Land between the Lakes Part 1

Wednesday afternoon before the Labor Day Weekend we arrived at the Hillman Ferry Campground in the Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky.  We had never been there before and didn’t have reservations, but it all ended up working out all right.   Although the campground employees thought we were crazy for showing up on Labor Day weekend without reservations.  They have a a beautiful campground with playgrounds, a beach where you can swim, boats docks, a fishing pier, showers, basic to full hookups at different sites, bike rental, bike trails, etc.  The best part is the employees are super nice and it is all very reasonably priced!

The motor home

The fishing pier a view from the swimming beach

Snacking at the beach

Before we could do too much we had to go get life jackets for the boys.  It was on my to do list before we left, but it never happened.  After driving around and calling many stores we weren’t having much luck.  By  no luck I mean both our cell phone batteries went from 100% to dead in less than an hour, we had no charger, no map and only a vague idea of where we were and how we were going to get back to camp.  Right before my phone died I called a store to ask about life jackets and they told me the Shop O Rama in a nearby town.  Because of the accent and the funny sounding town name I had to ask him 3 times to repeat what he had said.  Moments before my phone I was able to call the store and confirm the life jacket situation and see where they were located on the map on my phone.  It turned out that the Shop O Rama was awesome!  They had everything, other than food, that you could ever want!  I wanted to look around the store, but Brad and the boys were in the car and I didn’t want to waste any more time so I got the life jackets and a couple swimming noodles and we headed back to camp for some fun.

Joel working the runway in his infant life jacket from Shop O Rama

Vince on the runway sporting the child size Shop O Rama life jacket

We spent time fishing, swimming, playing at the park and driving around checking out the campground.  Both the boys enjoyed playing in the water at the beach where they knew the water wasn’t deep.  Vince had fun fishing with Brad.  Brad is not an avid fishermen and knows very little about fishing.  Lucky for him Vince had just gone fishing with my dad so he was able to tell Brad all about everything he knows about fishing!  Well, that is what he will lead you to believe.  When I asked Vince how it was going he said "Daddy and I teaching each other, but Daddy not catch any fish!"

Vince and Brad fishing

 While we were eating dinner one night Joel decided to make his own little creation.  Apparently he didn't find the pasta as delicious as the rest of us.  I found it creative and a little disgusting!  Joel's seat had to be strapped to the top of the tablet, it was the only way to make it work on the picnic table.  He spent a few days being King of the Table.

Joel's creation- noodles and sauce in a bottle

My boys!

Joel attempting to fish...there was no hook on the line

One night when we were driving back to the motor home from the playground we saw a skunk in the road.  It just kept weaving back and forth across the road and was oblivious to the fact that we were watching and wanting to get past him/her.  We started telling Vince about skunks and how they are stinky and that if he sees any wild animals in our camp he should tell us and run inside the camper and make sure he takes Joel with him.  From then on every time we went past that spot on the road Vince would look for the stinky stunk (that is how he pronounces it) and was very disappointed we haven’t seen him again.

The stinky stunk