Metropolis, biking, Paducah and Land Between the Lakes

After leaving Cape Girardeau, we headed up the Ohio River to Metropolis, home of Superman.

I never knew he was so big!

Metropolis is also the home of Ft. Massac, first built by the French in 1757.  A larger fort was built on the same site by the French in 1760, but the fort was abandoned in 176 after the French lost the war to Brittain, and the Chickasaw burned the fort later that year.  In 1794, President George Washington ordered General Anthony Wayne to rebuilt Ft. Massac because of all the troubles between settlers and indians.  Below is a reproduction of the American Fort Massac.  The fort had wooden walls until the flood of 2011 destroyed and damaged the fort.  It is now fenced off and you are not allowed to wander through the buildings.

Birds nest on my bike seat.  On the way to Land Between the Lakes, we stopped in Vienna to bike 9 miles (18mi RT) of the Tunnel Hill State Trail.  The trail is just part of the 55 mile rail to trail that has 23 trestles and the tunnel, once 800 feet, a collapse in 1929 shortened it by 300 feet.  When I got my bike off the back of my motorhome, I found this nest.  I guess that says how long it had been since I last went for a bike ride.

The tunnel at Tunnel Hill State Park bike trail.  After 9 miles of biking, we arrived at the tunnel.  Because we wanted to get to our campsite and get situated, we decided to turn around at that point.  Some day I would like to bike more of this trail.

I love camping at the COE park at Land Between the Lakes.  Although I'm not much for kayaking on lakes, I do enjoy kayaking this lake.  Here I took a picture of my campsite from the kayak.

This osprey didn't like me kayaking close to her nest.  Everytime I got close she flew off as if to tell me I should follow her.  Then as soon as I moved away, she would return.  I had to take this picture using all of my zoom and I couldn't capture it with my camera, but I'm sure there were babies in that nest.

This is the only place Fancy went kayaking, but she seemed to enjoy it.  I had bought her little life jacket several years before when I was camping here.  Sadly, this was only a few weeks before she got died.  I miss my little friend.

Just one of many murals in Paducah.  We ventured in to Paducah, which is only about 30 miles away.  I always enjoy the murals on the river wall. This shows Paducah in the early days of steam boats.

In 1950, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission built the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant just 10 miles from town.  Today this is the only uranium enrichment facility in the country.

We found a small distillery downtown, too.

Stovetop size still.  It also was a museum of the history of distilling, including lots of old stills.  One was small enough for my motorhome since it is used on top of a stove.

And of course, I had to buy some some of their moonshine.  They had several different ones to choose from, including Peach Moonshine and Lemonade Moonshine.  How to choose?  I didn't, I bought one of each.