Kentucky at Last!

(Note: I started writing this before we had to go home for my dad’s illness, so it might seem a little out of sync.)

            After a warm night anchored in a diversion canal we left early and headed on toward the Ohio. We saw some lovely scenery and even had a good view of a pair of eagles sitting in a treetop watching as we cruised by. Grafton had had signs posted around town advertising the fact that they are a wintering site for bald eagles. Apparently they spend a lot of time along the river.

            We had to go through several locks on the Mississippi. The thrill is gone. Locking through has certainly lost its charm. Half the time the lockmasters don’t bother to answer when you hail them on the radio and ask for instructions. You have to drop a loop around a bollard or bitt (I’ve never learned the difference) and just hold the end of the line as the bitt or bollard rises or falls with the water level in the lock.

            We got within a mile or so of a lock just downstream from Paducah, hailed the lockmaster and were told it would be a couple of hours before they could lock us through. Marty, in Glory Be II, didn’t hear our exchange as he was monitoring another radio channel. While Gilraker and Li’l David were busy finding an anchorage and getting set in it, the lockmaster told Marty he could come through in 15 minutes, that there was a new dock in Paducah and we could spend the night tied up there. The captains were leery of this info, since no one else had told us of a dock in Paducah, but we weighed anchor and hauled over to the lock as fast as we could. It would be edging toward dark by the time we got to Paducah and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity. Besides, Marty had lost his glasses and had only prescription sunglasses, so his night vision was limited to say the least.

            We aren’t sure if the lock operators had wrong information or if they simply wanted to get us on through the lock so they didn’t have to fool with us in the morning, but the new dock in Paducah turned out to be one that a fishing boat might be able to tie up to. There was nothing even remotely able to handle three boats over 30 feet long.

            So we began to look for another anchorage as twilight loomed and the sun sank lower and lower. Gary saw a towhead nearby listed as a suitable anchorage in one of our cruising guides, and, since he had his chart plotter on, headed for it. He didn’t notice a shoal until he’d already run aground and had to radio Li’l David and Glory Be II to not follow him in, especially as they both had deeper drafts than we did. Luckily the grounding was not serious and we were able to quickly back off and get into the channel.

            When we finally got to the towhead it was good and dark. Barb had to help Marty follow our stern light to find an anchorage among the barges which were anchored awaiting tows. When Gary found what we figured would be a safe place out of the way of barge traffic he turned on our spotlight and helped guide Glory Be to a place nearby with plenty of swing room from the bank. We spent a rather anxious night and took off bright and early the next morning for Green Turtle Bay and all its amenities.

            Not long after passing through our last lock for quite awhile we reached Green Turtle Bay. It is a great place to “come apart and rest awhile.” Especially the rest part because you pretty much feel like you’re coming apart by the time you get there. Dave Smith, another of Lorenzo’s friends, was there to help us dock. We arrived on Friday and quickly found out where the laundromat was, that there was a great restaurant in the clubhouse and absolutely beautiful surroundings. The weather was crisp with a tinge of fall in the air. On Saturday Dave got us reservations at Patty’s, the famous local eatery that has the world’s best pork chops. They are about two inches thick and grilled in such a way that they are still juicy and succulent. The wait staff was great and another of their specialties besides the pork chops is “Mile High Pie.” It is available in several flavors, including Gary’s favorite: Lemon Meringue. We took some back to the boat to eat later after we had digested some of the pork chops and accompaniments. We found the mile high pie to be just as tempting next morning, so we had dessert for breakfast.

            On Monday we all cheered as Our Turn poked her bow pulpit into GTB. Mary Anne, Bill and Kilby had finally finished the Loop! They were accompanied by two other boats they had met up with on the Illinois. Mary Anne made reservations for all of us at one of her and Bill’s favorite restaurants in Paducah to celebrate.

            Monday afternoon I got a call from my niece in Georgia. She and my nephew had found Dad on the floor in his bedroom when they got home from work. He had been taken to the hospital in Brunswick. Later, while we were at dinner, they called back with more information. Dad, who had just turned 94 in August, had had a major stroke. We had already made arrangements to pick up a rental car in Paducah and Dave took Gary to get it Tuesday morning. While Gary was gone Lois and Lorenzo made the decision to go back east with us and arrangements were made to store both boats in the same slip for awhile.

            We left Tuesday afternoon and after a twelve-hour drive, arrived in Tabor City in the wee hours. Lois and Lorenzo took the rental on to Shallotte while we grabbed a few hours sleep and headed for Brunswick early in the morning. After two weeks in the hospital and a week in hospice, Dad passed away in the evening of September 25. We decided to have the funeral on Saturday in order to accommodate the minister and friends and family coming from elsewhere. He would have loved the funeral and the barbecue lunch afterward. That enabled those from out of town to visit with each other, tell stories about Dad and each other and was just the type of thing he used to love for birthdays and family reunions. On Monday we drove to Tennessee for the interment next to my mother and brother.

            After another week wrapping up details we returned to Tabor City and took care of even more details. We had planned to come home in October anyway, and had a chance to get some laundry done, run the vacuum through the house and once again hopped in the rental car and headed west. We were downright jubilant when we pulled up at the end of the dock where our boats were waiting. We were HOME!

            Lois was thrilled to find that her anti-spider campaign had succeeded. She had sprayed and sprayed before we left, and Dave had volunteered to spray again while we were gone. There was hardly a web in sight! Mary Anne and Bill had checked on the boats for us too. (They are still in GTB, living on Our Turn while they build a house. Our Turn has been sold and when the new owners take possession Mary Anne and Bill will move into one of the condos at GTB while the house is finished.) Ike and Gustave had caused more havoc in this area than on the coast where the damage is usually done. Mary Anne told us they had had 70 mph wind gusts and a lot of rain while we were gone. Parts of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers had been closed for as long as a week and we have heard mini-horror stories about washing machines floating down the river, not to mention trees and other debris, besides boats getting stranded with no facilities but what they had on board. Our boats had not suffered at all and were a beautiful sight for us.

            We soon had the boats cranked up and headed back to the transient slips where we had previously been docked. Nothing seemed to have changed except that the leaves were getting more colorful. We had a call from my niece, Rachel, who had been unexpectedly laid off from her job in Jacksonville. She wondered if she could spend a few days with us on the boat. We were delighted and made arrangements to meet her in Nashville, where we picked her up Sunday afternoon. Next day we pulled out of GTB and into the Tennessee River, heading toward Chattanooga.

            We had a great time on this leg of the trip. The weather was chilly to cold, but often warm in the daytime, especially when the sunlight streamed into the pilot house. Rachel is a real trouper and coped with sleeping on a bench in the pilot house that is about 18 inches wide, having to move her closet, aka suitcase, from Gary’s bunk to the pilot house each night, then back each morning, having no privacy except when actually in the head, and being wakened every morning by someone making coffee before dawn. There is also the noise factor: two elderly people pumping the toilet in the middle of the night, a parrot sleeping in a cage hanging over the end of your bunk and squawking with the sunrise, squeaking fenders rubbing against the dock and getting used to the slop-slop of waves against the side of the boat.

            Rachel outlasted it all, even seemed to enjoy it, and we wended our way up the Tennessee through some of the most gorgeous scenery we’d seen, including Canada. We spent two nights at Grand Harbor Marina at Rogersville, Alabama, a beautiful place near where the Tenn-Tom Waterway joins the Tennessee and Tombigbee rivers. Another was Joe Wheeler State Park near Decatur, Alabama, where my cousin Deborah and her husband Paul joined us for dinner at the lodge. It was great seeing family we hadn’t seen in about twenty years. We anchored out a couple of nights and Rachel and I made a list of places we’d stayed according to what we’d had to eat that night. I think Rachel might have added a pound or two under our bad influence.

            On the way up the river we met several Looper boats that had gone further up the river after attending the Great Loop Cruisers Association Rendevous at Joe Wheeler State Park. Among them were Judy and Les Emery on Voyager II. We had met them back in Canada and have seen them off and on in various marinas ever since. At Goosepond, near Scottsboro, Alabama, we met up with Robert and Kay Creech. They had left North Carolina two weeks after we did in C-Life. Robert and Lorenzo had worked together at the Southport Power Plant, and we had met them at Wrightsville Beach our first night on the Loop. When we caught up with them again they were traveling with five other boats and we all went through a lock together.

            We docked in Chattanooga at a city dock right at the famous aquarium. There were no amenities in the section we were in except power and water, but they were all we needed. Rachel found us a restaurant on-line and Gary directed Cheryl, our Tom-Tom girl to get us there. We love Cheryl, although a wife less sure of herself might soon become jealous. Gary will listen to Cheryl when he won’t even give me the time of day, and when SHE stops talking, he stops until he can get her talking again. He would like nothing better than for me to be mute for days at a time.

            On Thursday we reluctantly drove Rachel back to Nashville. It had taken nine days to get to Chattanooga from Green Turtle Bay. The drive to Nashville on land was almost the same from both locations, about two hours. Lois and Lorenzo were almost as sorry to see Rachel leave as we were. Her witty quips were enjoyed by all. The four of us enjoy each other’s company, but it was a treat having a fresh young person along.

            We stayed one more day in Chattanooga, a day in which we got laundry and other chores done and huffed and puffed walking up and down hills. I believe even I might get in shape after a while there. To add to the huffing and puffing, we had to park the rental car in the outback of beyond because they closed the street that came up to the docks. The “Head of the Hooch” festival was due to start on Saturday and vendors were beginning to set up tents. Scull crews were practicing up and down the river and pacer boats, or whatever they were, zoomed up and rocked our boats quite a bit. We wanted to stay through the weekend, but the docks were already reserved, so we had to pull out Friday.

            We anchored out in a cove Friday night, joined by several other boats we’d seen in Chattanooga, just downriver from Nickajack lock. Gary grilled steaks on the back deck and we had our regular chow-down. On Saturday we arrived back in Goosepond Marina at Scottsboro, one of our favorite places. The restaurant had been closed on our first visit, so this time we graced it with our presence and had their famous shrimp and grits. My-oh-my! Fried green tomatoes for an appetizer and shrimp and grits to follow. Don’t get no better than this!

            After spending a quiet Sunday at Goosepond and getting re-acquainted with many of the boats we’d been with in Chattanooga, we plan to pull out Monday as soon as the fog lifts and head on down the Tennessee.

            Sorry I haven’t blogged in so long. I’ve been surprised at the number of people who told me you missed it. Thank you for the compliments. I’ve probably left a lot out that I might think of later and have a “catch-up” session. I have a new camera so I have to tax my brain into a new mode to “fix” the pictures for publication. That’s for next time. I’m finally getting caught up on my napping and hopefully will get this going again. And I promise a lot of pictures on the next one. Thanks for all your prayers and good thoughts during my dad’s illness and your patience while I was grieving. It helps.