The first part of our route felt very familiar. Interstate 64 or I-64 is a highway I frequently traveled for work, at least all the way to the town of Lexington. In that area the highway turns rights towards the West Virginia line. Knowing that we were eventually going to be helped captive by the famous (at least to us) toll road section that dives down from Beckly to the capitol of Charleston and its gasoline and restaurant plazas, we decided to fill up before crossing the state line. I love stopping in Covington, in particular since one of my ex-students manages the local stormwater program there. When I retired, she was one of the few who emailed me and told me that I was the best teachers she had ever had. It is always nice to thank them with little sales tax we are able leave behind there.
Twin Knob Campground near Morehead, KY was a pleasant surprise. It was a joy camping there. So much of a pleasure that we decided that we did need to return there one of these days for a more extended stay. It’s a full day’s drive, but doable. The campground is located on a small peninsula in Cave Run Lake (reservoir). The lake is huge and appears to be stocked with fish; we drove by a fish hatchery near the dam that controls the water level in the lake.
We had a nice walk on a trail along the lake. Issues included the abundance of poison ivy and the fact that I tripped and fell. This was scary; I had broken my left wrist a few years ago; however, when I fell on that side this time, I was able to protect my wrist. Thank goodness I just scaped my elbow and my wrist hurt a bit but was ok. The moon was great that night and we went to sleep with is shining on me while laying my self down. The eastern screech owl was calling that evening, making it even more magical. The next day we did a two-and-a-half-mile hike before jumping back on I-64 on our way to St. Louis.
We had the Dr. Edmund A. Babbler Memorial State Park on our radar. This park is some 20 or so miles west of St. Louis and it is truly a more urban state park at the outskirts of a very wealthy neighborhood. Camping was an experience in this park. The site we were on was a concrete pad which was nice; however, our neighbors were very cut loose, and it was intimate. Thank goodness, the folks next to us were nice and invited us to join them at their campfire and after dinner we had a nice time talking with them about their jobs, our past jobs and retirement. They actually served on an Air Force installation near where we live and it was nice to talk with them about that.
My impression of the first two days is a lot of highways, and even more construction being conducted on these roads; a sign to me that Washington money is trickling down. But it makes the drive a bit more cumbersome and slows you down. Secondly, we seemed to drive through Indiana and Illinois without spending any money in these states. Lastly, I personally found that parts of southern Indiana and Illinois reminded me of driving through the Netherlands. It was flat with hedgerows, church steeples and farm buildings in the distance.
Well, a somewhat boring report of our travels, no terrible insights or thoughts. Just us beelining Missouri where the actual Lewis and Clark journey starts.
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| We are on our way. Good bey Virginia, see you in a few! |
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| The lake and location where I tripped and lost my dignity and scraped my elbow. |
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| Hello Missouri! (Picture taken by Donna Briede) |
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| Our second evening out. In the St. Lewis area (Dr. Edmund Babbler SP, I really need to research who this Babbler is, I had never heard of him before). |
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