Greetings from Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, Kentucky!  We arrived here on Thursday afternoon after passing through the large Barkley Dam and sailing on Lake Barkley.  It is beautiful country!  We plan on staying here about a week for some cleaning, laundry, shopping and “rest and relaxation”!  We are doing a FINE job with all of those.

The Barlkey Lock is the largest lock we have been through.  We were liftted 57 feet.

Once again, when we arrived we saw several boats that we have met along the way.  So as all good Loopers do, someone suggested a happy hour in the gazebo at five.  This was followed by dinner at the Commonwealth Yacht Club which is right here on property.  It is a lovely building overlooking Lake Barkley.  This area is a “dry county” so if you care to have a drink with dinner, you bring your own bottle, give it to the waitress and she brings glasses and serves you your drink. (For this service you pay a dollar per glass!)  One whole wall of the restaurant is made up of small locked cabinets to house the liquor of all the members who don’t want to cart their “bottles” every time.  Very interesting set up.

Happy Hour

Dinner at the Yacht Club

Yesterday was a day for us to clean the boat after a week on the water.  Also, I did quite a few loads of laundry, so now we are set for another week!  We, also, took a walk into the nearby town of Grand Rivers, Kentucky.  It is located between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake and receives lots of tourists.  As with any tourist center, there are many shops, restaurants and antique stores.  We had been directed to eat at Patti’s 1880s Restaurant.  It did live up to its reputation.  (It was picked as a top spot to eat in Southern Living Magazine.)  Steve ordered their 2 inch high pork chop for which they are famous!  Oh boy, it was BIG and half of it will be Steve’s lunch this afternoon!  Bill and I paced ourselves and saved room for their prize winning dessert…Bill’s Boat Sinker Pie!  It has a warm brownie like base, topped with mocha ice cream and whipped cream, drizzled in chocolate with a cherry on top.  It fed all three of us…yummy and delicious!  Good thing we had to walk a mile to town and a mile home again.  That about did us in for the day.  We spent the evening reading, calling family and just relaxing!  Who says retirement and boating aren’t hard work? 

This morning at nine, Steve and I, along with two other couples rented the marina van and headed off for another Wal Mart shopping trip in Benton, Kentucky!  An hour after arriving, we had bags and bags of groceries, AGAIN!  One problem, you couldn’t buy liquor or beer in Benton because it is in a dry country.  NO, we don’t have a drinking problem, but we did want to stock up.  So, we were told if we drove to Murray, Kentucky, you could buy liquor there…so off we went.  Twenty miles later in Murray, we find out that was NOT true because it was “dry”, too! To verify that none of us have a serious drinking problem, we scraped the search and went back to the marina.  Anybody for a Coke?  J

The Shoppers Return from Wall Mart

All the provisions are now neatly packed away on the boat and Steve and Bill are off on our dingy for a ride around the marina and lake.  Me….I have blogging to do!  So, until we visit again, have a great weekend!