Dale Hollow Lake, Whoo Hooo!

Before leaving Cincinnati and heading toward the lake, we were treated with this great sunset!

It was a warm day Sunday, but I confess, we spent most of it inside watching three races. But that is what we wanted to do! The first was LeMans, which we just tuned into briefly. But we always enjoy the Indy 500. Wow! What a finish. I truly felt sorry for the rookie who made a small, yet humongous mistake on that last corner. But he did at least finish second, so he has some celebrating to do anyway.

The Nascar race in Charlotte was a nailbiter as well. I really don't have a favorite Nascar driver anymore. I like several of them. I have decided it is more fun to have multiple winners. When one driver wins constantly it takes the fun out of watching. So I was really pulling for Dale, Jr., as he took what should have been his winning victory lap, only to run out of gas between the third and fourth turns. But once again, had he gone in for fuel he would have finished further down the pack, like Biffle did. As it was, he finished seventh and had nothing to apologize for.

It took about five hours to drive over to the lake from Cincinnati. The drive over was pleasant and uneventful. We stopped in Berea, Kentucky, where they have added a new Artisan Center right on I-75. Well you have to get off, but it is right at the intersection. We were looking for a rest area, but it has been taken out. We then saw signs for this Traveler's Center, so decided to go see even though they said no trucks. It reminds me of the Tamarack Center in West Virginia. It is a place to showcase the local artists and the students' work from Berea College. And it happens the site was very accessible to even large RV's with a large RV parking lot. So if you pass by here, be sure to stop and take a break and look at all the area has to offer.

We were curious to see if Lake Cumberland was still low. They are still in the process of rebuilding the dam across the lake. The dam was in danger of collapsing and they have undertaken a multi-year plan of rebuilding it and fixing it so that the dam will remain safe. It is a critical dam in the system that helps to protect Nashville. There is a grand bridge that spans the lake that we travel over. It is very unusual in its construction. In addition, we saw so much traffic coming from the lakes that those heading out were stacked up at the lights for a considerable distance. We were glad we were going the other way!

We decided yesterday morning to shower before leaving Cincinnati. With it being the last day of a holiday weekend, we figured the showers would be pitted out and since we are in water conservation mode there, we would wait until the staff had time to clean them up. That did not go as planned. It was so hot and muggy we were drenched from setting up camp and going and getting the boat out of storage, so we went to the shower house anyway. But, they were fairly clean and we needed a cool shower to sleep good last night.

The lake is still high, and we cannot drive down to the lake to exit as the road is covered with water, but they have marked out part of the parking lot as an exit lane. We have used this before and it works well. This picture is from the bridge overlooking our marina, Sunset Dock.

We are all settled now back in our site with the boat in front. We left the boat buttoned up and will get in there today and get it ready to go out on the lake.

Till next time. . .

Dale