Frerx Adventures: Oct 13, 2007 - Kentucky Lake/Murray State Football

I thought I'd start this blog from out first morning on the road with a picture of the sun coming up over the fields in Litchfield, IL.

We left Quincy about 4pm Thursday and drove 134 miles of the 370 total miles, about as far as we thought we could get comfortably and still be driving in daylight

It worked out quite well. We arrived at the Kamper Kompanion RV Park on I-55, at Litchfield, IL. around 6:30pm. This RV park is perfect for what we wanted. $18 per night, full hookup...just off the interstate...very easy in and out...very safe location.

Ken was able to pull in to pull-thru site 18 and keep jeep hooked to baby so we had very little to do in setting up or tearing down. I did my Nordic track, and we cooked sausage, black beans and rice with french bread. After walking the dogs around our one-night neighborhood we called it an early evening.

Friday morning we took our time, cooking breakfast in the rig and were then on the road by about 9am.

We took a break at the Rend Lake rest area where we took a nice long break walking the dogs along the lake and then warming up some soup for lunch before we headed back out onto I-57.

We arrived at Ken-Lake Resort Park at about 2:30pm. We had definite concerns as soon as we drove the park. This is definitely not a place for large rigs. When we had called they'd told us that the sites were small but not a problem since it was ok to park on the grass.

As it turns out we picked out a site near the entrance where we parked nearly perpendicular to the pad. It was also lucky that Ken brought plenty of water hose and electrical cord since the water (you see far to the right of picture and the electrical hookup was far down the hill to the left in this picture.

We took a walk around the campground and down to Kentucky Lake. The bridge behind Ken in this picture takes you over to Land Between the Lakes.

It was absolutely perfect camping weather and so we decided to cook over the campfire.

Ken did Salmon in garlic and olive oil, and sauteed asparagus over the open fire. I cooked baked potatoes in the microwave and in under 1/2 hour we had quite a feast.

We pulled out the campfire coffeepot and filled it with decaf teabags and water and enjoy several nice hot cups of tea under of sky full of stars. After taking the dogs for one round about the campground, we snuggled down for a long cool night's sleep.

Ken has bought a ceramic heater, so with the low for Friday night forecast for 40 degrees, we set this up. Sox caught on quickly and perched herself on the bed right in front of the heater.

At 3am I woke up and felt a bit chilled. I realized the ceramic heater wasn't working and so turned on the RV furnace. The next morning when I tood the dogs out, I found that the breaker had flipped at the pole outside. Ken checked it out and determined they had the 20 amp service attached to the 30 amp outlet...not good! Luckily there was no one at the neighboring site so we were able to hook in to the the other 30amp outlet which appeared to be wired properly. Ken notified the park maintenance who came over to take a look and will be fixing this hazard before the next campers hook up at this site.

I did my Nordic Track while Ken and the dogs enjoyed a leisurely stroll and meeting other neighbors.

Knowing we had to do the full trip back in one day instead of two, Ken and I talked through Saturday morning, how to make the most of our Sunday drive. We agreed that we wanted to leave early in the morning but didn't want to wake the entire campground by using the centrally located dump site there.

So, I spent some time figuring on the computer figuring out where to stop on our way back that we could dump. Sox thought this was a good time to sack out in her favorite naping spot on my lap. You'll notice that cord coming down by Sox' paw that is hooked to the air card on the side of my laptop. This is the attachment to the Wilson antenae booster Ken installed a few weeks back. It allowed me to have 5 bar signal on the Sprint air card the entire weekend.

We took another long hike about the park.

We found one site, site#20, that is reservable and has this lovely view out onto the lake. It would hold a big rig.

I through together chef salad's for lunch and then headed out in the jeep to Murray, about 15 miles from the state park.

It was Murray State University Homecoming so there was a lot going on around campus. The team warmed up to the sounds of a Kentucky Bluegrass band!

Since our seats were right above the locker room, I got this show of Tim and Trev 'meditating' on the staircase before heading out to the field.

Murray State has a really great band that plays throughout the game. Much better than the canned music at most other stadiums. They also have half of the field surronded by a 'Tent City' of tailgators.

Once again the game was much closer than it should have been.

Here's a few action shots from the game. Trevor is #65.

Murray State's mascot, Racer, gallops around the track every time their team makes a touchdown. Although he was a really gorgeous horse, I'm glad we didn't see too much of him with the Panther's winning the game with a final of 27 to 24.

After spending a little time talking to Trev and the guys after the game, we stopped in at Martha's Restaurant for barbeque and then went back to KenLake State Park.

We hooked up the jeep and did our preparation for getting on the road on Saturday night so that on Sunday morning we could get up and be on the raod by 7am.

It worked out well, with the Love's truck stop a good stop 130 miles in to the return trip. We made our usual 50 mph average, at 10mpg, pulling into Quincy just before 3pm.