Hills and Heat...

After our four day stint in Nashville we hit the road again on the 14th of July headed north. We were lucky enough to get a lift out of Nashville and back onto our route to avoid some back tracking. We made it to our camp site, a cute little place on the 79 in Tennessee called Whispering Pines.

The next day we continued north through The Land Between the Lakes National Recreation area following the Tennessee River. We crossed our fourth border into Kentucky by midday and headed for our campsite for the night on the Kentucky Lake at Hillman Ferry. It was a pretty place to camp and we even managed to have a dip and watch the sunset over the lake -- though the local racoons did manage break one of my tent poles :/

On the 16th we ventured further north through western Kentucky, following the Ohio river through some beautiful countryside. It was pretty hot this day and we stopped in to some local houses near Birdsville to ask for some water to refill our bottles and ended up camping the night there. 

The 17th saw our fifth border crossing into Illinois as we crossed the Ohio River by ferry to the town of Cave in Rock. We checked out the famous Cave in a Rock which supposedly used to be used by crooks and thieves as a hideaway. There was one famous tale of a man who put up a sign that read "House of  Liquor and Entertainment" and used it to lure travelers and boat crews in so he could rob them. Though now it is just a large hole in a rock covered in graffiti, but it's interesting to think of the bygone uses it once had. This was also the day of the beginning of the "heat wave" everyone kept telling us about, though Anna and
I are coming to believe that summer in middle America is just one big heat wave :)

On the 18th we set out into the heat making it over 60 miles to or destination in Karnak Illinois. We met some nice locals who let us shack up in the rental house they are renovating and even use their pool. We had a much needed dip after an exhausting day in the 100 degree heat before retiring to our own little house Anna even had her own room :)

Today we made it just under 50 miles to Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi River crossing into Missouri, our sixth border crossing. We will rest up for the night here before we begin our ascent to Saint Louis through the Ozark Mountains and beyond.