Aishling the Airstream Update No. 010

 Fern Lake Campground

Paducah, Kentucky

FOR THE ECLIPSE! 

 

From the internet:  Fern Lake Campground, in Paducah, KY, is the area's leading campground and is a Good Sam Park and a family-owned campground that was established by Fern and Sam in 1977. Our beloved, Sam, passed away December 20, 2018.  Greg and Deanna Bazzell are the second generation campground hosts who live on the property. Whether you want to spend the night or stay longer to visit or work in the area, we can accommodate you. From tents to the largest campers and motor homes we have a convenient sites right of the I-24. They offer full hook-ups, electric and water, sewer, a sanitary dump station, free Wi-Fi, a bath house with laundry room, a picnic shelter, fire rings and much more. 

 We first stayed here last year when we picked up our little B190 van in Illinois and needed a quick stop over on the way home. We love the convenience of it!

So when we saw the path of the eclipse we knew this would be a good place for us to go. We made our reservations over a year ago...lol

After setting up #AishlingtheAirstream, we had plenty of time to drive into town and see a bit of Paducah. Side note: I've only been there once when we visited some of my dad's work friends and all I remember is that they had the neatest hidden [play] room off a tiny door in their stairway landing. HA. 

[OH, how I wish I could compare this memory with my sister's!]

 The campground FEELS like you're in the country, but is actually VERY close to town.

We grabbed some lunch at a nearby Chipotle and then enjoyed walking through the Eclipse Festival downtown...

And took time to view the river walk murals - 

These paintings were so beautiful - 

While they depicted life in the early years of Paducah, 

they were very realistic - the LIGHT in them was gorgeous.

[I'm always amazed at how an artist can DO THAT.]

AND we saw the world's largest quilting needle -

But, alas, didn't take the time to go into the museum. Although I'm sure here were some beautiful quilts there.

We loved that we happened upon their Dogwood Trail!
And - YAY - they were in bloom!

I love a red dogwood that really pops against the white!

 

Our campground was completely full of us crazy eclipse watchers! 

And there was concern that it would be too rainy and overcast to see much at all ...

But the fog 'burned off' 

and it turned out to be a GORGEOUS DAY.

We were ready for our apx 2 minutes of totality!

 

And we loved it! 

t takes about an hour for the moon to fully cover the sun...

and another hour for it pass completely across...

Craig got some sweet photos by changing his cell phone camera settings and then putting an extra pair of eclipse glasses over the lens[es] -

 

We'd seen THE RING before back in 2017 and it was different for us this time since we had a street light come on right behind us during the darkness - 

Still - SO COOL -

And something we might travel to see again -

 

We'd already planned to stay the night and we were so glad we weren't part of the thousands of cars we saw barely moving on the I24 as they were trying to leave town...

 

Instead... as the moon started making its way past the sun...

[I love this shot that Craig got!]

 

We answered the call of the ice cream truck 

that comes through the campground each day... lol -

Yes, please!

[we're all kids at heart, doncha think?!]

And later when it was completely over, we walked across the street for dinner at the nearby Mexican restaurant... all while seeing the cars sitting still on the interstate.

Life is Good.