Day 3 Energy Lake

Started the day with a very informative & entertaining visit to the Golden Pond Planetarium located in an area that was flooded to build a dam back in the sixties; similar to what happened to where our summer home is in Tennessee. Next we had a decadent lunch in the marina and I won’t even speculate the number of arteries that I clogged but it tasted sooo good. We crossed a bridge to get there that we boated under in 2014 when we did the Great Loop. After lunch, we drove through the Elk and Bison Prairie preserve, a 5 mile loop through a protected, fenced area. We saw 4 turkeys. Determined to see a bison &/or elk, we drove around the loop again, finally spying two elk cooling themselves  in a little pond…& 4 more turkeys. Finished the day at the Nature Center where six highly endangered red wolves are housed along with other assorted animals and birds from the area. In 1980, there were only 16 red wolves left in existence. They had almost been hunted to extinction. Presently through efforts made by zoos & nature centers, the numbers have risen to 300. On the way back to our campsite we ran across an iron furnice historic site. This was a major source of income to many of the residents here until the early 1900s but the industry ended because of advances in processing iron ore &, unfortuately, they burnt up almost all their timber making the hematite. Our first visit to a Harvest Host is tomorrow, the Golden Fox Brewery in Decatur, IL. 

Note - Some of the places we are staying at don’t have cell or internet, so posts are delayed. Double edged sword - nice to be disconnected from the “electronic leash” but then you are also…well, disconnected.