Brrrr!

In the week since I last posted autumn has started to catch up with us.  We wake up with condensation dripping on our faces and we can see our breath amid the steam from our morning coffee.  We bought a Mr. Buddy propane heater at Walmart last week which helps warm up the cabin first thing.  Luckily the days have been sunny and warm so we don't get too miserable. The kids aren't bothered by the cold because they are usually still in bed for the worst of it.

We continue to find great anchorages, see spectacular sunrises and sunsets, and get a few surprises along the way.

Being up early for a long day has some advantages.

An abandoned dock at the site of a former grain silo on the Tennessee River

  

A cow watching the boats go by but not a farm in sight.

  

At the end of our journey on the Tennessee River the current was against us.
As much as 4 mph and we can only go 6.5!

On Pickwick Lake we turned off the Tennessee River and onto the Tenn Tom waterway. 
The waterway is man made so I enjoyed looking at all the engineering - like these baffles
which slow the flow of water into the canal.  They look like giant Plinko boards
from "The Price is Right"

The topography varies greatly as we head south.  At times it looked a little like Georgian Bay...

...and then very different just a few miles away.

Until today we haven't seen many other Loopers for several weeks other than the ones we travel with frequently - Ed and Shannon aboard Darwin, and Ben aboard Wrangler. Today all the Loopers suddenly appeared out of nowhere as we began our journey through the first of the many Tenn-Tom locks. In the first lock we were one of 8 boats, by the third we were one of 13.  I loved driving the boat through all the traffic and meeting other boaters as we rafted to them in the lock.

A 360 degree view of the crowded lock.

We now have a busy 2 weeks as we run down to Mobile, AL and get the mast put back up. There aren't many places to stop from here on down (even just to anchor) so we will have several long days.  Since the locks put commercial traffic through ahead of recreational, they provide a level of uncertainty which makes it hard to plan our day with 100% accuracy.

A perfect anchorage?

I'm sitting in bed this morning watching the mist lift off the lake through our front window.  I think we may be in a perfect anchorage.  We are in Clay Bay on Kentucky Lake (mile 52 of the Tennessee River).  There is good protection from almost 360 degrees, the scenery is perfect, the water is still warm enough for swimming, and we are the only ones here. I've promised myself I will get the blog updated this morning before I get up and start to do other things then forget entirely about writing.

360 view upon arrival

360 view the next morning.  It's getting chilly down here!

Nashville

The main reason for our long stay at Green Turtle Bay was a side trip to Nashville.  We had originally planned on taking the boat there to kill time until our insurance allowed us into the Gulf of Mexico on December 1st.  That restriction has now been lifted and there is no reason to dilly-dally so we rented a car, left the boat, and spent a night in Nashville (ah, air conditioning and unlimited hot water!).

We told Riley and Sam that we were taking them to a country review at the Grand Ole Opry. They were very good and didn't complain but Riley sure was happy when we surprised him with a Nashville Predators NHL game instead! I am not a hockey fan but the Nashville game was lots of fun.  It was more like an English football match with enthusiastic singing and chanting. We were up in the cheap seats and I think there were quite a few season's tickets holders around us since they all appeared to know one another.

I enjoyed the hockey much more live than on TV.  With this view I really got a sense of the whole game and not just the bits the broadcaster chooses to show which are sometimes out of context for a neophyte like me.

 Our only other planned stop in Nashville was the Johnny Cash museum where the kids were surprised to learn that songs used to be released on vinyl one at a time.  The expression 'b-side' was completely foreign to them.

I was completely enchanted by the neon signs that overwhelmed the senses on Broadway.  I wish the street could have been closed and free of cars and people so I could have photographed them all.

Most of the rest of the time was spent soaking up the atmosphere

Spotted on the back of a jacket.  Funny how it didn't make me feel safer.

One of many party bikes.  Cycle around town getting drunk.

Another reminded that we are in the South

Canadian country music. Or possibly American - I can't tell one hockey sweater from another.

We found out in Milwaukee that Sam is cooler than The Fonz.
Turns out he is also cooler than Elvis.

While we were back in civilization, Riley decided to chop his beautiful locks.

Before...

... after.

We also found time to buy a few souvenirs.

My stylish new PJs.

All-in-all we had a blast in Nashville and I would recommend it as a vacation destination.  I think it will be a place Reg and I will visit again, perhaps on the motorcycles.

Small town Kentucky

We just finished a week at Green Turtle Bay Resort and Marina.  All the Loopers say this is a must-visit marina but we found it to be pretty average.  Perhaps we were expecting too much after all the hype.

The two great things about the place were the courtesy car which allowed us to go into Paducah for a major provisioning and the location in the charming town of Grand Rivers, KY.  We were lucky enough to be there for the Harvest Moon Festival complete with great food trucks, crafty vendors, a small-town parade and all the people watching I could handle.

Our American friends on Darwin (Ed and Shannon) told us we should stand for the colour guard.
Not sure what a colour guard is but we stood dutifully.

I had more fun watching the kids scramble for candy thrown
from the float than I did watching the actual parade. 

We got a ride to and from the festivities on a street-legal golf cart.
That's Shannon and Ed in the foreground.

  

As I said, the people (and dog) watching was pretty amazing

The lockmasters control our destiny

Our last few days before hitting Kentucky Lake have been controlled by the locks and when we can get through them.  From Hoppies there is a long run with no fuel, showers, or provisioning for the 203 nautical miles to Kentucky Lake. On that stretch there is a series of 3 locks: Olmsted, lock 53, and lock 52.  Olmsted is under construction (it will eventually replace 52 and 53) and sometimes requires pleasure craft to have an escort through it.  52 and 53 are in terrible condition and have had many down periods during the last several months.  Shortly before we arrived 52 was down for about 10 days and there was a backlog of over 200 tows with their barges waiting to get through.  Luckily by the time we got there pleasure craft were being put through in between the barges so the wait was minor.  (a few days after we went through it was shut down again for almost a week). Locking through 52 and 53 was terrible and we could easily see why they were being replaced.

We elected to not tie up to the bollards but float in the lock instead which
was a lot of work as there were 6 pleasure craft in the lock all doing the same thing.

 After a stay in Paducah (a wall to tie to but no bathrooms, showers, or fuel) we had to decide if we were going to arrive at our next stop (Green Turtle Bay) via the Cumberland River or the Tennessee River.  Loopers are advised in the guidebooks and by Fern at Hoppies to take the Cumberland route.  It is 25 miles longer but the Kentucky lock on the Tennesse river is well known for long delays - sometimes upwards of 8 hours.  Given that we are a slow boat (we cruise at 5.8 knots - about 6.6 miles per hour) and going against the current makes us even slower we decided to chance it and take the Tennessee route after calling the Kentucky lock to find out about likely conditions that day.  Our gamble paid off.  Kentucky was the first lock on our entire trip where we had no wait.  The doors were open for us and we drove straight in.  We arrived at Green Turtle Bay before any of the other Loopers who had been tied up to the wall in Paducah with us the night before.  I think this will be the only time this happens on the whole trip! A couple of other boats we have been traveling with (Darwin and Wrangler) radioed us after we left and asked how it was going for us so they also came up the Tennessee and beat the odds. I'll have to remind them they owe us a beer!

The Mississippi

Reaching the Mississippi feels like a real milestone. I had held on to a romantic notion of boys on homemade rafts with straw hats and maybe a banjo or two. The truth can't be anything but disappointing after that.

The great thing about the Mississippi for cruisers is the current.  We typically travel at about 6.5 mph (we have switched to statute miles on the rivers because the mile markers are all statute) but with the current behind us we topped out at 10.8 yesterday!

The first big landmark on the journey down the Mississippi is St. Louis and I have to say it is the most miserable place we have passed on the trip so far.  There is no access to the waterfront for the citizens of the city or for cruisers passing through. What a wasted opportunity.  Even at the famous St. Louis arch there appears to just be a parking lot on the river. Compare these to the pictures of Chicago from a month ago:

The St. Louis riverfront has lots of abandoned industry.

Even the arch isn't very picturesque from the river.  That's our friends on Darwin in the foreground.

Someone decided to spruce up the place with this weird leg and skirt statue.

Our first stop on the Mississippi was the same as every other Looper's - Hoppies Marina.  Hoppies is a collection of rundown barges in Kimmswick, Missouri with fuel pumps but no other services (not even showers :( ). Everyday the owner, Fern, gives a briefing to all the Loopers on what to expect on the next 200 miles or so of the journey.  She points out anchorages she recommends, give phone numbers to contact locks, and tells us all exactly where the guide books got it wrong.  They run a very tight ship at Hoppies and while you are there you shut up and do what you are told!

Fern's daily briefing

Kimmswick was a pretty town with lots of interested ruins and abandoned buildings.

Scenes from the Illinois River

 We left the Illinois River this morning after 12 days of very straightforward travel.  No real current to speak of, not a drop of rain, and plenty of places to stop. At many times we were in the dead center of nowhere and much to the kids' horror had no cell service! 

For the most part the land around the river is pretty flat but occasionally there was some more interesting topography, especially as we got further south.

Our first confederate flag.  Spotted while we were still in the middle of the so-called Land of Lincoln. 

If I knew squat about birds I could tell you what this is. A pelican?

Rapunzel? My chart book included this as a landmark but unfortunately gave no information as to its purpose.

River levels on the Illinois are very low this year.  Some of the marinas are struggling because they don't have the depth to accept the larger boats heading south for the winter.

I'm sure you all know that I hate to be treated differently from the men.  I will make an exception when being treated differently means I get a decorated outhouse!

My sleep schedule is slowly adjusting to match daylight hours (Loopers refer to 9pm as "Looper midnight") which means I sometimes am up early enough to watch the sunrise.

We saw quite a few abandoned buildings on the river.  This one was my favourite.  Built on an old barge it is a real fixer-upper!

We found a giant Bass Pro Shop in Peorira. It even had a shark-themed bowling alley and a bar!

Sometimes the days on the river are long with not a lot to do.  So we resort to some silliness

When in Rome, drink as the Roman's do.  This Budweiser is branded as "America" complete with an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence and some lyrics from This Land is Your Land.