Welcome to our Adventure!

Al and I are thrilled that you have found your way to our blog. We hope you enjoy reading our journal and viewing our photographs of the natural wonder of our United States of America. Let's hit the road together!
Homer, Alaska

Monday, April 18, 2011

Classes, Travel Day, COE Campground at Bailey's Point

It's been a few days, I'm sorry! We've been busy :-).

Saturday
This was the last day of our classes at the rally, and they started early, at 8AM! First was Boondocking/Solar topics. For those not in the know, boondocking is staying someplace that has no utility hookups at all...no electric, no water, no sewer. This class helped explain some of the equipment that would help make life easier in this instance, such as generators, battery banks, or solar panels. It was very interesting. Then we learned about Choosing Campgrounds and RV Parks. I remember back in the early 1980's when we first went camping, and it was pretty much using the Trailer Life Campground Guide.  The internet has improved upon that so much! The third session was Packing Your RV for Extended and Full-time Travel. This was very helpful! And our last class of the rally was a special presentation on Travel to Alaska 101. Bill and Linda Napier presented this, and as we are planning (at this time) to go to Alaska the summer of 2013, it was very interesting.
After lunch, there was "RV Open House". You could sign up to have your RV open for others to come and see it, and also spend time yourself inspecting other people's RV's. This was very interesting, having the opportunity to see so many other RV types, and see how people are actually utilizing their space, vs. walking through model units in an RV show. I loved that!
Dinner was a catered chicken and ribs BBQ, and then we had a 70's disco party...really!! I have to admit, I never did "get my groove on" even when it WAS the 70's, but we had a great time.

Sunday
Sunday was the final morning of the rally, with a breakfast buffet and final H and H (hugs and handshakes). We have met so many wonderful people this last week, I can't possibly name them all! Extra special mentions go to Jim and Linda Smith, our mentors for the week, and probably beyond :-)...We can't thank you enough! Our neighbors Bill and Nancy Mills, thanks for the huge welcome. Bruce and Laura, Dan and Trish, Jo Beth and Catherine, and Lee and Martha, thanks for the fireside chat Monday night. And Neil and Nancy, it was so nice to meet you, and you will be out here on the road before you know it! And of course, the biggest thank you for Linda and Howard Payne. Not only are you mostly responsible for us being out here now, :-), but you made our first rally so informative and enjoyable we can't wait for another one! Thank you for everything, and for creating such a great RV family to be a part of.

For those that really know me, it's going to surprise you, but I've hugged more people in the last month than I have in my entire life up to now!

We pulled out of River Plantation at 11AM for our drive to our next destination, COE Campground at Bailey's Point, Barren River Lake Kentucky. Construction on 66 caused a long back-up, and a 15 minute ride to get to US 40 turned into 45 minutes! Once we cleared that, though, it was a pretty simple drive up I75 and then west on 80 across Kentucky. The day was gorgeous, sunny and cool, with a brilliant blue sky. It was a perfect backdrop for driving through the Cumberland Gap as we passed from Tennessee into Kentucky. Such a difference from the drive up and down I95. The mountains were beautiful, and I can only imagine how stunning the scenery must be in the fall.

We arrived here at Bailey's Point around 4PM Central Time. This is our first COE campground, and we are very impressed. It's beautiful, nice sites right on the lake, more rigs here than I expected, but since they just re-opened the campground for the season, they have rigs clustered in loops A and B, rather than the whole campground open. Here's a few pictures of our site and row.
This is our site A13; it's really nicely set up, with the sites terraced along the ridges.
The view from our steps.
Down the road from our site..there's a pretty sharp turn at the end there!

Looking straight down our site, the lake to the left...beautiful!

Casey relaxing in his chair after dinner :-)



It's a birder's paradise around the campground! A life bird for me, the Flicker, a pair was picking around the campsite this morning. I've also seen cardinals, blue jays, carolina wrens, a titmouse, some kind of a heron that flew by on the lake, yellow-rumped warblers and this american redstart:


Monday
We had hoped to take the boat out on the lake today, but it's too windy for our inflatable. The weather today is ok, but is supposed to deteriorate tomorrow as the day grows. We have an alert for strong storms Tuesday night into Wednesday, with rain all day Wednesday. So we're going to go to mammoth Caves N.P. early in the morning, and get back to camp before the weather gets crummy. meanwhile, today we took the dogs for a walk over at Barren River Lake S.P. and resort. It's very nice over there, with a campground, a lodge for guests, villas and cottages for rent, a beach area, a very nice looking golf course, riding stables, picnic pavilions, and 3 walking trails. Let me tell you, New York state could take a few lessons on how to run their state parks! We did ride through the campground there, and are happy we chose to stay here instead. It's nice, but not really big rig friendly...we only saw a few sites that might be ok for our rig. And there was no-one there...not a soul! It would have been quite lonely :-)
We took a walk down their nature trail that goes to the beach area, and circles the cottages. It was really beautiful.
You can see the cottages up on the ridge to the left here. They are very nice, built on stilts for fabulous views.

I have no idea what kind of flower this is, but I liked it :-).

Some really cool looking fungus of some sort...kind of artistic, yes?

Due to the heavy rains and storms recently, the lake is at very high levels, and the beach area is flooded over.

The afternoon was spent working on our internet issues, and slowly getting that settled. I'm also working on our health insurance issues, and that is really making me quite annoyed right now, so we won't go there. We grilled some chicken for dinner, put away the outside stuff as we are suppose to get some more rain, and maybe some storms Tuesday night, and watched Hawaii 5-0. Not a bad day, and tomorrow is Mammoth Caves. I have to do some research on taking pictures in the cave so that they come out :-). So until then, have a great day, and hope the storms pass us by again!

8 comments:

  1. Wow you have been busy...Bill just mentioned today "no post in about 3 days.." LOL..He is paying close attention, as am I. Myself and many others look forward to your blog entries..I for one am living vicariously through you as I would love to see the USA!!!
    Everything sounds like it's going well for you both..picture's are beautiful as always...the pups look like they're having a great time!!
    Keep safe...will be in touch..
    Luv to all
    Beth & Billy
    P.S. by the way,..there is no such thing as too many hugs!!! It's good to know that people are so nice out there....

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  2. You're quite welcome. We enjoyed being your mentors and getting to know both of you, and are looking forward to meeting up with you again.

    Looks like you've found a great COE CG. We also look for sites on the water.

    Safe travels,

    Jim and Linda

    Oh, by the way, for someone who hasn't hugged much, you're sure good at it. ;-)

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  3. What a beautiful site! I have not found a COE park yet that wasn't beautiful. I think I'll be shocked if I ever do! :) It was so nice to get to know you and Al at the rally. Hope we bump into each other again somewhere down the road.

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  4. Looks like you have a really great site. I have now added Bailey's Point to our Park List.

    Casey sure looks content.

    Travel Safe
    Dawn and Denise

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  5. Okay Al, time to show us what you've learned. I hear there be stripers in that there lake.

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  6. I know how frustrating health insurance can be. We just paid our annual premium....ouch!

    You will learn to LOVE COE campgrounds. We haven't stayed in a bad one yet...and we've stayed in a bunch of them!

    Enjoy the Cave.

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  7. I think that flower may be a Jack in the Pulpet. Love the park you are staying in.

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  8. YOU KNOW WE LOVE THE PICS OF CASEY. THE CAMPGROUND LOOKS SO BEAUTIFUL.

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