Archery Tournament

Location: Charlestown State Park; Charlestown, Indiana (on the Ohio River about 15 miles upstream from Louisville, Kentucky

When I left Louisiana six weeks ago on March 24, Louisville was my long range destination. It's taken me 13 campgrounds and 1,600 miles of towing to get here, but here I am. The reason for coming to Louisville was to attend my granddaughters' archery tournament. The competition was the Eastern National Championship in the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP). Schools from the eastern states competed to see who would qualify to go to the National Championship in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on June 5th through the 7th. My confidence level is high, so I already made reservations all the way to Myrtle Beach and then back to Louisiana. We're pretty sure her team qualified but we have to wait for official notice next week.

That's Olivia in the middle facing to the right. The position is referred to as "bows on toes" and everyone must be in this position before the official grant permission to shoot. 

There are two separate competitions. This one is called 3D. There are 6 different animals. Each contestant shoots 5 arrows at each animal before moving on to the next one. The other competition is the standard Bullseye target. 

The Kentucky Exposition Center is massive. This picture is just a small portion of the vendors area. Very good venue.

I had to take a picture of Olivia and Nate to send to my X-wife who couldn't make the trip. Just a little bit of rubbing it in. LOL

Here's a selfie of me and Nate while we wait for Olivia to shoot. The headphones are connected to a tablet so he can play some educational games. 

I've stayed at this state park back in July of 2023. It was a great day of exploring with multiple serendipitous things occurring. I purposely decided not to back track and try to repeat that exploration. I have done that before in other places and sometimes it can taint the good memories turning them a darker shade. Here is a link to that old post after re-reading it, it brought back some warm, good memories and vibes. That is the beauty of keeping a blog of my travels. It is a means of transporting my mind and soul back in time. It's OK, I'm only half crazy. The big question is am I going downhill or uphill to get to that half-way point? Oh well, here's the link >>>> https://gozatravels.blogspot.com/2023/07/serendipity-day-top-10-museum.html

This is the "Blue Bridge" crossing the Ohio River going from Kentucky to Indiana. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the state line between those states is the northern low water mark of the Ohio River back in 17 or 1800's. So technically, Kentucky owns the river, but not really.

Obligatory road picture. This is Northern Kentucky or Southern Indiana

Same goes for this picture, northern Kentucky or souther Indiana. I'm leaning more so to Indiana.

This road is within the State Park and leads to the Ohio River. I remember this one from last time. Neat looking road.

The State Park has a nice overlook with a pretty comfortable bench. A place to reflect on your life and try to see your future as you look on the peaceful Ohio River. 

I chose poorly on my campsite. I used three boards (1X8's) and was till about a 1/4 bubble out of level. But that's OK, minor problem in the big picture. That's my Starlink, on a tripod, at the front corner of Liberty. I'm still really satisfied with it.

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be headed down into the middle part of Kentucky to what looks to be a nice COE campground

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.  

 

Just Driving Around Pictures

 Location: Laural Branch Corps of Engineers Campground; on the banks of Rough River Lake which is about an hour or so southwest of Louisville, Kentucky

The tow to get here was almost three hours on some narrow state highways. The type of narrow-ness that if you "hook" a wheel off the edge of the road it will put you in the ditch quick. I've been pressing my luck on my choice of roads during the last few weeks. I still believe in what I said for years, "tow on the interstates and explore on the blue highways". The main reason for that is if something happens while towing there would be a shoulder to use to get off the road. Some of these roads I've towed on lately have been less than 11 feet wide. I can tell the width because they didn't have an edge line. Edge lines are used on roads with 11 foot wide lanes or wider. Oh well, I guess I'll continue to push my luck some more because after Louisville, there aren't a lot of Interstates or four-lane highways on my planned route. Fingers crossed. This post is going to be overloaded with road pictures. All are from central to northern Kentucky.

You can tell the kind of weather I was towing in. Popcorn showers (rain popping up here and there). None were real heavy.

 

This is what I usually think of when I think of rural Kentucky. The only thing missing was horse in the fields.

This was a nice road with shoulders. You can see a little of the hills.

I took this one because of the cow looking at me. I know it wasn't a Texas Longhorn, but it did have long horns.

The last country road shot. In future posts, if I forget to satisfy my promise to post road shots, remember I overloaded them in this post.

This campground was a replacement. I received an email from Recreation.com, the federal campground reservation website, that my reservation at Axtel Campground was canceled due to flooding. I was lucky to find a site at this campground which was only a few miles away, on the same lake, but on higher ground. It has three loops, and one is flooded but the other two are open. I appreciate the Corps not closing it because I'm sure they were tempted to do so. It's a nice campground in the middle of nowhere. The sites are level, paved and mostly shaded. My cell signal is weak but reliable. I set up Starlink for the first time in a while. I found an opening in the trees and hoped it would work. It's not a blazingly high speed but very usable. I put the receiver on my tripod for the first time. It worked well but I need to find a weight to hang under it, just in case.

I hitched up in the rain and set up camp in the rain. I didn't mind it at all. It was the first time I've done in a couple of years and change is always a good thing. How boring would it be to hitch and tow in pretty weather all the time?

I'm guessing people canceled their reservations due to the rain because the campground was only about half filled. That is Rough River Lake in the background. That would have been a good campsite.

This is the loop in the campground that was closed due to flooding. Notice the trees standing in water. Those kinds of trees are not suppose to do that. 

That's my Starlink on the small tripod at the back corner of Liberty. Starlinks need to point north and mostly lay flat. I'm still very satisfied with mine.

I took this picture for future documentation. This is pointed up from the Starlink receiver. That hole in the tree coverage is what is allowing the satellite connection. I'm satisfied that I could find enough opening to connect in most campgrounds.

I drove around the area on day 2 of 3 with nothing specific in mind to explore. It was a nice drive and I ended up in a small town where I filled Freedom up with gas and got a special lunch at Dairy Queen. For $7.00 I got a cheeseburger, fries, drink and sundae. Good deal, Lucille. While sitting in DQ eating my good deal, I thought hmmmmm,,,, how many times have I ate a meal like this in small town and not know a living soul for several hundred miles around? My second thought was there had been times in the past where it was over a thousand miles so I should be happy. I wasn't happy but I also wasn't sad. Melancholy probably isn't correct either. I need to think on it some more.

Two of my favorite places, Dairy Queen and Walmart. I didn't go in Walmart but enjoyed DQ. All of the workers in the DQ were much older than usual which may have accounted for the above average service and quality of food. Good job, ya'll.

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be going to an Indiana State Park that I've been to before. I'll use it to be close enough to Louisville, Kentucky to attend my granddaughter's archery tournament on Saturday. It is the Eastern National Finals. It will be a long day on Saturday but I'm looking forward to it. 

I've seen more and more of these large flags on this trip. Much more than on past trips. Patriotism is flourishing in the country. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.  

Having to Walk to a Cemetery

 Cedar Creek Corps of Engineers Campground; Mount Juliet, Tennessee (just a little east of Nashville on the banks of the Cumberland River)

This is the second time I've received a call/message from a campground host telling me my site is ready. I was doing some shopping at Walmart, and doing it slowly, because I wanted to kill some time so as to not arrive too early at the campground. My phone rang and the campground host said my site was ready for whatever time I showed up. I liked that. It's a benefit to the hosts as well, because they know if and when the campers will arrive. This campground is a nice little one that seems to be maintained really nice. The hosts are in the booth for most of the day while others are cruising the campground in a golf cart. Everyone is doing their job just right. That is rare now a days since most booths at a lot of the COE's aren't manned at any time.

Required travel picture. This is from north central Tennessee

My campsite. The view out my back window is the entrance to the campground with the host booth. It has been a lot of people watching. Fun and interesting.

That is the lake next to the campground. It was formed by daming the Cumberland River. You can see all of the drift wood that washed up during the last flood. 

I've been to this area before but not at this campground. It was back in April of 2016 when I came here to visit The Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson's home/museum. I remember the exploration being somewhat of a disappointment but wasn't sure if that disappointment was a result of my disappointment in the man himself or his home. You can read about that exploration here >>>https://gozatravels.blogspot.com/2016/04/andrew-jackson-and-hermitage.html

There are a couple of reason why I don't like Andrew Jackson.  He took office in 1829 which was the same year the State of Georgia decided to take 9,000,000 acres of land away from the Cherokee Indians because some gold was found on it. Their perverted logic was "what are the Indians going to do with the gold anyhow". The Cherokee, trying to prove to the whites that they could act white, sued Georgia saying the treaty they had with the U.S. guaranteed the land was theirs. That suit went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where the court sided with the Cherokee and against Georgia. Georgia decided to ignore the court ruling. In a situation like that, the head of the Executive Branch of government, President Jackson, was expected to uphold the Court ruling by forcing Geogia to comply even if it required military action. Instead, Jackson also ignored the Supreme Court and is famous for saying, "John Marshal (the chief justice) has made his decision, now let him enforce it". A true constitutional crisis, not a fake one like you hear about now-a-days. The Cherokee were left to hang out to dry, abandoned. They were forced to sign a new treaty where they traded their lands in the east for land in what would become Oklahoma. They felt they had no choice. Three years later, Georgia thought they were relocating too slowly so they asked for Federal help. Jackson sent the Army to force them to move quickly thus creating the famous Trail of Tears where 1/4 of the Indians who began it, died along the way. Jackson, as President, was responsible for a shameful act and doesn't deserve respect. 

This time around, I learned of a Confederate Cemetery on the grounds of the Hermitage. I didn't know about that on my original visit. I wasn't interested in exploring the Hermitage again but was wanting to show my respect for the "fallen" soldiers. Surprise, surprise, the cemetery is on the Hermitage property and a person has to buy a "grounds ticket" just to go see the cemetery. By the way, that ticket costs $21.00. I wasn't going to pay their extortion but I was going to visit the cemetery, even if I had to jump crawl over the fence to get in. So, what does a person do in a situation like this? Google Earth is what I did. I called it up to see exactly where the cemetery was located and a way to get to it. The plan was to park Freedom in the CVS parking lot, cross a 5-lane highway and 2 bike lanes to reach a sidewalk. A little less than 1/2 mile later, I was standing within spitting distance of the nearest headstone with only a split rail fence between me and the cemetery. I looked both ways to make sure no cops were watching and decided trespassing charges would not be in my future on that day. Maybe some other day but definitely not on that day. My secondary choice was to take some pictures from the sidewalk and quietly paid my respects then walked back to Freedom with my head held high knowing positively that I had just "stuck it to the man". 

The cemetery opened in 1892 by the Tennessee Confederate Soldiers Home. The home stayed open for 41 years and closed in 1933 when the 6 vets still remaining were transfered to the Girls Infirmary at the Tennessee Industrial School. The last vet passed away in 1941. There are 487 graves in the cemetery. Most were poor farmers fighting against what they perceived as an invasion from the Union Army. 

I was surprised the stones only had numbers. They do maintain an accounting of "names to numbers". I was happy to see a Confederate cemetery. It is only the third that I've seen in all my travels. There is one in Keachi, Louisiana and another one in Rock Island, Illinois. 

At least the "crazies" haven't trashed this memorial like they have so many other confederate sites. Those sites they trashed were more like headstones since the confederates were usually buried in mass graves and lost to time if they didn't win the battle. 

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be heading north into Kentucky for another COE campground stay. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road. 

A Peaceful COE CG & one Random Thought

 Lock A Corps of Engineers Campground; about an hour west of Nashville, Tennessee

This post will be more of a campground review with lots of pictures than exploring the area. My stay was for three days and I only left the campground to get a few prescriptions filled at Walmart. They did a great job again and had them filled within an hour. Walmart is great for travelers, they are my pharmacy, bank, rest stop, fast food, groceries, auto parts, etc. I may have pushed my luck though by asking the pretty red-head if she worked there, but when she turned around, Yikes, I quickly said never-mind and quickly walked away. While they were filling the scripts, I had time to do my laundry and eat lunch at Taco Bell although I didn't have a reservation. I was lucky, I guess, although I did have to take my own order on one of those kiosk things.

Typical middle Tennessee 

A nice view about 10 miles from the campground showing the hills and the Cumberland River.

The campground is straight ahead. You can tell it is going to be a good one by the nice approach. Good vibe campground.

Nice campsite. I didn't try to hook up Starlink since Verizon was giving me a decent signal. That's one of the other R-pods in the background.

I've lost count of the number of COE campgrounds I've been to, but a nice estimate and round number would be about 100. This campground is ranked in the top15. It gets high numbers for peacefullness, great camp hosts and nice fellow campers. It would be nice if there were some nearby exploration items, but it is a nice and relaxing campground. The dump station doesn't look too good, so I'll wait and use the one at the next campground. I'm glad I stopped here even though my backing into the campsite was a little hinky. But there wasn't any damage to Freedom, Liberty or government property so it was a lesson learned. I will GOAL (Get Out And Look) quicker next time.

Comfortable thinking bench with shade and a view.

The Cumberland is a nice looking river. The lock and dam is about 3 miles that a way.

This is the trail I was told about on the last day. It was a nice walk.

I found these "peace rocks" on the rail of the fence as you come back to the road from the trail. They look familiar but I'm real sure she isn't traveling any more. 

There were also two other R-Pods in the campground. That is unusual. I met both sets of owners and both were nice people. One was local and the others were travelers, like me. Safe travels and have fun.

Hydro-electric powerhouse on the left, gates in the middle and lock on the right. I was surprised how short the guide wall was to the lock. 

Picnic with a view anyone?

Random Thought: The other day, my thinking ring was silver and instead of one word, I had two. They were like yin and yang words. The two were "Loyalty" and "Betrayal". One of the things I thought about was, "Can a person truly appreciate loyalty if they've never been betrayed"?

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be headed to another COE campground just a little bit east of Nashville.

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.   

Family Visit & Eerily Empty Campground

 Natchez Trace - Wrangler Campground: about half way between Memphis and Nashville

It's finally stopped raining for a while. Things are still a little wet but drying out nicely. This campground is a State of Tennessee Campground in association with the Natchez Trace. The Trace is an old path dating back a few hundred years. The two ends of the trace are Nashville, Tennessee and Natchez, Mississippi. It has an interesting history and well worth exploring if you're passing through any part of it.

This is either north-east Mississippi or southern Tennessee. It was a pretty day until the rain started. It was a nice leisurely drive on pretty decent roads. On a day like this, someone I once knew, (may she RIP) would have repeated some of my old words back at me and say,,, "that sweet smell of freedom hanging heavy in the air". 

 

There were about 3 or 4 of those crosses at different spots along this leg of this trip. They were all about the same size so none were trying to outdo the others. I liked seeing them, I liked it a lot. 

I got lucky and found a Sam's Club along my route. It worked out well since I was getting low on coffee and protein shakes. These flowers were in Sam's but since I didn't know anyone around, I didn't get any. I thought about buying some just to give to the next single looking woman, but I didn't. That can be a dangerous thing. 

The campground is definitely an older campground with smaller campsites and narrow roads. I didn't need to worry about tight roads or curves since I was the only one in the campground. The campground is heavily wooded and while setting up camp the rain was starting and stopping but always with a steady drizzle. Combined, it gave an eerie feel to the place. It was not ideal conditions to be setting up camp. I tried to remember the name of the scary movie dealing with a campground, but now I'm glad I didn't remember it. Probably due to the rain, there were no birds chirping or any small animals making noise while playing in the trees. Then came a very loud thud off in the woods. At first, I thought it was a tree falling but changed my mind since there weren't any secondary sounds. When a tree falls in woods like this, you hear the tree breaking off branches of adjacent trees and such. This sound was just one loud thud, no echoes, no secondary sounds, no flushing of birds, etc. Just as if you stomped your foot on compacted ground but a thousand times louder. It kept my head on a swivel until I completed setting up camp.

This picture is from today as the ground and such was trying to dry up.

The look out the back window of Liberty. This is my view when I'm working on my laptop. There is a benefit of having the campground to myself, I don't have to lower my blinds.  

This was the campsite after getting the outside set up. Another camper showed up later in the evening and as I'm typing this post, there are four of us here now. 

My purpose for stopping here was to pay a visit to my Aunt (my Dad's brothers wife) and her daughter, my cousin. I hadn't seen either one for probably 20 years or so. I promised them I wouldn't take up too much of their time but had a few questions for my Aunt from some times before I was born. I won't go into what we talked about in this blog, but I will give some strongly worded advice. If you have questions of family members, you better ask them before it's too late. I would love to be able to sit down and visit with my parents to discuss their choices in life. To know the reasons why did something someway instead of another. What were their hopes, dreams and plans for their life? So many questions, but I was too dumb to ask them in the living years. My aunt provided some of those answers to me yesterday and I'll be forever grateful. 

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be heading to a COE campground just east of Nashville. I'll be traveling on Interstate highway for the first time in a long time. I have a feeling it will be a good thinking drive.

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road. 

Just Watching it Rain

 Location: Blue Bluff Corps of Engineers Campground; Aberdeen, Mississippi (about 30 minutes south of Tupelo)

It's another great COE campground. This time on the banks of Aberdeen Lake which is part of the Tombigbee Waterway. The lock and dam are just a short distance away but there isn't any good vantage point for viewing them. This happens a lot more than it should. Large infrastructure projects like locks/dams and bridges should be shown off by the Federal or State governments. I don't want to hear about 9/11 being the reason because I've been to dozens and dozens of structures built before 9/11 and you can't get a good look at them. I know 9/11 made some changes but they weren't "open for business" before that. I know I've had to be careful in some places that I've visited where I would be taking pictures of a nice-looking, interesting bridge and get sideways looks from people in the area. If I hung around, I'm pretty sure the police would have shown up asking questions. I'll quit griping about that now. 

Anyway, this is a nice campground that I've just used to kicked back and relax. It's been raining on and off so exploration, even if there was some to explore around here, wouldn't have happened. The camp host told me they were full over the Easter weekend but are only about 10% this week. I didn't hook up Starlink because I would have had to use my tripod to get to a point where it could find the satellites and since my Verizon signal is strong, my hotspot is doing all the work. I have gotten lucky and had two average sunsets even with all the clouds. I don't really consider them actual sunsets, but they will do the job when you're starving for one.

This isn't a highway picture and definitely doesn't represent northeast Mississippi, but I liked it and hope she likes it for her travel picture. It is the road leading into the campground.

 

I got an excellent campsite right on the banks of the lake. I have a great view out my back window. This has definitely been a good vibe campground.

My view out the door of Liberty as sunset nears.

It's not the best sunset but it's the best I've had in a long time. I needed.

I have also used this down time to complete my campground reservations to get back to Louisiana on July 1st. That's a big relief and a big monkey removed from my back. Now I just have to check email often enough for any campground closures due to flooding, staff shortage, etc. I've already had to do that once on this trip when I campground in Kentucky had to close due to flooding. I was lucky to find a replacement on the same lake. 

This blog post has been a little boring but tomorrow is moving day and I'll be entering another state. Tennessee is next up on the list.

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.

Happy Easter and My First Ever Thinking Bench

 Location: Jenning's Ferry Corps of Engineers Campground; about 40 minutes southwest of Tuscaloosa, Alabama on the banks of the Black Warrior River

First and foremost. Happy Easter. He's risen and the napkin was folded, meaning he'll be back. 

If you're unfamiliar about the napkin, here is the short version. In the bible, as John first sees the empty tomb of Jesus, he describes the linen cloth (napkin) that had been placed on the face of Jesus as he was laid in the tomb as being folded neatly and separate from the other burial items. The people of that time, especially the Jews, recognized the meaning. During meals, servants who set the table and served the food stood by as needed. If the master of the house crumpled his napkin and left it on the table, that meant he was finished with the meal and would not be back. This was the sign for the servants to begin cleaning up. BUT, if he folded the napkin neatly and placed it on the table, as it was in the tomb, it meant he was leaving the area for a little while but would return. Happy Easter Ya'll.

This campground was my first Corps of Engineers campground back in 2014 when I began full-timing. It was my third campground on my first trip. It was also the location of the first picture of a "thinking bench", ever. Geez,,,,I don't know how many thinking benches I've taken pictures of but it's got to be 200 to 300. Today is the third and final day here and I've yet to find that bench again. I'll take another walk this evening, but my hopes are not high about finding it. I guess it was removed and never replaced. This is one of the reasons why I don't like back-tracking to some places I've been in the past. You always run the chance of damaging a "silent echo" from the previous visit.

This is the picture of my very first "thinking bench" from April of 2014. I couldn't find it this time and that is sad. Anyway, this is the one that started all of them. 

This is my campsite. Too many trees for Starlink to work while attached to Liberty. I think I could have found an opening in the trees and mounted it on a tripod but since Verizon was giving me a reliable signal, it wasn't worth the effort. There isn't much around this area to explore but it is a very relaxing, good-vibe campground. 

Still fulfilling a promise. This is a stretch of road in west-central Alabama. She should have enough road pictures now to make an atlas but, I'll keep posting them.

The exploration for this visit was the Indian Mounds in Moundville, Alabama about 20 miles from here. They, and the Indian settlement that was part of it, is the second largest Mound Complex in North America. Second, only to Cahokia which is on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River by St. Louis. I visited that site back in July of 2021 and you can read about it here >>>>> https://gozatravels.blogspot.com/2021/07/valve-stems-and-cahokia.html

This is the best overall view of most of the complex. There are 29 mounds of all different sizes. They even had a thinking bench on this mound. I'm pretty sure it wasn't put there by the Native people from the 1600's.

This was a representation of someone's GUESS about the Natives at this site. They used a lot of weasel words in describing their suppositions (not to be confused with Preparation H). But, as usual, they never explain how they arrived at them. Hey, I'm only slightly jaded, but it seems I become more jaded as the years go by. 

I've been to several such mound complexes around the country and each one is a little different but with many similar things which means they were connected in some way. This place, like Cahokia, had a palisade wall surrounding the area. Building a palisade around the perimeter of an area this size is impressive by itself.

I don't feel up to getting deep into my thoughts on the Native Americans and the mound builders from 500 to 1,000 years ago. Maybe that deserves a post on its own. 

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be headed about 100 miles northwest of here to another COE campground, but this time in Mississippi.   

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe, I'll Cya down the road