A glorious week of vacation

Long time, no post! We took a week-long camping trip to Hillman Ferry Campground located on Kentucky Lake in the Land Between the Lakes. I spent Sept 12 & 13 (Kyle's birthday) glued to the tv, watching Hurricane Ike devastate gorgeous Galveston Island where we just vacationed this past February. It was heart-wrenching to see the damage to familiar locations in my all-time favorite vacation spot. I can't imagine the residents' emotions and struggles and how insurmountable it must feel to begin thinking about restoration. Our prayers for them.

The remnants of Ike blasted through our area, as predicted on Sunday morning. We left home as the heavy rains began to subside a bit, still battling some strong but manageable wind gusts. The 3-hr drive to Ky Lake was to take us out of the storm path so it was quite a surprise to find that area ravaged by winds. Not rain (which they actually need) but startling wind damage.
Uprooted trees like this one were a common sight. The campground suffered a lot of damage too and power was out in the entire LBL area. The nearest town, Grand Rivers, finally had power restored Tuesday; it was Wednesday evening before the campground got power. So we had an authentic camping experience!

We spent one morning at the Elk & Bison prairie. It's a relatively small prairie (compared to what we visited in S Dakota) and going in of course, you have no guarantee you will see any wildlife at all. So we were most fortunate to see elk, bison and the biggest flock of wild turkeys I've seen.
I hadn't seen elk before, so I was especially thrilled when we saw four! We watched them graze for a while, then bed down under some large shade trees. I'm so glad we spotted them beforehand, once they were down those gigantic antlers blend in really well, appearing to be jagged tree branches or scrub brush.

We saw a huge herd of bison. A sign at the entrance of the park estimated the population at 69 and we think they surely were all in this herd that spread across the roadway as we rounded a corner. Huge and majestic, their appearance is so in contrast with their placid and gentle demeanor. They ambled right up to the truck, lazily taking little notice of me hanging out the window to photograph them. One even took a particular liking to the pickup and spent a good amount of time licking the bumper. Guess he didn't notice the truck was filthy from coming in through the rain -- or maybe he just liked the taste of rain dust and bugs!
Aren't they precious!?

We're guessing this guy was king of the herd, or whatever it is that boss bison call themselves!

Here's our lick-happy friend.

Rounding another bend, here's a huge group of turkeys. We counted at least 15 in the grassy area and there were still more that were harder to pick out in the shaded fringes of the woods.

Saturday afternoon we made the short dive to Paducah to do a little shopping and go to Sat eve Mass. Randy wanted to go to Gander Mountain (an outdoor store) and I went to Hancock's of Paducah (the original Hancock's, not to be confused with the chain stores of the same name). Can you believe all these pieces were on the "end-of-bolt" remnant table?! Check out the Amy Butler, some Ginger Blossom and even a piece of Farmer's Market by Sandi Henderson! Oh happy day! Watch for these to show up in completed projects one of these days.

Rusty loved it all - the wildlife, walks on the shore, scooter rides in the park and of course all the other dogs that were visiting the campground!




And lastly, I will close with a beautiful sunset photo snapped from our campsite. I want to hold on to this peaceful and serene feeling.

Ahhh . . .