Surrender, Starlink and Serendipity

 Location: Smith Ridge Corps of Engineers Campground; Campbellsville, Kentucky (about halfway between Louisville and Boonesboro)

First the good news; The school, my granddaugter's archery team, finished 5th in 3D and 8th in Bullseye which qualified them for the National Championship in Myrtle Beach next month. Now the bad news; Each team must have a minimum of 10 archers and there weren't enough of our team that was willing to go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Reasons were many such as prior commitments, expense, parents work, etc. Oh well, maybe next year. So, one way to look at it the team wasn't beaten, they simply surrendered. This changed my travel plan a little. I'll still be back in Louisiana on July 1st, but now I won't be staying in Myrtle Beach. I just finished canceling, modifying and adding campsites to my new route. Reservations are good all the way back.

First of two road pictures. Notice the contrasting landscape. For reference this somewhere in middle Kentucky.

This picture is 45 minutes later than the one above. Kind of surprising change uh?

This campground is like an old style one, with narrow and twisting roads, but it is peaceful and quiet. The campsites are roomy and not crowded. But, (there's always a "but" isn't there),,,, I have absolutely zero cell phone service. In fact, I couldn't pick up a Verizon signal in the nearest town of Campbellsville which is a college town with a population of 12,000. I asked several people, and they told me it has been like that forever. The cell phone companies just tell them it is a dead zone and they may build a new tower but never gets around to it. Most people around here are forced to pay high prices for DSL through their cable company. This sure seems like the poster child for the Democrat promise of rural broadband. Heck, the senior senator from this state was the Majority Member of the U.S. Senate. This just ain't right. But I anticipated stays like this and that's why I bought my Starlink. I have a nice view of the northern sky and the signal is great. I'm able to get online, make calls and text. Starlink saved the day.

It's a nice campground and I would return, but only with Starlink. That's it sitting on a mini tripod at the drivers side back corner of Liberty. 

This is the outlet from the lake. Very, very powerful feeling standing nearby. I took a video, but not posting it due to size.

 

This picture was taken from the same spot as the one above, just turn 180 degrees. Nice.

This is taken from the road on top of the dam. That concrete tower is the intake structure. That is where the water came from that resulted in the massive flow of water out the pipe in the above picture. I got lucky and the lake was very calm. 

I'm only here for 3 days and my only plans were to explore the dam on the Green River and check out the Corps visitors center. Bam, Serendipity happened. While at the visitor's center, I noticed an old log cabin. Come to find out it was an old house from the mid 1800's and it served as a Confederate field hospital after a local Civil War battle. I hadn't heard of the battle but had heard of the Confederate General. He was General Morgan and he led a raid of Confederate calvary from Tennessee to northwest Ohio. The raid didn't receive a lot of press because it was being done at the same time the South was losing at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. But the raid was interesting and worth reading up on it. The little skirmish around here happened in early July of 1863 when Morgan was headed to the Ohio River. He needed to cross the Green River first and the Union had a couple hundred soldiers dug in at the bridge. Morgan tried eight times but was turned back each time. The Union soldier were dug in real good. After the eighth time, Morgan said, "we can go around instead". It was a shame he didn't think of that at first because it would have save the lives of 36 southerners and 6 northerners. The 45 wounded Confederates were treated in the log cabin that was eventually relocated to the Corps Visitor's Center. You can still see the blood stains on the floor. 

There is also a nice 3 mile car tour that highlights the places during the battle. A Confederate cemetery is also located along the road. Many of the bodies buried there were recovered from burial trenches where the Union Army had put them. One of the placards at the cemetery mentioned an event where 4,000 people attended an event to place flowers on the graves. It was in early June of 1911, Confederate Decoration Day, which was the precursor to the modern-day Memorial Day. I stopped and paid my respects. I will always stop at any Veterans Cemetery. 

This is a one-lane bridge on the battlefield road tour. It seems as though they are trying to make it look old, but the structural steel members look almost brand new. 

 

The bridge crosses the Green River just a short piece downstream of the dam

The Confederate cemetery. The flag flying on the flagpole as well as the one on the gravestones is the First official National flad of the Confederate States of America. It was called the Stars and Bars, not the one you see now a days. That flag came later. 

There is a nice little walk around the Visitors center that takes you to the log cabin/field hospital. This is not the original location, that was near the point where the cemetery is located now. 

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be headed to Daniel Boone country. It is a place that has been on my list of places to see for a while. 

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