Serendipity on the Ohio River

After leaving Chicago we headed due south through Illinois, hoping to make it to the fabled 'Land Between the Lakes' national park, nestled between Lake Kentucky and Lake Barkley on the Kentucky/Tennessee border. We decided to take a scenic shortcut, which, of course, turned out to be a long cut, through small-town Illinois. By the time we got to the Illinois-Kentucky border, the sun had set and dusk was settling down into night. We reached the top of a hill, just before the border, and realized that the road we were following dissapeared into the Ohio River!

We thought we were going to have to stop for the night and retrace our steps in the morning, until we saw a lone figure standing on the tiniest ferry I have ever seen. Worried that the ferry might have finished running for the night, or that the next run might not be for hours, I cautiously approached him. "Is there another ferry tonight?" I asked.

"Yep" he replied in a southern drawl.

"When is it leaving?" I asked.

"I reckon right about now," he answered. "We ain't got no schedule, we just leave whenever folks show up."

Scarcely able to believe our good fortune, we drove aboard and stood at the bow as the dimunitive ferry began its short, but essential, ride across the river. It was a clear night and the stars were reflected beautifully in the inky darkness of the Ohio river.

We made it to the Land Between the Lakes that night, but it was a little too late to camp, so we stayed in a motel and ate a dinner which almost certainly came out of a box at the local diner. The next day we drove through the park, after stopping at the Kentucky Dam, and stopped for a quick hike at what we thought was a hiking trail but turned out to be a tiny graveyard in the middle of the woods. Walking through the elaborate graves, most of which were circa 18th century, we noticed that there was another graveyard behind the graveyard, with a different name and a different fence. All these graves were marked with tiny stones that looked like bricks, with no inscriptions or anything. I imagined it was a slave graveyard from before the civil war.

From there we drove on to Little Rock Arkansas, where we were taken aback by how little it actually is! For a state capitol, and the biggest city in the state, it is incredibly small. It took forever just to find a restaurant that was open. It was the most depressing place we've been so far. From there we drove to Dallas and stopped for lunch. Until then, we hadn't had to drive through any snow or rain at all. But just when we rolled into Dallas, an ice storm broke out, blanketing the city's streets with snow and ice. Dallasites, unnaccustomed to such weather, didn't know how to drive through it and the city's freeways were backed up for hours! Eventually we made it to Amy's Great Aunt's house, in Fort Worth, where we recuperated for a day thanks to the gracious hospitality of Mary and Ken. Tomorrow we're leaving early for San Antonio, and hopefully hitting the Mexican border the day after that. Stay tuned for more adventures!