Land between the Lakes, TN

     Land between the Lakes used to be called Land between the Rivers, but many years ago, after repeated flooding, people were moved out of the way, dams were built, and Kentucky Lake and Lake Barklay were formed. After all that, the land between the two lakes became a national recreation area. After being here for 4 days, I want to say that there really isn’t much to do here, but that wouldn’t be fair. There’s not much to do here that Paul and I like to do. There is hunting, fishing, ATVing and not too much else. We drove the road that goes through the center of the peninsula and it was like driving down a toboggan run surrounded by trees. There wasn’t much to see along the way, except a few deer in the fields. Of course there is boating, and we did take the inflatable out a few times, but the wind kicked up pretty fast and we had to head back while dodging 1-2 foot “seas”. It calmed down later, but while we were out there, we did notice that the lake is murky enough that you can only see down about 2 feet.
         We visited Fort Donelson yesterday to get an idea of the civil war history of the area. Before the civil war, no decision had been made as to whether this area really belonged to Tennessee or Kentucky, and no one cared, since it made no real difference. But Kentucky initially remained neutral during the civil war, and Tennessee fought with the Confederates, and the decision was made to fight against the Union with the South. Unfortunately for them, Ulysses S. Grant was the general who was in charge of the Union army and he quickly gained control of the fort, taking 13,000 men as prisoners. Securing use of these two rivers opened up Nashville and the surrounding area for the Union army to invade.
         The weather has been hot and muggy, as it has been pretty much everywhere in the country. It’s been nice to have the air conditioning, although we have sat outside a lot, because somehow there are NO mosquitoes here at ALL. I have no idea why, but there weren’t any in Branson either. We’re not complaining about that, that’s for sure.
        Tomorrow we leave here to head across Tennessee, bringing us closer to Smoky Mountain National Park, our next destination. We’re a little nervous because once we get there, we’ll have no electricity for 3 days, so I hope its not too hot and humid.