Day 134: Moffitt Lake, KY

We were fortunate to have a bit of a break in the weather yesterday, with much less humidity and it was near noon before the temperature climbed into the eighties.  We opted to take advantage by celebrating my birthday a day early at Tequilas Mexican Restaurant in Carmi, as it was finally cool enough that we could leave Lana in the van without fear that she would get overheated.

Today I am one year closer to Medicare and the first trickle of our retirement income!  This was my first Facebook birthday, so thanks to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday today!

We drove back down to Cave-In-Rock, IL early this morning, returning to where we had left our route on Wednesday.  And after a short, free ferry ride we were across the Ohio River and once again in Kentucky.  This was the same spot where we crossed the Ohio last year, but instead of heading west and south, we are headed more or less due east.

Being Sunday, the roads had very little traffic, but it's rural enough here that I doubt if there is any such thing as rush hour in most of the little towns we passed through today.  There are plenty of hills (often steep) scattered along the route, though it doesn't seem any are more more than a couple hundred feet of vertical gain.  

Alea rode a total of 43 miles to our stopping point in Dixon, KY.  The one item of interest today, was that she was screaming down a descent when a deer popped out from a cornfield and dashed across the road just a few feet in front of her!  So we are thankful she was able to avoid a collision on an otherwise uneventful day.

Campgrounds are few and far between along most of this stretch of US Bicycle Route 76, AKA the Trans America Trail.  For the next few days, the only available facilities near the Trail are a few small towns offer camping in their city parks (most are more like a town commons), but rarely are there bathroom facilities, and often there is no water.  And where there are toilets, they are often only available from 9 am to 5 pm.  So they aren't much of an option for us.

So we've opted to travel off route a ways, where we are staying at the campground at Moffitt Lake Recreation Area ($22, power, water and showers [with adjustable temperature!]), which is just south of Morganfield, KY.   It is a great little park, set on a small reservoir.  There are a lot of folks here who seem to stay for weeks or more at a time, despite there not being sewer hookups.  It seems a fair number of them are fishermen, and no doubt there are other recreation opportunities nearby in Morganfield.

Someone is planning on staying a while, if they are
dumping their blackwater into a 55 gallon drum!