is the site of an ironworks facility that produced the major supply of pig iron to the confederate army during the civil war.  Portions of the original ironworks structure still stands.  There were several large log cabins and a pretty little stream running through the park.  The Park also holds a Halloween Festival each year and campers had already claimed there spots and put up elaborate decoration displays.  It was like walking through a trail of lights Christmas display except it was all Halloween themed, orange twinkle lights, laser lights, blow up spooky creatures and graveyards.  It was quite something.  In fact, we stayed at several parks in Kentucky and Tennessee that also had a Halloween theme going on with most having trick or treat Saturday nights.  We did not experience this in the Texas parks.

Tyler State Park is a large park north of Tyler with a 64-acre spring-fed lake and 100 foot tall pine trees.  We were looking forward to renting a boat the morning before we left but a cold front moved in with rain.  We were disappointed but really enjoyed the evening before looking out over the lake and the tranquility of the park.  We definitely want to return to Tyler State Park in the future.

This marked the end of our October 2017 travels as we arrived home to Austin the next day.  We had a fabulous trip and are already looking forward to planning another adventure.

Our time in Kentucky has come to an end and we are beginning our return home.  We decided a route through Tennessee, Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana to Texas.  First, stop to the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains.   Upon arriving, we were totally overwhelmed with the number of people who had the exact same idea as us.  It was a beehive of activity with people swarming everywhere.  It was so crowded we decided to just drive through the park to enjoy the scenery then keep going to a more tranquil environment.  The Smokies had the best change of season colors we had seen on the trip as Kentucky who normally would have been at peak season by this time was experiencing a warmer fall than usual.

Jim Beam is located south of Louisville on 25 acres and is very picturesque and well organized for people to tour the facilities.  The Bourbon Chase, a 2 day 200 mile relay race along the bourbon trail started from Jim Beam’s this day, making our visit very festive with loads of people and music.  We took a great tour/tasting, had a BBQ sandwich for lunch and a delicious bourbon ice cream sundae for dessert.  A very enjoyable day.  Well worth the visit.

Wild Turkey is located in Lawrenceburg about 20 minutes west of Lexington.  We had a great tour of the distillery, barrel aging facilities and tasting.  My favorite was the American Honey Sting a liquor with honey and an infusion of pepper – that’s the sting – very tasty.

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The Land Between the Lakes National Recreational Area (LBL) spans both Tennessee and Kentucky.  The first night we stayed at Paris Landing on the Tennessee south end of LBL.   There was an identical Leisure Travel Van Unity just like ours park in a couple of sites over.  We do not often see LTV’s so we where excited to meet the owners.  We had a very nice visit with Alan and Dee that evening trading LTV travel stories.

The next day we drove the 40 miles through the Land Between the Lakes, stopping at the Homeplace a 1850s Farm.  We were excited they allowed dogs on the farm, so we enjoyed walking Vegas around seeing all the farm animals. The black ducks were very attracted to Vegas following after her.  The farm had original and replica homes and barns as well as woodshop and tobacco barn that would have been on a working farm in 1850s.  It was a very tranquil and educational visit.

That evening we stay Canal Campground, the northend which is in Kentucky.  We were very fortunate to get one of the last campsites and it had a very nice view of Kentucky Lake.  This week was winter break for the Kentucky school system which meant all the parks were very crowded and sites hard to come by.

The next day we drove to Hodgenville, Kentucky to visit Abraham Lincoln National Park and see the Lincoln Memorial and his birth cabin.

Barb has been under the weather for the last few days but today she seems to be better and we will probably start our Kentucky trip some time tomorrow. Looking forward to tasting some bourbon and seeing some fall color.

Off on the road again, we are heading to Kentucky.  The first night we stopped northeast of Dallas at a US Army Corps of Engineers (COE) Lavonia Park located on the beautiful Lake Lavon.   We enjoyed gazing at the lake from under the large shade tree on our camp site.  The next day we continued north and stopped south of Texarkana at another COE, Malden Lake Park.  Malden is a campground near Maud, TX on the Wright Patman Lake.  We were interested in exploring this park because we enjoyed our stay on the other side of the lake at Rock point on our last travels.  This must be a fisherman’s paradise because just about everyone here has a fishing boat and each campsite has a fish cleaning area.  It is truly a beautiful park with tall pines and large oak trees, it looks kind of mystical when the light filters through the trees.  So relaxing – especially a little nap in the hammocks.  Off today toward Tennessee….

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Off to Sturgis to see the town where the largest motorbike rally is held every August, but first a stop in Wall.  Wall is a very small town off Hwy 90 that has a nationally famous drugstore/café/gift shop that is a city block long and offers 5 cent coffee and fresh homemade donuts.  We saw advertisements for it as far back as 200 miles.  We just had to stop for coffee and donuts which were actually excellent.

Onward to Sturgis for lunch at one of the biker restaurants.  We ate at Knuckles which was the number one on TripAdvisor and were not disappointed.  Now we can say we have been there.

After lunch we proceeded to Deadwood with hopes of stopping for a walk around town but there was a classic car show going on with roads blocked off and no place for us to park.  Oh well, we were growing tired and needed to stop for the night.  We found a nice little park near a creek called Fish N Fry where you can catch your own fish and they fry it for you.  We didn’t fish but decided on a salad after all that eating earlier.   Tired and ready for bed.

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The Minute Man Missile site is located about 5 miles outside the Badlands National Park on Hwy. 90.  The nuclear site was disabled by Bill Clinton’s administration in an agreement with the Russians to decrease nuclear armament.  It turned out the missile silo was located about 15 miles up Hwy 90 literately less than a mile from the highway.  Amazing that so many people for so many year drove right pass this site never knowing it was there.  In the agreement signed the U.S. was allowed to keep a couple of sites intact without the warheads obviously for historic and educational purposes.

We then drove a little further to the Air and Space Museum to see the control room for the minute man missile which is now manned by a dummy.  There were various aircrafts and missiles on display.  Very impressive and scary considering the current tensions with N. Korea

The Badlands is 244,000 acres with the most fascinating formations we have ever seen.  There is a quote from Frederick Remington, an American Landscape Painter and Explorer and he said, “No words of mine can describe these Bad Lands.  One set of buttes, with cones and minarets, gives place in the next mile to natural freaks of different variety never dreamed of by mortal man…”   This says it all.

We took the 27 mile scenic loop road through the park to view all the formations and we even saw some big horn sheep.  Very inspiring and totally worth the visit.

This may not be the most elegant RV park we have stayed at but it is certainly the most crowded.

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We are starting to get excited as the eclipse gets closer.  We spent a day and a half with Dan and Barbara (Lon’s brother and sister in-law) in Arkansas where we had a wonderful visit.  Thank you both for the gracious hospitality.  As we were preparing to depart Vegas freaked out and started running full speed ahead toward us but she was tied to a heavy metal chair that bounced behind her until they both slammed into the RV.  Fortunately the only damage was a venting grate that can be easily replaced.  Eventually everyone calmed down and we were off toward Kansas City.   We could see a storm coming so turned off the highway to the nearest state park, Horseshoe Bend, was just a few miles away and luckily out of the path of the hail and strong winds. The park was exceptional.  So blessed to have found beautiful shelter from the storm.

Today we drove just a few miles south of Kansas City and are about an hour and half from St. Joseph, Mo. our destination for a full viewing of the eclipse.  Our plans are to arrive there tomorrow, Monday the 20^th to become acquainted with area to ensure the best viewing spot.  And yes, we have reserved a place to stay, now we are praying for clear weather.