Mike’s ride on a combine

This morning we walked the few feet over to Frances and Jack’s for a hearty breakfast of waffles, bacon and sausage.

Then in the afternoon I went back to the library in West Frankfort to do more research. Jack took Mike out to the farm where he works and introduced him to Jerry Miller who is in the process of harvesting corn.

From Benton, IL

Mike has always been fascinated by combines and today he got to ride on one while it harvested corn.

From Benton, IL

Genealogy Research & Dinner at Jim & Sally’s

Friday afternoon Mike stayed at the motor home while I drove the 10 miles down to West Frankfort to Frankfort County Library for genealogy research on my Utley and Jones ancestors. My parents, grandparents and great-grandparents had all lived in the area and I had spent the first few years of my life in West Frankfort.

Friday evening Frances, Jack, Mike and I drove down to West Frankfort for dinner at Jim (Frances’s brother) and Sally’s house. Sally had fixed a great dinner with Italian beef, rolls, and pasta salad and it was followed up with her homemade apple pie (a la mode, of course).

From Benton, IL

From Benton, IL

We had such a good time visiting that it was after 11:00 before we knew it. Frances & Jack had left earlier since Jack had been up early this morning to go to work.

Traveling from Cave-in-Rock to Benton

Since we only had 62 miles to travel today, we took our time this morning in breaking camp at Cave-in-Rock State Park. By the time we emptied our holding tanks at the dump station and hitched up the car and left the State Park it was 11:07. There are no dumpsters at the State Park (the dumpsters were taken out to save on operating expenses), so we took our 2 bags of garbage with us.

As we were driving along near the Ohio River, we saw this deep-sea fishing boat going north on the river.

From Cave-in-Rock to Benton

We drove north on IL-1

From Cave-in-Rock to Benton

an Ohio River Scenic Byway for about 12 miles.

From Cave-in-Rock to Benton

Then we drive west on IL-13 for 4 miles to IL-142 the Lincoln Heritage Trail

Visiting Cave-in-Rock

It was in the mid-60's this morning and overcast. This is our last day here at Cave-in-Rock State Park. We put Tinker's harness on him and then drove over to visit Cave-in-Rock this morning.

There are 2 parking lots in the park for visiting the cave - 1 lot is located on the main entrance road into the state park and the other one is up on the bluffs just above the cave. If you park at the lower lot, you have to walk up a long flight of stairs to get to the cliffs and then go down another set of stairs to the path along the river.

We parked at the upper lot this morning and walked down to the trail along the Ohio River.

From Visiting Cave-in-Rock

When we're going on sightseeing walks like today, we tell Tinker we're going "hiking" and he's ready to go.

From Visiting Cave-in-Rock

We followed the trail along the Ohio River

From Visiting Cave-in-Rock

to the entrance to Cave-in-Rock.

From Visiting Cave-in-Rock

Cave-in-Rock was mapped by a French explorer in 1739 and Lewis and Clark passed through here during their expedition. According to legend

Paddlewheel Riverboat at Cave-in-Rock

It was 64° when we got up this morning. The van camper that came in here at the campground last night left this morning. After our morning coffee we took Tinker for a walk around the campground. We stopped to talk with the folks at the pop-up camper and found out that a riverboat was stopped at Cave-in-Rock and it's passengers were exploring the cave.

We decided to take a drive into town, but didn't see the riverboat. Since we hadn't had breakfast, we stopped at Rosie's Kountry Kitchen.

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

It was 9:45 and there were only a few people in the restaurant. We had a big breakfast including biscuits and gravy with our scrambled eggs, hash browns and sausage and bacon. While we were eating breakfast, we found out that the riverboat was still at the cave - so we still had time to see it.

We walked over to the Village Hall and I picked up an Illinois road map. Mike took some pictures of downtown Cave-in-Rock.

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

We then drove through the State Park and parked up on the bluff over looking the river and could see the riverboat at the cave. We saw Lyndal the camp host on the bluff looking at the riverboat. Lyndal was nice enough to take our photo with the paddlewheeler in the background.

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

We drove a little farther along on the bluff and parked where we had a better view of the

Driving to the Ohio River & riding on the ferry to Cave-in-Rock

It was 45° when we got up this morning. Since we only have 80 miles to travel today, we took our time breaking camp. We left Western KY RV Park at 10:50 and drove north on US-431 less than half a mile to Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway and then west for 50 miles. It had now warmed up to 61°.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

We turned north on KY-91 at Princeton driving through rolling hills and farmland.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

We saw signs on KY-91 showing that it was the original route of the Trail of Tears

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

and drove through the small town of Fredonia where we got just a glimpse

Central City & Everly Brothers Monument

It was 45° this morning when we got up at 8:00. This morning after breakfast I gathered up our laundry and went to the laundromat in Central City. The washing machines cost $1.50 a load which isn't too bad, but the dryers were expensive - 3 minutes for a quarter.

After the laundry was done, I stopped at the IGA Foodliner to look for some things Wal-Mart didn't have yesterday and I bought a Sunday newspaper while I was there.

I got back to the campground about 11:30 and then Mike and drove into Central City. We had bought some postcards yesterday at the National Corvette Museum and we went to the Post Office to mail them.

We drove around Central City taking photos of some of the homes there,

From Central City, KY

From Central City, KY

businesses,

From Central City, KY

and murals.

From Central City, KY

There is a monument to the Everly Brothers