Our Story
Brad and Cindi Cook
Our Kentucky Lake story starts on July 2, 2006. My own Kentucky Lake story started in August of 1964, when my parents chose to honeymoon there. We spent several summer vacations there as a family - swimming and playing on the beach at Kentucky Dam Resort. I remember being a kid at Kaintuck Territory -- and those random "gunfights" that would break out in the street when the bank was robbed. Remember how you could get your picture made on a WANTED poster there? My family didn't have a boat - but we loved the lake anyway.
Becoming Lake People
My brother and me at Kentucky Lake, circa 1975
We each had two children when we married, and as most parents know, teenagers with practice schedules and social lives can interfere with family lake time. So the boat and the Airstream eventually sold -- and we enjoyed those years at the pool in our backyard. But in the summer of 2020, when all the kids were finally out of school, we ventured back to Kentucky Lake and rented a pontoon for the day from Green Turtle Bay. We cruised around, saw a "For Sale" sign in a yard at a house on Sledd Creek -- and a few months later we were officially lake people again.
The Bel Air Motel
For the next part of the story, we need to head back in time again to the summer of 2006. Brad and I were dating then -- and one weekend in late summer, his son was in a weekend baseball tournament in Marshall County. I drove over to the lake from Portageville, Missouri and met him so we could watch the game together. Our meeting spot? The Bel-Air Motel in Gilbertsville. The parents of the boys on the team were all there - grilling burgers and hot dogs while the kids swam at the pool. Later that day, we had Blizzards at the Dairy Queen in Draffenville.
Buying a Motel
Back to 2021. Every time we headed to Sledd Creek from Union City, we would hang a right at the Bel Air Motel. I noticed a "For Sale" sign out front. It was there in the fall of 2021. It was there in the spring of 2022. Still there during the summer. One day, when Brad and I were rained off the water, we drove to The Thirsty Turtle, and I asked if he ever thought about buying the Bel Air. We talked about how cool it would be to have a hotel close where family could stay when they visited. Our lake house brought us so much happiness -- what if we could do that for people with the Bel Air?
The Lakehouse Inn at Sledd Creek
The old Bel Air Motel is now officially The Lakehouse Inn at Sledd Creek. We have 18 rooms and four cabins -- and we want to provide a luxury (yet affordable) stay for families who want to fall in love with the lake. Future plans include an event space for gatherings of families and businesses, and very soon we'd like to have a restaurant. After that? Who knows?! Maybe we'll buy another motel - or build one. Maybe we will just sit on our dock and watch the boats go by. But I can guarantee you that whatever we do, we will be doing it at Kentucky Lake.
Remembering Kaintuck Territory https://www.marshallcountydaily.com/2016/07/11/a-walk-through-history-by-justin-lamb-sponsored-by-four-pigs-restaurant-2/