This motorhome parked next to us during the night and of course we were amused with all the art the next day. Must be quite a distraction on the road....it certainly took us several minutes to read all the details...........turns out the owner is a pro-hunter and we're outta here heading to Memphis TN before he wakes up!
On our way from Lexington to Memphis, TN we wondered what Land Between the Lakes was. Found out the Tennessee and Cumberland
Rivers flow out of TN into the Ohio & Mississippi Rivers. They are separated by 10+/- miles of land and include both TN & KN and was settled in the early 1800's. During the Civil War, KN was a neutral state but most of the western residents sided with the south. As neutral as it was, 75,000 KN's served in the Union army as well as thousands of freed slaves. The Union eventully took control of the area of the two rivers because of the vital supply routes. After the war and into the early 1900's, tobacco was big and there were a lot of tobacco wars waged on the farmerm who did not join the tobacco co-op. Night riders would burn home and crops of farmers who didn't join to keep the prices inflated. 
Floods in the 1920's prompted the FED's to dam the TN River and created Kentucky Lake and later the Cumberland R was damed to create Lake Barkley, named after Truman's VP in the 50's, together they created the largest man made water system on the planet. In the 60's all the land between the two lakes was acquired by, in many cases, eminant domain , by the US Gov't and TVA creating a massive recreational area. On the non-fed side of the Cumberland River, the St of KN has 4-6 State Resort parks which in themselves are massive and contain trails, marinas, stables,lodging and golf courses on the scale of a Nat'l Park. The scenes here are looking at Barkley Lake at the State Resort Park from our lunch table in a Yosemite style lodge.
Within the LBL is a nature center with many species of rescued animals including 5 species of owls one of which posed nicely for us. We became acquainted with a couple,who are naturalists here and soon will wed and wanted to honeymoon in Yosemite, we chatted and gave them suggestions on how to enjoy the area on limited time. Very nice couple and we wish you much happiness John and Aviva. Kentucky is a great state, especially the committment to their park systems.
We took a week away from TN to return home as Lili's mom passed away on Sept 16th, we are back to TN and will continue westward so..........the journey continues
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