Driving north through Tennessee
Driving north from Tennessee into Kentucky was a bit more of an adventure on the road than Julie and I are used to. After leaving Pulaski in southern Tennessee it seemed like every animal in the area wanted to come onto the road and say hi. We dodged turtles, snakes, cats, turkey vultures and even a cow. At this point in the last two years we thought that we had come across almost everything that the road could throw at us but a cow jumping out of the forest was not something that we were prepared for. I had glanced to my left as I saw some people fixing a tractor and the next thing I know Julie shouts “COW!!!!!”. I look over and a cow has emerged from a thick forest, jogging and just about to enter our lane. Luckily no cars were coming in the opposite direction (it was a two lane road) and I swerved to my left missing the cow by inches. Whew! Once we crossed over the Kentucky border all of our close animal encounters thankfully ended.
Lake Barkley, KY
When we finally made it to our KOA campground in Cadiz, KY we were not disappointed. As it was pretty early in the season the campground was almost empty even though all of its amenities were up and running. As part of the campground they also ran a marina with rental boats. We decided to rent a pontoon boat as it was supposed to be nice the next day. We then set up camp and relaxed for the rest of the evening looking out over the lake as the sun set.
The next morning we woke up, had a leisurely breakfast then walked over to the marina and rented our pontoon boat. After a short instruction period they handed over the keys and we were off. We rented the boat for a 4-hour period so we brought some lunch. After getting out into the lake a bit we decided to have a look at the map. Lake Barkley is huge. We thought that we would have time to see most of it but after getting out on the lake and actually seeing how big it was we knew that we wouldn’t be able to see it all. Lake Barkley and its sister lake, Kentucky Lake on the other side of the Land Between the Lakes National Recreational Area were both about 45 miles long. Starting at our campground/marina roughly in the middle of Lake Barkley we made it to almost the northern edge of the lake.
We had lunch and then slowly made our way back to the marina. The lake is where it is because of a large dam which is at the northern edge so there were numerous coves to check out. We slowly motored in and out looking at the homes along the lake. Some were situated on steep cliffs with staircases that led down to the water over 200 steps long. We thought it was pretty crazy if you just wanted to take a swim to have to climb up and down these stairs but the view from the house must be awesome. By this time our four hours were almost up and we had to get back to the marina. We threw the boat into drive and pushed it as fast as it would go (although we didn’t go that fast as it was an older pontoon boat) and made it back to the marina just a few minutes past our cutoff time. The rest of the day was spent lounging lakeside, working on our website, making dinner and watching another great sunset over the lake.
MB Roland Distillery – Kentucky Bourbon
The next day we woke up and headed out. Today we would be exploring the western Kentucky city of Paducah however we had one stop to make first. No trip to Kentucky should be without at least one stop to one of their many bourbon distilleries. As we had been looking for one to go to the day before we found the perfect one. Julie’s maiden name is Roland and we had found that we were not too far from the MB Roland Distillery. About a thirty-minute drive from our campground and we were there. Almost immediately we knew we would like this place. Unlike the other massive bourbon distilleries that we had been to while traveling Kentucky 6 month’s prior, MB Roland was a small batch distillery with their tasting room in an old farmhouse. We walked in and were greeted by Jennifer & Ed who gave us a small tasting. We really enjoyed our tasting that we received and after buying a few things showed Jennifer & Ed our Bubbles. After saying goodbye we had lunch in the van then headed over to Paducah.
Paducah, KY
Paducah is the largest city in western Kentucky. It was heavily influenced by the civil war and even though its heyday has passed it seems to be coming back. We parked downtown by the Ohio River and started walking. Immediately we noticed a huge long wall with murals painted on them. In front of each mural was a plaque telling you what you were looking at. It then took us a moment but we realized that the murals were painted on a huge levee that is used to protect the city if the Ohio River ever got too high.
We then turned the corner and walked into the city itself. After walking past a few storefronts we came across an old ice cream shop that we just couldn’t pass up. It was called Confleur and it was good! We both got a few different flavors sitting and enjoying ourselves. To make this place stand out it had a full bar, mostly stocked with bourbons…this was Kentucky after all. Neither of us had ever seen this. Even though we did not get a cocktail we thought this was pretty neat.
From the ice cream shop we continued our tour of Paducah checking out a few of the local gift shops getting post cards and a few other small trinkets to remember our time here by. By this time it was getting a bit late in the day so we walked back to Bubbles and headed to our campground for the night (a KOA of course). Once there we set up, made dinner and settled in for the night.
Next up….A new state – We travel to Missouri and explore St. Louis!
