Day ~ 2 ~ The Ring And...

I did not know that fishing for Catfish is done at night in Tennessee. This is something that I should have learned. It would have served me to know it. But, since I didn't know, I was not prepared for boats being on the lake all night long! Our campsite was perfect ~ with no neighbors on one side, only the lake... the launch ramp.

I got no sleep!
Fortunately, Richard sleeps through thunder all the time at home so he slept through the night with no problem. 

Day 2 ~

I have to give a little background here. My birthday is May 24th. Last year Richard's step-dad suffered a stroke on my birthday :( 

Richard's biological father had passed away several years ago on Richard's birthday.

So we have a goal to make new good memories that will replace the bad memories we have associated with our birthdays. I tried hard to make Richard's birthday special this year to change his feelings about it. He was determined to make my birthday special also. 

We had plans to go to the Cincinnati Zoo on my birthday this year. I was thrilled with that plan. He had other things up his sleeve though.

When it was actually morning on Day 2 he got up and went outside. I cried. I had not slept at all again for the second night and my RA was flaring! Richard came in the tent and knelt down next to the air mattress.

He said "Baby, I want to give you your Birthday Present early... I hope it will cheer you up"

I was surprised because he had already given me one "early present" the week before...

I love Rose Gold and he had picked out this watch for me that I just adore :)

(Buddy photo-bomb!)

So... I opened the box through tears... and this is what he had specially ordered for me for my birthday...

It is Rose Gold... 2 hearts tied together by an infinity sign of diamonds.

*PERFECT*

I wiped my tears and got my butt up off that air mattress.

 There was a squirrel nest in the tree and we did have squirrels visiting quite a bit but I didn't get any good photos of them.

I had never seen a squirrel nest before!

The campsite was perfect...

Richard made breakfast on the Camp Stove...
Then we decided to go check out the golf course...

This guy landed on the sign and pointed the way for us :)

I thanked him for letting me take his picture and he nodded.

We got to the golf course and were delighted to see this...

It was the most awesome course...

A birdhouse for Score Cards...

There were birdhouses all over the course and they were numbered. This was No. 1
It was a beautiful course and we were enjoying the scenery...

 

But THIS is when the course really started to get amazing...

I took this pic from the cart and I saw the bench...

Richard said "where's the green?" ...
He had to walk out on the hill quite a ways to see it
He called me over to look
This is it...

Wow!!!!
That is Kentucky Lake!
What an AWESOME golf course!

...On the "green" at Hole 4

Don't you just want to sit here?

Just WOW!
And don't forget this is an Audubon Society Sanctuary

We saw these platforms and noticed one of them had a nest...

Oh happy day... It is an Osprey nest!

If it gets any better than this I cannot imagine...

This beautiful red bird is NOT a Cardinal. We have not figured out what it is so if anyone knows please tell me.

In fact... these 2 were a pair, one red and one yellow...

This Blue Jay showed me his backside :) I love the checkered pattern on the wings.

The yellow flowers that were covering fields along the highway driving down from Illinois

And while I was taking photos of the yellow flowers I saw these too...

 

Back to golfing...

 The last hole...

 Contemplating the last hole and taking it all in...

Birdhouse No. 48... I thought it was the last one but it wasn't...

The first Bluebird we saw... look at the nest busting out the side of the house.

There was a woodpecker at this feeder but I missed it... 

 When he returned the cart Richard asked me for the camera. He knows how much I adore flowers and how bad my knee was hurting so he went back and took pictures of these for me...

We decided to get a fishing license and see if we could catch some fish for supper. We also were on a mission to get firewood since we had not been able to have a fire the night before. So we drove down the road a few miles to the nearest market/cafe and bought 4 bundles of firewood. Then to the gas station/store to get our fishing licenses. Richard caught a fish immediately, but we were told it did not measure up to the size requirement of 15 inches :(
He actually caught 2 more fish but none were over 15 inches.
I didn't catch any but I enjoyed fishing anyway.
We did get updates on mom and they were not good. We considered going back home but decided to stay for the night and see how the next day would be.
We realized that everyone was drinking alcoholic beverages regardless of the sign so we built our fire, had our burgers, S'mores, and enjoyed a glass of wine and a beer...

That light is our lantern hanging from the tree.

~The end of Day 2~

Patty Hagedorn Photography 
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