Oct. 6

We left the Russell's hospitality this morning and headed to Kentucky. It' s new state for both David and I and is the reason that we chose this route even though there would have been shorter routes to the Great Smoky Mountains.

The good news is that Dawson's finger isn't broken. It's bruised and swollen. It was quite possibly dislocated, but was back in place by the time he got to the doctor. Perhaps the kid that stepped on his hand somewhere in the third quarter actually did him a favor and popped it back in place.

We stopped for lunch at Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, MO. I had been reading about it and thought it sounded like fun. It's known as "the home of the throwed rolls". The original cafe was opened in 1941 by Mr. & Mrs. Lambert. In the early 70's their son, Norman retired from coaching football and took over the restaurant. It was a small place and especially crowded one day and he was having trouble getting through to a guy who wanted another roll. The guy hollered out to him to "Just throw the **** thing". Norman did, and the rest, as they say, is history. It became an attraction to go to the restaurant so that you could catch your dinner roll. They now have three huge restaurants with another near Branson and a third in Foley Alabama. The menu includes lots of comfort foods such as Country Fried Round Steak, Catfish, and Chicken Pot Pie as well as Frog Legs and Hog Jowl (haven't tried it, but I don't think hog jowl is MY comfort food). Most all of these come with two sides. After you get your meal, servers come around with "Pass Arounds". These are fried okra, fried potatoes, macaroni & tomatoes, black-eyed peas, and sorghum and apple butter to go with the rolls you caught and you can have as much of any of these as you want. It was a fun and yummy meal and we had enough leftovers for another meal!

We crossed the Mississippi River and then the Ohio passing briefly through Illinois to get to Kentucky. Lots of neat bridges.

We saw quite a bit of cotton and a lot of soy beans and other kinds of beans growing in the farm land. 

We camped at Pennyrile State Resort Park south of Dawson Springs, KY. It was a nice enough park although we weren't sure what made it a "resort". Maybe the mini golf course??? It did have the distinction of having the most unlevel paved campsites of any that we've encountered.