Meandering Magees: More of Kentucky Lake

Day 38 - October 14

946 miles

We spent 3 nights at Kenlake Marina - a small marina on Kentucky Lake that is within the Kenlake State Park. It was a quiet 3 days - no repairs and no cleaning the boat. You have to be thankful for the little things . . .

Our tie up on the finger dock at Kenlake was like trying to parallel park a car (see picture below). Not an easy task when we don’t have side thrusters, but Mike got to polish up on his driving skills and put the boat right into place. I just throw ropes to the dock hands.

Two couples that keep their houseboats at this marina invited us to join them for dinner (chili), but I had already prepared ours. But the invite led to them taking a tour of True North and I got to see the inside of one of the houseboats. Wow - a true floating condo. The kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms are all full-sized. Plus a slide from the top deck!

The marina has a restaurant that is open for breakfast and lunch. A popular place as we got one of the last tables on Sunday morning.

There was a Kodak moment on Monday morning before we left. Mike is an early riser, and when he looked out the back window, there was a blue heron perched on our dinghy, with the sun rising behind it, and steam coming off the water. That is how he described it to me as I wasn’t up yet. Unfortunately, a verbal image is all there is as HE DIDN’T TAKE A PICTURE. He obviously is no Todd Reed! (a local reference. For those that aren’t from Ludington, I’d say he’s no Ansel Adams!)

We left Kenlake later Monday morning for a short ride to Paris Landing Marina. Another marina within a state park, but it put us in Tennessee.

While traveling on Kentucky Lake, I spend lots of time looking through the binoculars at the numerous coves. They are all calling me to come in, drop an anchor and jump in. But I am not the one driving or the one concerned with water depth in those pretty coves.

Another quiet two days, with our main entertainment watching the lineup of fishing boats launching from the nearby boat ramp in the mornings and the flotilla of those same boats coming back in around dusk. There were always a few scragglers, visible only from the green and red glows of their nav lights in the darkness.

Paris Landing had a golf course, but our clubs won’t catch up to us until we get to Florida. The marina office had a long beam in the water that marked water depths. The current level was a good 2 ft. below the mark that indicated the summer depth. That makes for interesting shoreline views but the this winter pool level is a concern when you draft 5 to 5.5 ft like we do.

Observation: the farther south we get, the thicker the southern accents. And I’m ok with being called “ma’am” every time I ask a question. “Yes, ma’am.” “No, ma’am.”

We left Paris Landing on Wednesday morning at 10. The wind had picked up and there was a chop on the lake - little whitecaps even. We passed 2 barges, the first we have seen on Kentucky Lake. Thirty-one miles later we pulled up to the fuel dock at Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, Tennessee at 12:45. The marina is about 1500 yards down a channel off the lake. At first glance from the lake, it looked like there was no way we would be able to get back to the marina. But the channel was well-marked with buoys that put us on a curvy path back to a beautiful cove. We will be here 3 nights while we wait for Greg and Karen to get back onboard on Friday night.

There are two good reasons for coming to Pebble Isle. They have the lowest diesel price on Kentucky Lake and homemade cinnamon rolls given free every morning to the transient boaters! Other Loop boaters mentioned the rolls, so Thursday morning I followed the delicious smell down the dock to the little restaurant behind the office, got two in a to go box and took them back to the boat where we enjoyed every bite. A real treat.

Another nice thing about this marina is their courtesy car. We were able to make a trip into Camden to stock up on groceries. New Johnsonville is so small there is no grocery store.

We also washed the boat Thursday afternoon, because, well, it had been a whole 9 days since the last cleaning. With temps only in the low 60’s and cloudy skies, the chore was less taxing than usual.

You can imagine my delight when I discovered New Johnsonville had a visitor center, Civil War museum and an orientation film! If you have followed our meanderings since 2013 when we traveled in our RV, you understand what a wonderful surprise this discovery was, especially for such a small town. If you are new to the blog because of the boat trip, I’ll explain by saying we stopped at every visitor center and watched every orientation film while traveling across the U.S. I always came away richer for the experience, and possibly even a little more knowledgeable.

So with an interest in history and the Civil War that was fueled by my brother Tim's love for all things regarding the Civil War, I borrowed the courtesy car once more on Friday afternoon and spent about an hour at the visitor center/museum. It was built 4 years ago and does an impressive job of telling the story of the role of Johnsonville in the Civil War. I had never heard of this battle, but found out through the film and displays that it was one of the last hurrahs for the Confederate army. With its strategic location on the Tennessee river, Johnsonville became a major supply depot for the Union armies in Nashville. Hoping to cut off that supply and cripple Sherman’s army, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest planned a brilliant attack on the depot at Johnsonville. It was successful, and rather than have the supplies fall into Confederate hands, the Union commander of the depot set fire to the entire complex. Millions of dollars of supplies were destroyed. The battle was a victory for the South, but the intended result was not as the Union army relied on other supply lines and Sherman continued his march to the sea.

After the war, the town of Johnsonville grew along the river. But frequent flooding of the Tennessee river dwindled the population to less than 300 in the early 1940’s. That town ceased to exist as the creation of Kentucky Lake covered the area. Our marina is next to the state park that sits on the site of the original Johnsonville, although most of it is under water. New Johnsonville is on a higher elevation.

There is a Civil War reenactment this weekend that I would love to go to but the river is waiting . . .