Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and On To Amazon!

November 7, 2015


When we leave here Sunday morning we will have spent eleven nights at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. It's been a nice respite for us. When we arrived most of the changing leaves were still on the trees and we took a beautiful hike on the sun dappled path along the river.

Very nice campsite

Autumn colors in the big oaks

Walking the Angel Falls Trail

Green Moss on rocks and logs

Trail crossing a small stream

A wide pool in the South Fork of the Cumberland

Turkey Tail Fungus

Checking out a narrow coal seam in the sandstone

Nice, clear coal bed

Low water at the Angel Falls

Huge leaves of an Umbrella Magnolia

Greg has taken several bike rides on the roads and trails leading away from the Bandy Creek Campground. Most days we walked through the large campground for exercise and to notice how few campers are staying here. Now we have had two bouts of rain and wind and the leaves have mostly fallen from the trees surrounding our campsite. It's been quiet here and at $11 a night with my senior discount for a site with electric and water, really a good deal.

The little arrow sign tells you not to ride off the cliff!

Rockcastle Conglomerate caps the Cumberland Plateau

One of the drizzly days we drove the half hour into the nearest town which of course had a Walmart. We needed some staple groceries and were reminded that even though we have been surrounded by beauty in an isolated campground, we are still in rural, poor Appalachia. Walmart is one of the few employment options. The town sign had a big banner on it advertising GED classes, and another sign for the county declared that the county's economic future was tied to education, presumably at least graduating high school.


Sunday, November 8^th we stowed the RV and on a sunny, brisk day made the drive north from the Big South Fork River across Kentucky to Louisville. Crossing the Ohio River we arrived at the Silver Lakes Mobile Home Park in Indiana. An older park that has room for work campers, we managed to find a suitable spot that we could drive the RV onto. The sites are spread apart, but the narrow concrete pads designed to roll a large mobile home onto were a bit too spread apart for our wheel width. We managed to put blocks under the inner dually wheels on the back axle and hooked up. No shower-house here, so we are back to using our rig shower. We are situated among other work campers and have one of the more modest rigs. The $2-300,000 motorhomes are across the street and next to us.


Silver Lakes is six miles from the Amazon warehouse, so it was an easy commute for our first day there on Tuesday. We spent 8 hours in a group of 14 work campers for orientation. Then we returned yesterday and today for 5 hour days as we continued our training and started our jobs as pickers. Two more five hour days and then we jump into 10 hour days next week.

The narrow end of the building

Kathleen has been assimilated into the Collective!

I'll have lots more to write about our Amazon experience. So far we are surviving physically and adjusting to being accountable for every minute of our time. The behemoth that is Amazon is fascinating. We are enjoying being part of a legendary international company, even if it is just for six weeks!