19 OCT – 23 OCT 2001
Kentucky Lake
A
typical day on our atypical journey
–Or-
An
atypical day on our typical journey:
Friday:
Awoke at 0730hrs and straightened up around the cabin, AND on the deck ‘cause
it wasn’t too cold for this early, 15° C.
[or about 60° F.]. Make a log entry recording all systems status. Have a bit of
breakfast, and ready Pedigo for a shore landing.
Referring to the charts and perhaps an inland waterway
cruising guide or pamphlet, we sometimes plan to visit a land-based tourist site
– today’s is the Land Between the Lakes
North Station Welcome Center. We usually drag our bikes with us for long
distance transportation, but I figure the Welcome Center is only about 3 miles
away through the woods, and the hike through the autumn forest would be very
nice.
As it turns out, 30’ from where we land Pedigo there is
a mountain bike single-track trail – pristine and completely undeveloped (single-track.JPG).
Wow! Other than a couple rooty sections and a couple creek crossings, we could
have slowly navigated our Moultons along quite nicely. [I have ‘stumbled’ upon
MANY mountain bike experiences since then, whether I wanted to or not! –
sometimes the “road” just doesn’t go where I wanna go.] But it was a great hiking
trail, too; Winding along the shore and straight up to the Welcome Center
parking lot (KL&KJ visitor center sign.JPG).
Very nice federal facility (KL
north welcome station.JPG), we gather pamphlets for upcoming stops,
I use the hot water [luxury] in the restroom to wash my hair & shave, pick
up a free USA Today, and buy a snickers bar to fuel the walk back.
In the woods, we snap pictures of mushrooms for later
identification [one of many hobbies], take side trips to the cliffs (Kentucky
Lake.JPG) and beaches (Kentucky Lake beach.JPG & Kentucky Lake sandstone cave.JPG) along Kentucky Lake, and
greet a couple mountain bikers. (Kentucky - it's NUTS.JPG)
Upon returning to Windigo, we stow our land gear, make a
log entry to check systems, and relax with the newspaper [another luxury].
Hunger begets our typical mid-afternoon big meal of the day, today featuring
asparagus and tomato sauce over pasta, seasoned with cilantro, oregano,
lemon-pepper & tobasco. Fruit smoothies with brown sugar & vanilla provide
the drink and dessert. While we had the alcohol range pressurized & heated,
we boiled a dozen eggs for snacks in the coming days.
A
scrabble game provides a backdrop during dinner clean-up, a little silicone
sealant-on-the-compass project, securing Pedigo on the davits, reading every
word in the USA Today, a bit of studying for my captain’s test & planning
tomorrows route.
This
pretty much concludes the day, as we are whipped from all the fresh air,
strenuous thought and physical activity. We are asleep before 2100hrs. Life
aboard ship is exhausting! (Kentucky
Lake sunset.JPG & night bridge.JPG)
EPILOGUE:
Saturday:
Awoke a little later and sailed on Kentucky Lake to our next stop. First FULL
day of sailing in a LONG time! (Kentucky
Lake sailboats.JPG)
Sunday:
Visited another forest service visitor center, then went on a 50-mile bike ride
through very pretty autumn colors along the rolling hills of Kentucky. (bike ride.JPG & farting
cops.JPG)
Monday:
Motor over to Paris Landing State Park Marina and top fuel tanks with [cheap]
diesel and [free] water. Usually I cart 6 gallons of diesel on my bike every
trip into town because the fuel is more inexpensive at a land-based station
than at a ‘marina’ - by about a dollar a gallon! But the state-owned facility
had less-than-gas station prices [no road tax]. We had 30 gallons of water
remaining in our 130-gallon tank. The last time we added water was in Milwaukee
on 2 September; 100 gallons potable, fresh water used in seven weeks without
‘conserving’, but definitely not ‘wasting’ - better than I thought.
We
left the marina and motorsailed another 8 nautical miles to Leatherwood Creek
Bay to anchor. (Kentucky Lake colors.JPG)
Tuesday:
Leatherwood Creek has a shallow, narrow entrance and is quite long.
It
turns out the moisture-laden warm front that has been bringing us warm, breezy
days is due to pass through tonight, pushing a bit of wind & rain storms
ahead. The wind will be opposing us and gusty. The cold front is following
close, so not much of a break until the temperature drops and we get a day of
thunderstorms. Could be up to three days of windy, rainy,
getting-colder-with-lightning weather. Think we will stay put in this very nice
bay until that’s all over. I feel a scrabblefest coming . . .
