Day 16 - Back on the Boat Again!

 

After a 7 week “layover” we are happy to be back on our boat again.  We drove from Chicago to Grand Rivers, KY, Friday, October 25, with fresh supplies for our second leg of the Loop. 

Grand Rivers and the Green Turtle Bay Marina and Resort have changed in our absence.  They are decorated for fall with mums, pumpkins, hay bales and cornstalks.  And what a difference in weather from early September and its unrelenting heat: it was 35 degrees last night.  Instead of running the ac , we ran the heat all night last night.

 

After unloading and returning the rental car to the regional airport, we drove the Green Turtle Bay shuttle, a/k/a “The Beast,” into Paducah for dinner.  The Beast is an old van with torn upholstery, missing temperature control knobs, a “wired” interior light, a perpetual “check engine” light, and various other deficiencies.  It did, however, get us to where we needed to go.  We had excellent Italian fare at Cynthia’s, the number 2 rated restaurant in Paducah (according to Trip Advisor), in the historic Market Square neighborhood.  The building was reminiscent of older Chicago but predates our city as it was constructed in 1856.  Originally a brothel, it has an intricate copper ceiling in the main dining room on the first floor.  We wished we had been able to see the area in the daylight and take pictures.

Today we were up at 7 to get the boat ready to go, return the Beast to the marina office, and cook breakfast before leaving the dock at 10:25 am.  The temperature was still in the upper 30’s/low 40’s when we left and it barely made it to the mid-50’s.  The day was mostly overcast, unlike the sunny skies of our first leg.  We took the Barkley Canal to Kentucky Lake, part of the Tennessee River, and made our way south to Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, TN. 

Kentucky Lake/Tennessee River is wide with tree covered banks.  As we entered, the Kentucky Dam was behind us and on the left were two large mooring cells (look like big barrels) for barges.  Along the way, we saw a number of small fishing boats anchored in the many coves.  We passed under the Eggner Ferry Bridge, a very long, picturesque bridge across the river (pictured below).  There are a number of homes along the right descending bank (RDB) while the left descending bank (LDB) is desolate.  The next bridge, the Ned R McWherter Bridge, has very clean lines in concrete and steel, in sharp contrast to the Eggner Ferry Bridge.

 

Next we passed Paris Landing State Park/Marina/Resort at mile marker 66 (MM 66) and a car ferry at Danville Landing.  A small flock of swans swam beside us.  As we drew closer to New Johnsonville, we saw more homes on the river banks.  It was at this point we passed a couple of barges.  In contrast to the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, we saw very few barges.  The only other boats we saw were fishing boats.  We then saw another bridge, but it only went part of the way across the river.  A “Bridge to Nowhere” on the Tennessee River?  Just beyond this is a dilapidated building in the river that appeared to have once been a house.  The Bridge to Nowhere and the “Haunted” house in the river are quite mysterious and raise many unanswered questions.
 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at Pebble Isle Marina at 2:17 pm, settled in, and prepared for Game 3 of the World Series.  Randy is an avid Cardinals fan, having grown up in St. Louis, and made sure we were “wired” for the game.  The marina folks are very friendly and we traded boating stories with one of them that evening at dinner, which was very good.  His dog, Indie, is a Blue Heeler and we had not seen this breed before.

 The Cardinals ended up winning the game and that topped off a happy day for Captain Randy.