Meandering Magees: Kentucky Lake

Day 32 - Saturday, October 8
888 miles to Kenlake Marina

It has been 20 days since my last post, mainly because 18 of them were spent at the same spot - Green Turtle Bay Marina on Lake Barkley in Grand Rivers, Kentucky. True North did finally move yesterday, and that, along with Hurricane Matthew prompted an update. To reassure all, we are far enough inland (Tennessee River) that we are well out of harm's way from the hurricane. On Thursday, we did talk to a couple who are on the Loop and their boat is in Beaufort, SC. Their boat was being pulled out of the water as a precaution and they rented a car to drive inland. Knowing there are always Loopers this time of year at Green Turtle Bay, they chose to stay here for a few days.

Our time at GTB was full of activity. So much for the relaxation part. I have come to the conclusion that the laid-back, read a book, watch the scenery part of the trip is when we are actually moving! When we are tied at a dock, the cleaning and maintenance and repairs seem never ending.
We installed a 12-volt charger on the flybridge dashboard to charge our iPhones and iPads up top. Mike uses electronic navigation charts on his iPad while we are traveling so the device is often fired up for 10 to 12 hours at a time. Greg and Karen replaced the shower pump. Mike changed the generator oil. And to take off the "Mississippi Mustache" True North grew while traveling on that river, we used the dinghy to circle the outside of the boat, hand scrubbing away the brown grime. We had many people stop on the dock to comment on how much they liked the boat and how white it was. Although Mike and Greg have different personalities (as I've mentioned before), they both subscribe to the motto "Cleanliness is next to Godliness."

Fortunately, some of our activity was fun. We took advantage of having Karen's car and made a day trip on the 21st into Paducah (30 miles) with fellow Loopers Dan and Jenny from Gypsy Spirit. The girls went to the National Quilt Museum and the guys went to the airport to pick up our rental car. The museum was filled with true works of art. Most interesting was a section of miniatures. The hand work on such a small scale was amazing. They do not allow any pictures of the quilts, so you will just have to take my word for it.

Family friends, originally from Ludington and now living in Paducah, provided much of the enjoyment. While Mike and I were back in Michigan, Tom and Toni Greene treated Greg and Karen to a train ride on the P and L line. (Paducah-Louisville).
Then it was Greg and Karen's turn to return to Ludington. But the other Greg and Karen joined us for a long weekend. Sister Karen and brother-in-law Greg sampled boat life from Sept. 29-Oct. 3. The dark cloud during their visit literally was a dark cloud. After temps in the low 90's, the clouds and rain moved in for that weekend making the 70 degrees seem even colder. Even in the rain, you have to eat so we made another trip to Patti's.
The sun returned on that Sunday and the Greene's again showed us their southern hospitality. Tom is a private pilot and took Mike and Greg up for a ride. Toni took Karen and I downtown Paducah to see the murals on the Flood Wall. I learned a bit of trivia looking at the murals. One was of Alben Barkley, a Kentucky native who was Vice-President under Harry Truman. The Barkley Lock and Dam that we went through is named for him.

On Monday we said good-bye to the Wessendorf's, cleaned the boat inside and out to get ready for our next visitors - Emma and Bernetta made the drive down from Louisville on Tuesday. Wednesday was a girls day, shopping and a stop at a small winery. Bernetta had never been to Patti's, so Emma treated all of us to another pork chop dinner that night.

The Louisville Two left on Thursday, so we readied the boat to leave on Friday. Thursday night, the marina had a Looper-Q, a free BBQ dinner for all the Loopers.

After 18 nights docked at Green Turtle Bay Marina, Mike and I took True North out of the harbor, through the Barkley Canal into Kentucky Lake on Friday morning. This was a big deal for us as we have never traveled on the boat with only the two of us. Just like putting up a live Christmas tree can test a marriage, so can leaving and entering a dock on a boat. I'm happy to report the 42nd anniversary we celebrated on the 28th will not be our last! You have to be thankful for the little things . . .

We considered the Barkley Canal a no wake zone, but the Bass fishing boats that zipped past us did not. There were so many of them in the canal and on Kentucky Lake, we decided either A) nobody in Kentucky works on Friday, or B) there is a fishing tournament. We found out later it is the latter.

Kentucky Lake is a boaters paradise. Pontoon boats or houseboats are the perfect mode of transportation to explore the abundance of coves and inlets. The lake is the largest artificial lake by surface area east of the Mississippi- 184 miles long. It was created in 1944 when the Tennessee River was dammed. (I just asked Mike to suggest another word for boat, as I feel like I repeat it too much. He said, "A hole in the water which we pour money into." Which is the exact saying on a sign my sister-in-law gave me last year!) Lake Barkley parallels Kentucky Lake. It had a similar birth - the 1966 impounding of the Cumberland River by the Barkley Dam. The area between the two lakes is appropriately called The Land Between the Lakes. While resorts and marinas line the west shore of Kentucky Lake and the east shore of Lake Barkley, their other shorelines -the land between the lakes - remains natural with little commercial development except for campgrounds and hiking and biking trails.
We took a slow ride 20 miles down Kentucky Lake to Kenlake State Park and the marina here, where we plan to stay several days. We are in no hurry as we have a week to get to the end of the lake - New Johnsonville, Tennessee, where Greg and Karen will join back up with us on the 15th and we will then continue the adventure.