May 30-June, 1, 2018 Columbia, Kentucy

 After last nights rain it was 90's and VERY humid again.

It rained about 3 inches. The eye of the tropical storm ended up passing pretty close to us so lots of moisture and flooding. Amber waves of grain in western Kentucky.

The bus at Columbus/Belmont state park. Trees, grass, picnic table, space between units and full hookups. We are next to the Mississippi river, so on the Great River Road that runs along it, hibiscus bloom, signs for the park , a civil war soldier. I thought the wording on the no alcohol was pretty interesting. "A person is guilty of drinking alcoholic  beverages in a public place when he drinks alcoholic beverages in public." and a squirrel sitting on a civil war cannon from the fort that was here during the civil war. 

John with one of the big cannons. There was a cave in on the cliff and the cannon fell into the river, it was not found for 55 years. The confederates stretched a mile long chain across the Mississippi to stop the Union ships from passing.  Each link weights 20 lbs 5 oz.  The anchor was estimated at 2-6 tons. It did not work and the river eventually broke it. Here is part of it.

We are on part of the Trail of Tears. In the 1830's the federal government forcibly removed approximately 16,000, 21 Muscogee(Creek), 9,000 Choctaw, 6,000 Chickasaw and 4,000 Seminole from their ancestral homes in the southeastern United States and walked them with heavy losses to Oklahoma to a new reservation. Overlook to the Mississippi River from the park.

 Sunset over the Mississippi. I am done adding the pine needles now I need to finish up with the beads, stitching behind the beads and sewing leather on the bottom.

The low point of Kentucky is kind of an island of the Mississippi. We had to drive into Tennessee , then up a narrow isthmus to the island. The low point is marked with the red star. Here is John at the lowpoint of Kentuky. He once again waded through waist deep plants, ticks, snakes and poison ivy to get to it.  I stood on the road and took his photo.

We drove into Tennessee, along the Great River Road  and over the Original Route of the Trail of Tears to get to the low point. On the way back we went to Fulton, Ky, the Banana Capital of the World. In 1880 the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad was the first to develop refrigerated cars. Fulton was home to a large railroad facility and had the only ice house on the route north to Chicago.  So it became the  redistribution point for bananas from south America into North America for the United Fruit  Co, now Chiquita. At one point over 70% f the bananas consumed in the United states passed through Fulton. We were looking for a statue of giant banana or something so we went to the Chamber of Commerce. There is not statue or even a sign about being the banana capital. But they gave us each free banana festival T-shirts. The festival is in the fall complete with a Miss Banana pageant, Banana Ball, Banana fashion show, Banana bake off, banana 5K, banana brawl,  banana cabana, parade, carnival and greased pig race. They make a one ton banana pudding -the worlds largest-that after traveling in the parade they give away free to hungry festival attendees. Beautiful historic downtown Fulton. 

A CCC built shelter at the park we are camped in. The park is the site of a Civil War Battle and Fort. Here are some of the Confederate earthworks to protect the fort here. 

A raven in sunset tonight. The ground sparkles with fireflies. We have been seeing them off and on since mid March. A couple artistic grave stones from the Columbus cemetary across the street. Many graves dating from the 1880's. 

Sunset tonight. No clouds.