The Ray Adventures: Cave City, Ky Paducah, Springfield, Il & Scott AFB, Il. Aug. 13

Another Reader's Digest condensed version of the latest blog, it seems it gets harder and harder to carve out time to sit down and put out a blog. It's been a month of fun, highs and heartbreak.

August 13th, Happy birthday daughter Chris and Miss Luci, moving day to Cave City, Ky. where we spent a week, close to Mammoth Cave National Park. We weren't planning to visit the Caves, it is halfway between Cumberland Gap and Paducah. We were here 2 years ago and aborted a trip down into a cave due to Gary's claustrophobia, we were halfway down the stairs, it got crowded, hot and stuffy when he decided "no more". We were going to go out to a private cave, Club Run, way out in Amish country, only to find it was closed. We took more back roads, took ferry crossing into Mammoth Cave National Park. We decided to try the historic cave tour, it wasn't very pretty, real "brown", a total of 600 steps in the cave but the killer part (besides fat man's misery, a real tight spot) was the 150 stairs straight up out of the cave. Our final day we went to Onyx Cave, another privately owned cave, it had more color, a few tight spots also.

Stagecoach Station, our next destination, is about 30 miles out of Paducah, Ky. We chose that area for two reasons, Paducah is the quilt capitol of the US and also was in the path of the total eclipse. The Quilt Museum has some beautiful works of art, no photography allowed. There was an amazing quilt called "Eclipse", I did buy a magnet with it's likeness. Paducah is a interesting town, lots of history, the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers and all things "quilt".
Nearby is the Kentucky Dam, Land Between the Lakes between Barkley and Tennessee Lakes, a large recreation area. One hot afternoon we took Luci for a walk, not meaning to walk far, we ended up walking across the dam, over 2 miles round trip. Poor Luci, her tongue was really hanging out. Bad parents! Our neighbors, Dave and Ginny, from Peoria, Il., came down for a 3 night stay to see the eclipse. We enjoyed a campfire with them and a couple of happy hours. We all sat and watched the eclipse from our lawn chairs in the park, the darkness was amazing best of all was the 15 degree drop in temperature, it was a hot and humid day. The park owners put on hot dog bbq for everyone, the park was full.

Moving day again, Aug. 24 to Springfield, Il., to see "all things Lincoln". While in Kentucky we drove to Hodgenville, to see Lincoln's log cabin birthplace. Lincoln moved to New Salem Illinois from Indiana. He co-owned a store in the little village, bunking with friends and studied law, he then moved onto Springfield where he had a law practice and was in the State Senate before being elected President. He and his wife had 4 boys, only one growing into adulthood. Lincoln, his wife and 3 of there sons are buried in Lincoln's tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery. The Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, similar to other presidential libraries have galleries featuring exhibits of historic items from his start in the log cabin to the White House and the ill fated trip to Ford Theater. Nearby is the only home Lincoln ever owned, purchased it 1844, it is restored to look as is did in the 1860's. The ranger led tour took you through the first two floors of the house, a self-guided tour through the 4 block historic neighborhood has signs posed at each house describing the home's residents in 1860 and their relationship to Abe. While in Springfield we visited the State Capitol building with the most beautiful dome, built in the 1860's to replace the Old State Capitol, built in 1837, where Lincoln served in the State Senate, a beautiful old building. We also took a tour of the Dana-Thomas house, a Frank Lloyd Wright home built in 1902-04. He not only did the architecture on the home but designed furniture, art glass doors, panels and lamps. When we were South we wanted to tour another FLW home but the entry fee was $50.00 each, this was free but a donation was appreciated. The night of Friday, August 25th, the eye of hurricane Harvey unleashed it's fury on our winter home of Rockport, we are just heartbroken. The town itself will be years recovering, we know it will not be the same but we are going back mid to late October. Many of our friends who spent the summer there evacuated to Kerrville, north of San Antonio to wait until there is power and water before heading back to help clean up. Our park will be a long time recovering, trees, fences and some RV's were knocked down, there was some roof damage to the Adult Family Clubhouse and the beautiful live oak trees remaining were stripped of leaves, it looks like a wildfire raged through there. We've seen pictures of the town and the park but I'm sure we'll be devastated when we get there to see it person.

August 31st was moving day to Scott AFB east of St. Louis but still in Illinois. I hate to say it but we are disappointed in this FamCamp, the restrooms and laundry room look like science experiments. YUK! We have no sewer and are stuck in trees so no satellite either. One the plus side lots of areas to walk Luci and ride our bikes through. We drove to East St.Louis, opposite St.Louis, Missouri to Gateway Geyser park, the fountain touted to be one of the world's highest reaching 627 feet was not running because of mechanical issues. The view across the river of the arch and downtown St. Louis were beautiful. Right next door to the park was the Queen Casino, I lost $20. but Gary made $5.25. We beat it out of the area, East St. Louis is not a very safe place to be. We've pretty much taken it easy, we did make a trip into a St. Louis Costco to stock up. We're headed to Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi River Thursday, Sept. 7th.

Hopefully it won't take me another month to publish another blog. That's it for now, enjoy the pic's.

TTFN,
Gary and Pam