This morning we got up, looked outside and were amazed again at how pretty the Appalachian Mountains were! There was some low fog, so the mountains were half-hidden by the fog, it was very beautiful!
We had camped in a campground that was down by the river. Up from the river a little ways was another little campground, except this was a permanent campground. These campers had decks attached to their campers, fridges on their decks, and a covering over the entire camper and deck! This is something you would NOT see in Nebraska! I definitely need to post pictures!
It was quite the site- campers with coverings and the beautiful mountains!!
Matt was up early because the oil light came on in the truck last night and he wanted to add more oil before we left this morning. He went to AutoZone at 8 am! By about 10, we were hooked up and ready to pull out!
We got everybody situated and on the road. We were having trouble with our GPS though, it was insisting on taking some back mountainous roads and Matt did not want to drive any mountainous roads! We really wanted to take the interstate and could not figure out why the GPS kept telling us to turn around! We were going to the interstate and we didn't care what the GPS said! In the end, we found out that the interstate was a toll road and we had told it to avoid toll roads. We changed that quickly and it finally directed us the way we wanted to go! (By the way, we had to pay a $36 toll in New Jersey and we were only on the interstate for about an hour! Today was only $2.50)
We continued to drive through the mountains. Matt was pretty concerned a couple of times because of the inclines and declines, but we made it. Eventually we stopped for lunch at a rest stop right before we got to Kentucky. We took about a half an hour break and continued on.
About this time, Matt and I were looking at our plan for the day. Our thought was to drive 400 miles and make it to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. There was also a campground there that would be great to stay at for the night. When I had looked at the map earlier in the week, I thought this place was right off the interstate that we were going to be on. I was WRONG!! It was at least 50 miles out of the way! And there was no way we were going to make it 400 miles today.
Like always, we needed a plan B!!
We needed a new place to stop for the night and something to do! Since I was really looking forward to seeing a cave, I looked at a map of Kentucky and looked for a new cave to go through plus a campground close. I found one! It was called Carter Caves State Resort Park and we were only about 50 miles away!
I asked Matt if he wanted to stop driving already and he said that was fine. We only drove about 200 today, we could've went further, but we also thought that if we kept going, we would hit Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky. We have learned through this trip that there are usually no campgrounds near big cities plus it is really hard to pull a 34 foot camper through the streets of a city. It is very ideal to just stay on the interstate and drive right on through. :)
We opted to stop for the night and drive straight through these two major cities tomorrow. We also figured how many miles it is to get home yet and how we could make it work by stopping early today. We figured if we drove about 300 miles each of the next three days, we could still make it home on Saturday.
We pulled into the state park about 3 pm. The cave tour was at 4:30, so we had plenty of time to get setup for the night. Christian saw the playgroup right away, so as Matt went and dumped again (he didn't get all the water out this morning) and I took Christian to the playground. It was here that I found a dead bumble bee for Courtney's bug collection1 The girls finished watching the movie in the truck and by 3:30, the camper was set up and we were ready to explore!
We had the girls put jeans and tennis shoes on and we headed to the welcome center to pick up cave tour tickets. At 4:30, our tour guide met us out front of the building and we headed into a nearby cave. It was pretty neat seeing all the stalagmites and stalactites and hearing about the cave. I am glad we had studied caves last year in school! Christian was not being very good during the tour.
By 5:15, our tour was over and we drove around the park some more. By about 5:45, we were back at our camper because we were hungry! We had a whole evening, so we decided to grill! I don't know the last time we had our grill out! It was a beautiful night out, so we spent the whole night outside!
A baby kitten had wondered up to our campsite and the kids had a great time feeding it and playing with it. Matt also went and found some firewood and we made a campfire and had smores. Too bad the kitten got on the table and ate Megan's chocolate!
Honestly, it was pretty weird not camping within in a grove of trees like we were in the east coast. Every campground we were at, we were within trees. Since we're getting back to the plains, the land has leveled out and there was bright blue sky above us tonight!
By about 8, Christian needed to take a shower, so I brought him in to do that. Around 9, the girls came in and Courtney took a shower. They are all in bed now!
We are going to drive 300 miles tomorrow. I need to find a campground yet. Friday we are going to finish driving to St. Louis and then stop for lunch at St. Louis and see the arch. We are then going to continue onto Arrow Rock State park. From there, we leave Saturday morning for home.
900 miles and 3 more nights until we are home! And Matt says he is already tired of driving...
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