Fireflies at the “Resort and Marina”

Now, this could have been a beautiful setting. We even saw fireflies every night! But it looked like a survivalist camp. The “Resort and Marina” consists of seven “lodges” or “cabins” for rent. Then there’s a separate location for RVs. In a third area, there are some kind of permanent RVs that seem to be privately owned and don’t go anywhere. The owners of the property must have some sort of mutual easement with other homeowners there because the cabins are cheek by jowl with large private homes and contraptions built out of connected sheds and immobilized RVs and cinder-block buildings. Everyone has one or more golf carts. And it’s mostly gravel, and all day long good old boys and cracker-women and muddy kids ride back and forth hauling stuff all over. Although our dogs had to be leashed, theirs didn’t. Although we pick up after our dogs, most other people don’t.

All this is on the shore of Kentucky Lake, right on the Tennessee border, and you can see the Land Between the Lakes from it. Oh, and the marina itself. This is a collection of covered docks and open slips that all but obscures any decent view of the lake, so you kind of have to hunch down and bend over to see it.



From this marina they rent out pontoon boats and we really considered renting one, except guess what happened. Yup. On day three, it rained. Rained on and off for two days, and we decided we were just sick of being trapped in Big Crappie, and we quit. We were also thinking of trying to get my arm looked at, which we couldn’t seem to do in Kentucky, but would have to move on to Tennessee, or else backtrack a long way. But more about that failed odyssey later.

Finally, I want to describe the Big Crappie “Lodge” as it says on the oar, pictured in the entry below. It’s a shack, okay?



It has a screened porch, a TV, air conditioning and furniture, but it’s a shack. Everything in it is worn out. The bathroom floor had a rotten spot I was nervous about stepping on. I know they have internet access because that’s how we found them and got in touch, but it must be dial-up. I managed to get on (off someone else’s wifi, perhaps) and post one blog from there, but that was all. Given the isolation, the weather and the decrepitude of the place, we thought it best to move on. And as soon as the tornados in Tennessee stopped, that’s what we did.

What else is there to do in this town? Dells continued.

There’s a lot to do in the Dells; it exists for things to do. For one thing, it’s the waterpark capital of the world. Or the US, at least. So, although we didn’t plan to go to one, we couldn’t help but see them all over the place, and despite the weather, there were plenty of people in them, many in wet suits. There are also indoor parks, but, owing to the presence of children, we weren’t about to subject ourselves to those. Instead, we had thought of going kayaking, but the weather was awful. Even when the sun was out, it was cold. We also planned to go on the Ducks, but not when it was pouring. So when, on the third day, which I think was Friday, the sun came out for real, we were at a loss because we had no reservations, and we did have the dogs. Lucky for us, our little old resort had a couple of pedalboats. And because they weren’t the enormous fat-wheeled tricycle kind, Joyce was willing to try them.

So we crawled into one and set out. Luckily there wasn’t much wind, and we were able to get out into the middle of the lake and see more than from the shore. We had a few slight disagreements about steering and such, but it was mostly fun. And, while we were out there, it got so hot we decided we could go swimming in the heated pool. So after limping back to shore and falling into the lake to get out of the boat, we did that, and the temperature was perfect. Having the sun out and warm weather made a lot of difference in how we felt about the whole place.

However, the very next day, the rain and cold were back. This, we felt, was our opportunity to experience Sundara. Lucky for us, they had some late afternoon slots, but once signed up, we could go over there any time. However, with the dogs, we don’t like to keep them caged more than four hours at a time, so that was all the time we could spend.

Sundara is a yoga-oriented resort and spa. Here it is:

http://www.sundaraspa.com/services/services.html

We both did the cleansing bath ritual and a Swedish massage. There was an outdoor heated pool and spa and I used them even though it was raining. Most people did, but not Joyce. She stayed in the nice quiet meditation and reading room where they served beverages and yoga trail mix. Anyway, the perfect way to spend a cold, rainy afternoon and NO CHILDREN.