TRS Event TRS 2023 Fall Adventure - Land Between The Lakes

[Bubba Bonanza]

Very well put together Eric. Thanks

 

[snoranger]

I personally like the cover pic.

 

[ericbphoto]

I personally like the cover pic.

I thought you would. YouTube chose that thumbnail image and I didn’t have the heart to change it.

 

[sgtsandman]

Eric Missed the turn and we stopped to regroup.

Hotel California

Bison and Elk Park

Group photos before everyone leaves for home

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

A new day, a new adventure...

Time to check out the neighborhood?

Neat little bush with a huge flower down by the lake.







Kinda neat the oldest truck there next to the newest truck there.





Most of the crew took off to go tour a distillery and go splash in water puddles or something.



We piled into the Bronco and Sport Trac to go explore on our own.






Going to the actual "Land between the Lakes"

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

We headed sowth down "The Trace" and found some bison.











Very peaceful

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Next stop was "The Homeplace", a living history 1850's farm.

https://landbetweenthelakes.us/seendo/attractions/homeplace/



Went ahead and snagged a pic of a bald eagle in the gift shop for Eric's scavenger hunt, spiced it up a bit and tried for a bonus point with a selfie.



They had a small museum in the main office which was neat. Being from Iowa the production of tobacco is alien to me and it was cool to learn more about that. For example I knew they dried it in barns but I didn't know they actually smoked it. And then on our way back to camp I saw two barns rolling smoke, first thought was "Cool, I just learned about that today!"

The timber out there was fascinating. Where I am from that would all be 6' of brush and weed trees. The concept of having trees without a jungle below them is very interesting, it was like this everywhere I was out there.



The main house.







I gave bonus points for going thru the hassle of using square nails to build the gates/fencing. Generally they are pre 1880.





They even had little lizards running around wild which was neat.





There was a young lady in the main house stringing up okra to dry for kids projects later in the year.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The house was fully furnished and it was interesting to see the different architecture compared to what I am used to. Much more open... but I suppose they don't get the same flavor of winter that we do up here either (my house was built in approx 1870 so not much newer)






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Very cool rooster, he knew he was something.





And they had a blacksmith demo going which is always cool.



Anyway lots more to see, I didn't want to ruin it for somebody wanting to go next year. Very neat and well worth the $7 a person to get in.

From there we continued on and found a iron furnace.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Mildly interesting family of '85 story time.

My Grandmother's grandfather (my great, great great grandfather) was in the 28 Illinois Infantry during the civil war, joined in 1862 and was in it until the war ended and ended up at Vicksburg. I did a quick poke around civil war battles in the area since there is nothing like that where I live and sure enough the 28th Illinois Infantry was there darn near to the day. I have the path set to "hike" because the path gets really wonky on normal road but this was his route stop-by-stop into the area.

Nothing really exists of Fort Heinan but it is in the same park as Fort Donnalson... so there we went



The real deal of my favorite pistol in my stash, I love my '58 New Army (mine was made in Italy)



Two fawns still in spots, unusual in September in Iowa, Kentucky was full of them.





The inner deer hunter in me had to chuckle at this...



Watching for invaders...



Lots of earthworks ever where.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

And we wander our way back to camp.















Pizza time!

Amanda's friend Deb helped put the pizza together




Not sure what they did wrong but I suppose it beats breaking rocks.

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And Eric works his magic with the fire cooking pizza.











This picture of @Uncle Gump was worth one point for the scavenger hunt...

 

[Josh B]

Awesome man, is that the Mississippi? My father took us through Vicksburg battleground around 1966, I was maybe 11.
I lived in Nashville almost 20 years and never much paid any attention to the battleground memorials there until just 2 or 3 years before I left, there were a lot around Nashville and Murfreesboro.
I also took a trip to Andersonville after buying some surplus stuff there online, spent most of a day wandering around it

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Awesome man, is that the Mississippi? My father took us through Vicksburg battleground around 1966, I was maybe 11.
I lived in Nashville almost 20 years and never much paid any attention to the battleground memorials there until just 2 or 3 years before I left, there were a lot around Nashville and Murfreesboro.
I also took a trip to Andersonville after buying some surplus stuff there online, spent most of a day wandering around it

IIRC it was the Cumberland River.







Anyway, next morning down at our "beach" near the bath house, Oliver really liked going down there.




Back to camp to make biscuits and gravy. @Mrs. Eighty Five made the biscuits from scratch while @r-hindl71 made the sausage gravy with sausage he made from scratch before we left. I converted the better part of a fount of fuel into heat to bake all the biscuits.





It all worked really well, I didn't get a pic of the finished product but I was impressed.

Starting to get the itch to hit the road...



And maybe get a little dirty? (@Uncle Gump was kind enough to get the cool "Warn" hotwheels truck set for Oliver)



Yet another pic worth a point...



Jim driving an RBV was yet another!



Got out on the highway... looking for adventure...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Stopped by The Hotel California. I am familiar with the ancient song about this place, I was careful not to check in so then I wouldn't have to worry about complications with checking out.












And onto the next stop...





I loved my Garmin, all the roads were numbered and it never missed a beat.









Made a wrong turn but my navigator got to nerd out over the logging equipment.





Stopped at an old abandoned Catholic Church for lunch. It last held regular services in 1946 and was restored a couple years ago.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The lichen out there was somehow fascinating.









On the road again...



Stopped at Herminte Lake, really pretty picnic area.





From there there the rest of the group went on their way (I think back to camp) and we hit the nature center to go look at critters.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Next we hit the nature center that was nearby.

I have never seen so many humming birds at once, there had to be 10-20 at times.



For @Uncle Gump



He was like a freaking trophy sized possum, like 2x the size of a big one back home. But all he has to do is sleep in his log and eat...

By chance they had two bald eagles so I got a legit picture for the scavenger hunt.



They had a lot of raptors there which was really neat.







Near closing time they have "The Parade of Raptors" where they walk all the birds past the visitor center and talk about the species, what makes them special and the story for each bird. They all had sad stories, most were had been injured. Hit by a car, caught in a fence etc. The red tail hawk was raised by someone and was attempted to be released and then just attacked people so he is ambassador there. It was kind of funny, it was right in front of the hummingbird feeders, the non owl ones were very interested in the hummingbirds...



Really neat thing, it wasn't super fancy but they were trying. It was only $7 to get in and it was worth it, especially if you have kids with.

Anyway, time to make tracks back to camp. The sky was incredible, we have been under a blanket of Canadian wildfire smoke at home for what feels like months. Clear blue sky, clear sinuses... it was marvelous.



Back at camp it was a scramble. Eric was working on his ice cream project, Amanda was mixing up her experimental cobbler recipe while also making mac and cheese from scratch, my father in law was working on the fire and cooking hot dogs and I was helping Amanda run the stove while getting stuff back in my truck for the night while also getting my dutch oven ready for the cobbler.

I offered the old electric ice cream maker that came with my house to Eric's cause. It was my great grandmothers and probably hasn't been ran in 30 years. I had a bunch going on, I think Gump ended up tending it.



More pics of the scene around camp.



And I sneaked over and got some sunset pics on the shore of the lake.



Weird mud flats around the lake.









And then Jim took off in the TRS yacht...





And the ice cream was awesome, I only had it out of my maker. I wasn't really keeping track of when they came over, it was just what happened to be there by the time I got to it.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

And more fireside chat with full tummies.





Checking vitals the next day before we hit the road.





Had to rehome a klingon as we took the tent down.



Lineup minus Bubba's Mazda



Someone was fascinated with "the big rooster" in front of the place we stopped for lunch.







We had planned to camp on the way home, little guy's tummy was off and it took us forever to get out of Kentucky. As it got dark it was constant lightning up ahead. So we made the decision to push on farther trying to make up a little time and then just get a hotel.

We missed the real storm but drove in a lot of rain that night.



And more rain for about half the next day.



And we finally made it back home...