Friday, July 20

Something likes this heat - Crepe Myrtle Bush

Flamed broiled burgers at Craig's Dairy Dream

 Pink Tractor Boutique -  Grand Rivers, KY

Putting out the flames

Green Turtle Bay courtesy minivan in flames on the Woodland Trace

We set out at 8:00 am to beat the heat and the weekend crowds.  In the Green Turtle Bay courtesy van #4, on a National Scenic Byway road - the Woodland Trace, we entered the Land Between the Lakes National Recreational Area.  Our first stop was the Elk & Bison Prairie ($5 per vehicle fee), a 700 acre tract with not one animal to be found.  As we exited and reported this to a park employee, he noted it was hot and added "they're there - they're jist hid out".  That was due to the temperature, but little did we know how "HOT" the day would get.
Kathy wanted to explore further down the road.  Lo and behold, what did we see?  Bison, lots of them and reasonably close.  We "got there just before too late" as they were "fixin' to get hid out" in a tree obscured creek bed.  Pictures were taken and victory declared.
We turned around and headed back to the park's welcome center to look for Bison postcards to send to Elle & Georgia.  When we stopped, we could smell gas but could see nothing wrong.   Leaving the
center, we could smell gas again and immediately thereafter smoke started coming through the ventilation system.  It was clear that we needed to get out and we tried to stop but the brakes were not working properly and the engine had died.  The vehicle finally slowed enough for us to get it to the side of the road and we bailed out.  Kathy even remembered to grab her backpack.  There were
open flames in the undercarriage and we got the Hell away from it.  About five minutes later the minivan with 187,000 miles on it was consumed in flames.  No one was hurt, although traffic was screwed up for awhile.  Was this a message from some higher power (Is there a Minivan God?) - retribution for bad mouthing minivans throughout my driving lifetime?
Deciding that minivans had become too hot to handle, we went to the resort office to rent a golf cart.  Funny thing, they didn't have any available ........... so we rode our bikes to Craig's Dairy Dream for a flame broiled burger and fries - delicious!  We "toured" Grand River's extensive (not) retail area, acquiring some junk our children will have to throw away some day.

Bison prairie - Between the Lakes Rec Area

We returned to Green Turtle Bay's pool to get out of the heat & relax from the drama of the day.