The weather has been absolutely beautiful for the whole week. After it being so cold, windy and rainy for our travels on the Illinois and then dealing with so much debris on the Mississippi, it's like we found paradise in Grand Rivers.
9/21/14
We spent the whole morning cleaning the Mississippi mud off the boat. It was a difficult job and took lots of elbow grease as the mud was extra persistent and tough to remove. Afterward we relaxed by the pool with a cooler of beer.
9/22/14
Today's my birthday! We rented a golf cart & went exploring. We went to Patti's for my birthday dinner.
9/23/14
We went exploring by golf cart again. We went to see Barkley Lock & Dam, and then we went to The Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area.
9/24/14
We wanted to apply waterproofing to the bimini top, so we removed the eisenglass, took down the bimini & washed it in a bucket. After it dried Al then applied the waterproofing. While he was putting it back up the stitching for one of the zippers ripped apart. There's no way we would want to continue this trip without our bimini top, so now we needed an emergency repair. Luckily on the marina's bulletin board was the number for Creative Canvas. Al gave him a call & he came to look at the top. He took the bimini to his shop, restitched the entire canvas with gore tex thread, and the top was back up 1 1/2 hours later, now better than new.
9/25/14
We took the boat for a ride on Kentucky Lake. We saw an old flooded quarry, went for a swim & checked the running gear. After all the logs and debris we went through on the Mississippi, we're very lucky to not have any damage to our boat. Everyday at the marina we watch 5-6 looper boats get hauled out of the water because of bent props, broken bow thrusters, and leaking shaft seals. There are very few boats that got through the Mississippi without damage.
9/26/14
We used the marina's courtesy car to go the the supermarket in town. We're all stocked up for the next leg of our journey. We then took the car to Paducah with our friends Row & Gus from Summerland. We wanted to see the big festival of Barbeque on the River. The town was overflowing with people, and there were so many food vendors that it was tough to choose where to eat. The town of Paducah was very cute with lots of old buildings and beautifully painted murals on the sea wall.
9/27/14
We relaxed all day & went to the pool. Later at night we went to the seafood boil on the beach given by the marina yacht club.
Tomorrow we'll leave and start making our way down Kentucky Lake and the Tennessee River.
Our transportation
Patti's 1800's Settlement, known for their 2 inch pork chop, delicious.
Hooper likes riding in a golf cart better than the boat
Old time Kentucky gas station
Barkley Canal, connects Barkley Lake & Kentucky Lake
The land between Barkley Lake & Kentucky Lake is known as The Land Between The Lakes.
The turtles of Green Turtle Bay
We took a ride on Kentucky Lake
We went to an old rock quarry that was flooded when Kentucky Lake was formed. The water was 117 ft. deep. The walls are covered with graffiti.
Pisgah Bay off of Kentucky Lake
We anchored the boat to check the prop, rudder & thrusters, all was ok.
