Tennessee Tales

September 30^th marks one month since we left Lake Michigan….and we do have many “tales” to tell.  As I write this morning, we are sailing down the Tennessee River on a cool fall morning.  We’re about half way through the state of Tennessee headed for a bit of Mississippi and then into Alabama!  So, here’s what’s happening in our little corner of the world.

 

Paris Landing State Park

A bard owl at the lodge.  It had a crushed wing and this group found them and they keep them since they cannot go back into the wild.

 

When I last wrote, we were just getting started on Kentucky Lake and it was raining.  The day continued to be a bit soggy until we tied up in Paris Landing.  If Paris Landing is any indication of the State Parks in Tennessee, they do a FINE job!  The marina itself was lovely, as well as the beautiful surroundings, campgrounds, walking trails and the lodge/hotel on site.  As soon as we started to tie up, we heard a familiar voice…a gentleman named Tom from the boat Q’s End came right over to help us.  He and his wife were the people from our 1^st Wal Mart shopping trip in Illinois.  They had been in this marina for several days playing a few rounds of golf.  It’s always good to catch up with where everyone has been.  For dinner, we walked to the gorgeous lodge for an “all you can eat” seafood buffet.  I won’t even mention how many times the three of us headed back to the dessert bar J.   

Fishing Boats

I think you must have to own a fishing boat in the state of Tennessee to be an official citizen.  They’re everywhere and going fast in their “state of the art” boats with all of the electronics on board!  At both marinas we have visited, each day there was a fishing contest going on.  I believe they were catching small mouth bass and catfish. 

Pebble Isle Marina

 

Last night, we stayed at the Pebble Isle Marina, which was a great place, too!  Of course, as we pulled up to the dock, there were some more friends we had met farther up the rivers.  So, as all good loopers do, we had to have a little get together.  Steve had promised to make margaritas for our sailing buddies on Time and Tide…and he produced!  The first part of the party was on board Kathryn, but as more boats arrived, we spread on out to the dock! There were lots of good “tales” of the river from each boat as we exchanged experiences.  The restaurant at this marina is called The Gray Heron and they had some tasty delights! (one being a HUGE hot brownie, covered in ice cream and whipped cream…delicious!) Our waitress told us about the gray heron who resides in the marina.  We had seen it flying here and there all afternoon.  All the way down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, we had seen blue herons, but here their cousins, the gray herons, are prominent.  They are very large birds, especially when they take flight!

 

 

 

Our gray heron...do you see him?

 

So, our destination for today is to Clifton, Tennessee where there promises to be another great marina.  We have a sailing book called Skipper Bob’s Cruising from Chicago to Mobile to help us plan our trip and places to stay.  There is, also, a website called Active Captain that people write reviews of places they have been and have stayed along the river.  So, this helps us each day to make our plans.  So long, dear friends!

Scenes From the River:

 

Louisville and Nashville RR Bridge with span removed

 

 

An abandoned dock that stood here before they flooded the river to make Kentucky Lake in the 1940's

 

More barges

Can you see the lighthouse home in the trees?

 

A wise man builds his house on a rock!

 

Chapter 2…Kentucky Lake/Tennessee River

Friday, September 28^th, we left one of our favorite marinas, Green Turtle Bay (which is on Barkley Lake) and crossed over on a narrow passage way to Kentucky Lake/Tennessee River. The land between these two large bodies of water is called “The Land Between the Lakes” and is a National Park. Kentucky Lake is a beautiful and peaceful place to anchor and has 160,000 coves and beaches. It is one of the world’s largest manmade lakes with over 2,400 miles of shoreline. Once you arrive on this lake, our cruising guide cautions boaters to beware of fishing traps and small boats with diving flags flying. They are harvesting mussels, diving down to pick them from the bottom of the lake. The meat is used for bait and the shells exported to Japan where they are used for pearl production and jewelry. We have not noticed any boats with flags today, probably because it is RAINING! We have been so lucky on our trip to have very few rainy days, so we will just have to keep on our rain gear and smile! J

Health Club and the Jade Spa



Pedicure time at the spa



Even the entrance is decorated for Fall

More decorations...they are in the spirit!

Yesterday was our last day at Green Turtle, so we made the most of all its fine facilities.  After we had returned from Nashville, they had decorated for fall.  Pumpkins, cornstalks, bales of straw and mums could be seen everywhere!  Now the ladies reading this blog might understand my excitement when I found out that the Health Club and Spa on sight had pedicures. My poor little tootsies were a bit ragged and worn after all of my sailing duties.  AHHHH, it was wonderful.  Not something I had expected in a marina.  I have, also, mentioned the Loopers before in my blog.  Well, overnight about 8 – 10 new boats had come into the marina.  It is always fun to visit and find out where they are coming from and a little bit about their adventures on the rivers.  We met one couple who were from just South of Houston, TX and are just about to finish the Loop.  They, of course, knew all about Corpus Christi, so we had a lot to talk about.  Last night, we made our final reservation for dinner at our FAVORITE restaurant Patti’s 1880 Settlement.  It lived up to our past meals and we once again had one of their fabulous desserts.  Bill keeps telling us we are a “bad influence”.  I always respond by saying, “Didn’t your Mom tell you to be an engine not a caboose?”  Several of our friends have sent messages to us regarding THEIR stay at Kentucky Lake and Green Turtle Bay Resort and their fond memories.  Our friend Donna mentioned the Indian in the bathtub????  Well, last night we found him at Patti’s, so the picture we are posting is especially for Donna!  He’s still there J.

Donna, we found the Indian in the bathtub



Bill is ready to enjoy the flowerpot bread. He looks unhappy, because we made him wait to eat so we could take this photo.

I have REALLY enjoyed my blogging time today, since I am down below where it is DRY.  Hopefully by noon time, we will have passed this line of rain showers and see a bit of the sun.  Today is not a picture taking kind of day so far.  So, from the sailing vessel Kathryn we say “so long until next time”.

 

Steve & Bill leaving Green Turtle Bay in the rain...  Some days it just rains

 

 

 

Who is the grump?  Nancy or Steve... You decide.. Nobody likes the rain

 

We’re Back!!!

If you have been following our blog, you know we took a week for a  side trip to Nashville.  We didn’t have the luxury of taking a new highway home (aka a river) so many of the sights on our way back looked very familiar.  With that in mind, I have a few things to share from the past days on the Cumberland.

Fort Donelson is located on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. Here you see where the Confederate soldiers leveled their cannons and fire on the Union fleet as it rounded the curve in the river.  It is now a state park.  You may have to look REALLY closely to see the cannons, but they are there!

Kentucky State Prison was nicknamed The Castle on the Cumberland.  It really does look like a beautiful castle that actually executed 161 people.  Stone masons came all the way from Italy to work on the project.

 

 

Green Turtles

I am not a turtle expert, but most of the turtles I have seen in Indiana or Iowa were brown in color.  The turtles here have a green cast.  All day Monday, Steve kept busy with the binoculars watching all of the turtles sunning themselves on logs on the riverbank! (We are talking LOTS of turtles)

Mario -  This may be Crush's Kentucky cousin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prizer Point KOA campground and Marina

Our last night on the river was spent at Prizer Point Marina.  We were quite the “odd duck” since they had never had a sailboat in their marina.  It is starting to become the end of the season for boating facilities, so the offices are closing earlier and earlier and not offering as many amenities.  They did have a restaurant, but had sent the cook home early due to lack of customers (also known as no customers).  The lady in the office thought she could make us a pizza…that ended up being two pizzas and we were so thankful!  No doggie bags needed.

 

We are now busy cleaning and servicing the boat, and shopping for our next segment of the trip South through Kentucky Lake on the Tennessee River.  Steve had to order a part for the boat, which won’t arrive until Thursday P.M., so our estimated time of departure will be Friday.  So until next time, good-bye from Green Turtle Bay.



Steve coping with retirement - I think he will make it...

Music City USA… aka Nashville, TN



Clarksville TN Marina

When I last blogged, we were in Clarksville, TN for the evening on the last portion of the trip to Nashville.  Clarksville had just built a new marina with lovely facilities, so it was a wonderful evening complete with a DQ to top off the night.  Our sail to Nashville was rather routine river travel with hints of orange and yellow on the trees.  We enjoyed watching the seemingly hundreds of hawks soaring, gliding and flying way overhead above the river bluffs.  Beautiful and serene.

Docked at Clarksville Marina

 

We arrived at the Rock Harbor Marina in Nashville around three in the afternoon.  A few quick notes about this marina:  It was built inside of an old rock quarry and came complete with our own waterfall J.  The owner is a man named Arch Kelly, who happens to be Wynona Judd’s ex-husband!  (only in Nashville, huh?) Once we were tied up, it was time to go downtown!  If you haven’t done Nashville before, Broadway is the street for all the“action”! We ate dinner at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville Restaurant….how come that seems wrong for Nashville?  It was party city inside, including the “balloon man” who gave each of us our own specially designed hat.  Next, we stopped by B.B. King’s place and listened to some blues. Then we were off to some of the legendary honky tonk bars such as Legends (right behind the original Grand Old Oprey), Twin Fiddles Bar, and then walked over to the riverfront where The Zac Brown Band was having a two day concert.  Needless to say, there were tons of people in town.  On top of that, the Tenn. Titans were playing in town against the Lions so there were people EVERYWHERE.

Docked at Rock Harbor Marina.  It used to be a rock quary.

Waterfall in Rock Harbor

 

 

Margaritaville

Nancy gets a parrot head baloon hat

Looks like we all got baloon hats.

Saturday was spent somewhat like Friday!  We started on Printer’s Alley and visited the Bourbon Street Bar where Gil Ganan was playing.  His banner below the stage read, “Gil Ganan…150 pounds of blues”. He was a very slender young man and very good!  Next, we stopped by Silver Dollar Saloon, Robert’s Western World and Tootsies (the last two are legendary in Nashville as well as PACKED).  We took in more of the sights (and there are MANY…whoeeee) and ended up eating dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack.  After so much fun, it was time to catch a cab back to the marina.  You know, we are all in the 60+ age category, so not too late of nights for us J.

The human statue -  Scared the caca out of unsuspecting people walking by.

Bill in Printer's Alley

Steve chowing down at Joe's

 

After some Face Time with the children and grandchildren, it was time to call it a night.  Morning came early today, since we are headed back to the Kentucky Lakes area.  The Nashville trip was our only side trip of our trip down South.  Once we reach Kentucky Lake, we will provision for the remainder of the trip down to Mobile.  What is the expression, “South bound and down!”  As I am writing the blog, we have become “stuck” at a lock once again.  The Lockmaster said, “Captain, I will get you through in about two hours”.  I will not repeat what my response would have been!!!!  So, we sit idling while they lock through two barges!  Ahhh, the ways of the river!

One of the many stone cliffs along the Cumberland

The trees along the banks today really have a Fall look to them….happy Fall to all!  Thinking of all of our friends up North…we hear it is cool.  Stay warm.