Jefferson Davis and Ranger Joel –Nolin Lake State Park, Kentucky 6/3

It’s Ned here again. We woke to a beautiful view of Energy Lake in the morning sun. Our first outing was to find out more about this Land Between the Lakes area. We learned at the Visitor Center the history of this unique and fertile area, formerly known as “Between the Rivers” (before the Cumberland & Kentucky Rivers were dammed to become lakes.) The group of settlers there got displaced 3 times by the federal government (first by the Tennessee Valley Authority when the Kentucky River was dammed, second when the Cumberland River was dammed, and finally when the Federal Recreation Area was formed.) Needless to say, there are still lots of locals who are resentful of having been driven off their land. We learned that Golden Pond, where the visitor center was located, was formerly considered the moonshine whiskey capital of the U.S.! The weird thing is that the area is now completely uninhabited and undeveloped, so that, although quite beautiful, something feels not quite right about how this land became a “nature preserve”. Our next stop was at the Jefferson Davis Memorial, with its 315 tall obelisk, highly reminiscent of the Washington Memorial in D.C. We opted not take the elevator trip to the top, but only tour the small museum about the man who had been President of the Confederacy during the Civil War. We left feeling fairly creeped out by the vigorous enthusiasm of all the Confederate die-hards touring the museum, including the Confederate flags adorning their cars in the parking lot. Our next stop was a special side-trip Debi had arranged to sample the wares at Chaney’s Dairy Barn, a family owned dairy business that was named one of the Top Scoop Shops by Good Morning America. We both had Chocolate Brownie, but felt it was fairly icy, and lacked the creaminess of our number-one-rated Farr’s Ice Cream we had at Bryce Canyon. We juggled our plan again and decided to check out Mammoth Cave National Park. Debi was a good sport and agreed to the Mammoth Passage Tour, even though she can sometimes suffer from bouts of claustrophobia. A thunderstorm moved in as we waited for our tour, which definitely added to the drama of the moment. Our guide, Ranger Joel, was a very enthusiastic, although extremely serious fellow .(See today’s after-tour pic of him with Debi.) Debi survived the hour long tour, although not without a few very uncomfortable moments. One of which was when Ranger Joel locked us into the cave, and the other was when he turned off the lights in the cave to make a point about how early explorers viewed the cave only by torchlight. I really enjoyed seeing the huge subterranean caverns, although I wished I’d been smart like Debi and remembered to wear a long sleeve shirt! The contrast between the muggy 90 degree temperature outside the cave, and the dry, drafty mid-50’s inside was astonishing. On the way to our campground at Nolin Lake State Park, we were treated to a fun, tiny ferry ride across the Green River. The lush green woods along this road were breathtaking.