Land-Between-The-Lakes

The drive from Cumberland Gap to Land-Between-The-Lakes was fairly uneventful except for the weather.  It wasn't too bad driving across, but was getting nasty at Land-Between-The-Lakes.  I had chosen a national campground from the national park website.  It was located just before the bridge leaving Land-Between-The-Lakes on the west side.  I had it programmed into my GPS, but the GPS map didn't match the real world (can you imagine that?).  We turned into a campground that looked like it could be the place, but it turned out to not have any facilities.  We decided to go back up the road a ways to another campground we had seen a sign for, but we had to unhitch Coors to turn around.  So, I drove Pumpkin to the campground and Joyce drove Coors.  About 5 miles off the main road, we turned to follow the signs to the campground.  Another couple of miles and then we ran into a roadblock.  Apparently the lake had risen enough to close the campground.  Rats!  So, we turned around again (good thing Coors was already unhitched) and headed for Energy Lake campground.  It was 15-16 miles off the main road in the opposite direction, but I had stayed there once with Dusty years ago and was somewhat familiar with it.  We drove all the way to Energy Lake only to find the campground there closed as well.  Rats, again!  We drove back out and headed north.  We finally found an open campground at Hillman Ferry Campground.  It began pouring rain as we checked in.  We finally found our site after circling around in the downpour and pulled up.  Joyce was still driving Coors and got lost.  She eventually found me.  We got leveled and power plugged in when it began to hail.  Shortly after that, the tornado warning siren went off.  Our site was just across from the shower house.  We were contemplating making a run for it, but perhaps foolishly, we stayed put.  Before long it passed and we managed to get to bed.  The next morning Ditto and I checked out the park around our campsite.  There wasn't a whole lot of ground above water.  I checked the transmission fluid again and it was still okay.  It was time to eat breakfast and get on out of there.

Bailey's Point Campground

Our plan was to stay at Mammoth Cave National Park, but when we got there we found they did not offer electricity.  When I rechecked the website, sure enough, they did not offer electricity.  As it was still early, we decided to head on down to Barren River Lake about 50 miles south.  We saw several deer and a beautifully antlered stag on the way out of Mammoth Park.  Ditto made sure they didn't get us.  Along the way toward Barren Lake, I noticed Pumpkin was leaking transmission fluid.  We stopped at an auto parts store and I got some fluid and topped it off.  Then we headed on.  I got a bit concerned because I had failed to get enough fluid for a reserve so we stopped at a Walmart and I bought some more.

Our plan now was to camp at The Narrows Campground but somehow we missed it.  Now it was beginning to get dark.  The next place was Bailey's Point Campground off Hwy 252.  I saw Hwy 252 and made the turn.  Unfortunately, the highway made a loop around the west side of the lake and I should have gone on and made the turn at the other end.  So, we wound up seeing a lot of Kentucky countryside.  Eventually, we found Bailey's Point and crashed for the night.  It rain hard.

The next morning I checked the transmission fluid and all was okay.  We headed on to Land-Between-The-Lakes.