Westward, Ho! Day 13: Checking the nearby Rec Areas and another Lake Sunset

Spent the morning driving from one recreation area to another, only to those within at most 10 miles from camp of course.  Just wanted to see if there were better ones than the Sullivan Rec Area I'd spent some time in already.

First, I tried the Okaw Bluff Group Camp.  As stated in the name, its for groups of campers.  I found a dirt road though that led to an interesting looking spot with Hunter Blinds set up for seasonal duck hunting.  As I was getting out of the Sammy, the camp host drives up and told me I wasn't supposed to be driving out there.  He apologized that the team which was doing some work with Ospreys in the area had forgotten to put the cones that normally blocked access to the road I found.

No harm done, he pointed out to me some of the Osprey flitting about, but I didn't have a chance to get a pic of them.  All I got are these:

The camp host said I could park by the shed at the road entrance and walk in for pics but it was already pretty hot and I passed on that.

The next site I checked out was the Whitley Creek Rec Area.  The swim beach area was closed for 2021 and it looked like it had been closed for longer than that!  Quite overgrown with weeds and such.  Too bad because I could have used a quick dip in the lake, it was pretty hot by now.  There's a group camp area where it looked like the camp host had his RV set up.  That and the boat ramp were all that was open for the public.

I returned to the Sullivan Rec Area's swim beach and lounged in its cool waters; away from the many kids and their mothers who were also enjoying themselves.

By Noon, I went back to camp and got lunch, had a nap, read my e-book: Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.  Not bad, I like his writing style and he does tend to explain complex concepts pretty well.

It was so hot I even did a bit of laundry.  It didn't take long for the clothes to dry under the hot sun.

Come evening, I drove back to Sullivan Rec Area and got these pics of tonight's sunset.  The smoke from out west once again painted the sun a blood red color.

The Sammy is running pretty good lately.  Martha's Honda CRV is in the shop for a timing chain replacement however, and the replacement Fuel Rail Pressure Sensor has seemingly failed on the VRRV, causing the check engine light to come on.  Oh well.

Westward, Ho! Day 12: Birds and a Sunset in the Sullivan Recreation Area

The day started with heavy rains brought on by heavy thunderstorm activity that lasted till about 10AM! The loudness of the rain woke me just before 6AM.

After breakfast, I decided to head on over to the Sullivan Recreation Area located to the south of the campground, perhaps a couple of miles away once you get on the highway.  It was still raining but I was able to wait out the last of the rain under the picnic shelter.

Nice area, it's run by the COE and gives you access to a nice swim beach, kids playground equipment, volleyball courts, showers and bathrooms, picnic benches and a nice shelter.

It would remain cloudy until well past 1PM and then things warmed up a little bit.  The cloudy skies kept temperatures pretty good but the water never did warm up to levels I like.  Oh well.

Did a little bit of swimming/wading.  Basically did a lot of reading while catching some sun and while keeping out of the sun under the picnic shelter.

Just before a couple of carloads of kids showed up, I spotted this on the far end of the beach:

I got the tripod out and tried taking pictures using all three zoom levels: optical only, Clearimage zoom (2x) and digital zoom (4x).  So some of the pictures will be fuzzier than others.   I didn't want to get close enough to just use the optical zoom, these birds were wary.

This bird looks like it was mad but it was only yawning:

There were 2-3 of these birds with the black feathers looking like a bad toupee.  Not sure if related to the other birds which I think were seagulls?  

A Heron swooped in while I was shooting and I managed to get closer to it without scaring it.

Of course, once the kids showed up, the first thing they did was to run onto the beach towards the flock of seagulls!  They rose in a big cloud of white wings and dispersed out further on the lake.  Sigh.

I returned to camp, got a late lunch, relaxed some more, ate some more....then returned to the recreation area in time for the sunset.

Eastward, Ho! Day 29: Independence Day trips to Metropolis, the National Quilt "Museum" and Paducah's Wall to Wall Murals

 Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July celebration if appropriate!

Flag Display at the Eddyville, KY Courthouse

photo by Martha

We were more than a few miles east of our campground, first in the small city of Metropolis, Illinois.  The name sound familiar?  Yep, home of Superman in the comics series and movies.  Someone with a serious penchant for Superman paraphernalia has created a museum of these items.  I personally didn't realize the enormous merchandising involved with the Man of Steel.

The entrance fee is $8/person and there's way too much stuff to readily absorb.  Here's just some of the stuff that caught my eye.

The Superman Museum

Super Burger Boy?

Nice car, not sure its relation to Superman, perhaps just using its

tourist draw to gather some attention?

We left Metropolis behind and found ourselves at Big Ed's Diner and Catering for lunch.  They were running a special buffet and we joined the folks at the trough.  It was pretty tasty stuff, I bit pricey we found out at checkout but eh, it's only money I guess.

So then I dropped off Martha at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah and I went to walk along the Wall to Wall Murals that the town is known for.

Here's some of the pics Martha took within the museum (she said it was more of a gallery than a museum):

Yep, the above flag is a quilt!

Nice quilt above eh?  Not quite....

The quilt in the previous pic is made of wood!

Here's some of the murals that caught my eye:

Snapshots of different floods

I like how the small boy is "out of the picture"

From back when Paddle Wheel Boats were the main cargo carriers on the rivers:

To the Atomic Age:

What Atomics you ask?  Paducah has the nation's only Gaseous Diffusion Plant, used to enrich Uranium.  The enriched uranium is used worldwide to generate electricity.

The Battle of Paducah during the American Civil War

This post's only moto-content.

One of the many boats used to push barges on each of the four

major rivers in the area

Back at camp, Martha and I played with the setting sun a bit:

Martha goes to catch the setting sun.