Grand Rivers, KY

Friday, April 29

Our day began today in Ellington, Missouri at the Four Creeks Campground. We camped at this spot for the past two nights, but now it was time to move on to somewhere new. I worked to tidy the inside of the RV while Andi hooked the Jeep to the back of the RV and we were off to our next location.

In Missouri, we’ve seen a lot of these “wash over roads” where the creek purposefully flows over the roadway. I’m not sure what official term of this road design is, but this essentially allows a large amount of water to pass. Cheaper than building a bridge, I suppose. I just can’t believe the road doesn’t eventually wash out! Maybe it does. Regardless, the campground where we stayed had one of these “wash over roads” and it was a little weird feeling to drive our RV and Jeep over the passageway.

The drive from southeastern Missouri to our next destination in Kentucky was uneventful. For a few minutes we crossed the state line into the bottom tip of Illinois, driving over the massive Mississippi and Ohio Rivers which were quite dirty and gross.

We stopped about half-way through the drive so Andi could make a call. While Tory, Aden and I waited for Andi to finish, we pulled out our school books at the table. While Aden and I were doing math, he lost a tooth! He is so funny about losing teeth — it’s never a big ordeal at all. He simply said, “Hey Mom, my tooth feels funny” and then pulled it out like it was no big deal at all.

Eventually, we made our way into Western Kentucky. Every time we drive through Kentucky, Andi and I comment how narrow their highways are! Something you probably wouldn’t notice when driving a standard-size vehicle, but a factoid quite noticeable when driving a 25’ RV pulling a car. You always know you’ve crossed into Kentucky when you start to see black picket fences framing horse farms.

Andi and I decided to camp tonight at the Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area. We stayed here once before in 2019 during our state of Kentucky travels., This recreation area is so large I imagine you could visit over and again & experience something different every time. Last time we visited, we stayed at Energy Lake Campground in the central portion of the park; this time, we snagged a first-come, first-served campsite at Hillman Ferry campground in the north near Grand Rivers, KY.

The first thing we noticed upon our arrival was all the trees down around the campground. There must’ve been quite a large tornado that ripped through the area devastating many of the trees. Our campsite in Hillman Ferry Campground was a nice one, surrounded by tall pine trees. We settled into our spot, and then decided to go exploring in the Jeep.

There are several different activities perfect for families at Land Between the Lakes (a planetarium, nature center and an elk & bison preserve), but most of them are located about 20-30 minutes from Hillman Ferry Campground. Instead, we decided to drive the Jeep around the woods. There are miles and miles of trails in this recreation area!

Aden really wanted to swim, despite us warning him that the water was probably pretty cold, so at some point we stopped at a spot along the Cumberland River and let him get into the water. It was a beautiful, sunny day in the mid-70’s, but still too early in the spring for the lake water to have warmed up enough for prolonged swimming.

During our drive, we stumbled upon an abandoned house and some really cool primitive campsites tucked into the woods.

Around 5:30pm, we made our way into the nearby town of Grand Rivers, KY. We’d read there was a Blues, Brews & BBQ festival happening in the local park tonight. Grand Rivers is an picturesque resort town on the water. The marina is full of stately sailboats and Main Street in town is dotted with small town shops and restaurants. Of course, there’s the famous Patti’s Settlement Restaurant there as well.

Andi and I weren’t feeling an expensive sit-down dinner at Patti’s tonight, and figured we’d grab something to eat at the festival in the park instead. Unfortunately, there were long lines at all the food vendors and nothing really seemed to call our names (turkey legs, wood-fired pizza, grilled cheese or pulled pork sandwiches). We wandered by the craft vendors to see what they had to offer & saw an assortment of homemade pot holders, Kentucky t-shirts and jams/jellies.

In the end, Andi and I decided to visit the local grocery store in Grand Rivers to pick up a piece of meat to grill. Tory and Aden each had $5 to spend at the festival, so they opted to buy themselves ice cream at Craig’s Dairy Dream on Main Street.

We returned to our campsite and Andi grilled a pork tenderloin while Tory, Aden and I played a game of Rack-O at the picnic table outside. The weather in Kentucky is gorgeous right now! A perfectly warm 75 degrees.

Andi, Tory and Aden went for a walk in the campground to take out the trash while I cleaned up dinner. We finished our evening with an episode of Heartland on Netflix before bed.

Tomorrow, we’re moving onto northern Tennessee.