Well, Neil was feeling better today…notice I didn’t say good, just better…although he still pretty much felt like crud. Anyway; we got up and had breakfast and coffee and headed out about 1000 or so for a short 1.2 mile round trip hike. There’s a 4 mile trail from here at the campground over to Eagle Ridge Overlook…but being as it’s pretty hilly and he felt lousy since he’s breathing through a soda straw it seems with his cold…we decided to drive over to the marina parking lot and just take the last portion of the hike out and back to the point.

It was a pretty steep climb the first 300 yards or so but then we were up on the ridge top and it was much easier. After a little over a half mile we arrived at the Eagle Ridge overlook…this is supposed to be the best view of the lake in the park. I gotta tell ya’…it was pretty nice. We were right at the edge of a cliff about 300 feet or so above the lake surface and looking almost directly south toward Trooper Island. The island has some sort of memorial on it and some picnic grounds with a boat dock…we don’t have any idea why it’s named Trooper Island but being as it’s got the memorial figure it’s some sort of retreat for law enforcement folks and their families. No road access and…but we did spot several cars out on the island; no clue why they were there since the whole thing is maybe 300 yards wide tops. Here’s a close up of the island.

And a panorama of the entire lake view we had from the ridge top…Trooper island is the medium size island just to the left of center in this shot. The large island to the left is Tennessee Island and there are smaller islands in front of and behind Trooper Island…along with a whole bunch more islands that are out of sight around the various bays in the lake. Dale Hollow Lake is a flood control reservoir primarily but has some of the best fishing in the area.

Neil got a shot of Connie standing as close to the edge as she would go…maybe 4 feet back of it or so. He didn’t really go any closer either.

Not much in the way of wildlife today…but we did see a Turkey Vulture soaring over the lake and since it’s so rare to actually be able to look down on a bird I decided to include the shot anyway. We also spotted a hawk just as we got back to the car but none of those shots were decent as it was pretty far overhead and we didn’t have the bird lens out.

We sat on the ridge in the nice cool breeze for a half hour so then hiked back to the car…Neil was pretty whacked out by the time we got back so we came home and took a nap outside in the zero gravity recliners…making sure we used the cool little drink holding shelves that Neil’s sister MJ got us…they work pretty well.

After that we came inside and turned on the A/C since it was getting pretty warm this afternoon. Neil’s making spaghetti for dinner…probably with bacon, onions, and pecans rather than tomato sauce…but might change his mind later.

Tomorrow we’re off to a local museum in the morning then Connie has work in the afternoon…she had to take today off since she was out of hours for this pay period. Then we’ve got a couple other things at least tentatively planned or over the weekend and Monday.

We’re really liking this park…it’s way out in the boonies and the nearest anything is probably a half hour away so we’re just hanging out and resting. After the last week in Richmond and the rally last week we were pretty tired out and needed a break. With the great weather we’re having it’s nice to just sit and chill ya’ know.

Cyas.