Monday, October 14, 2013 – Back in Merritt Island for a short visit

We departed Clarksville and Sanderling a week ago today, as soon as Judy was able to get the rental car from Enterprise and we were able to load our bags and cats. The drive back home was relatively easy – just 13 hours underway including pit stops. The cats did well as you can see from this photo.

 

We’ve decided that we are definitely going to go up the Tennessee River as far as Chattanooga at mile 464 before returning to the junction with the TomBigBee Waterway at mile 215 of the Tennessee River. That will add another 500 miles to the trip home but we probably will never be in this area by boat again so wanted to enjoy as much of the rivers as we could and still get home before Christmas!

Sunday, October 6, 2013 Clarksville, Tennessee

We departed Nashville Friday morning (October 4th) after four great days in Nashville (more about that later). We anchored for the night a few miles above Cheatham Lock and Dam in the Harpeth River (where we anchored the nights of the 28th and 29th of September). The next morning (October 5th) we called the lock by phone prior to raising the anchor to ask when they could lock us through if we could be there in about 40 to 50 minutes and were told to come on down and they’d be ready for us. We did and they were! We went right into the open lock chamber and were on our way downstream about 15 minutes later after having been lowered 26 feet.

We’re now in a great marina in Clarksville, Tennessee (the same town we stayed in the night of September 27th). We are in a floating, covered slip and have it for a month. Why, you might ask? We’re renting a car from Enterprise (just down the street) and are driving overland back to Florida and home for a couple of weeks while we take care of doctor and dentist appointments, Judy terminates her leave of absence by working a couple of days at her hospital in Sebastian, and we sort through all the mail that has accumulated in the past five plus months! Despite their pleas to the contrary, we’re going to subject Khepera and Ernie to the 14 hour road trip (times two) so they can have a brief respite from the boating life and knock back the patio’s enole population that has undoubtedly flourished in their absence. We’ll depart tomorrow morning as soon as Enterprise can get us set with a vehicle, and 14 hours later we should pull into our driveway. We’ll return to resume our boating adventure near the end of the month. We still have over a thousand miles of water travel remaining on our trip back to Merritt Island, more if we decide to cruise up the Tennessee River to Chattanooga.

Nashville – The Home of Country Music / The Country Music Capital of the World

We just spent four interesting days in Nashville, Tennessee, about 160 miles upstream from Green Turtle Bay  I have a totally different understanding and appreciation for “country” music having been there.

We attended the Grand Ole Opry the first night, and the major sights in the downtown area dealing with country music and its history. At night we did some bar-hopping to listen to local groups ply their version of country and rock music to standing room only crowds in relatively small venues with amplified music so loud that at times it was impossible to tell if anyone was singing or if there were just instruments making all the noise! Even the Grand Ole Oprey seems to have hired some over-amplified-sound-dead tech to run their sound boards; except for the few groups/songs that were acoustic, everything was amplified beyond belief, sometimes reaching the near pain thresh-hold. Nevertheless, it was interesting and entertaining.

One overamplified spot we liked and returned to several times was Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar in an area called Printer’s Alley (several blocks off Broadway, the happenin’ street). We saw two great groups perform there, both with musicians with national reputations who put on great shows with recognizable music – some rock but mostly blues (one of my favorite genres). The names of the performers and their groups we enjoyed were Stacy Mitchard and Andy T & Nick Nickson – check them out on YouTube.

Here’s a photo of another place on Printer’s Alley (Judy, Gary, and Jann):

Also had some of the best ribs and barbeque we’ve ever experienced at Jack’s – a little hole in the wall with the ordering line going out the door and onto the street at eight at night!

Even if you’re not a country music fan, don’t pass up a chance to visit Nashville.

Monday September 30, 2013 Nashville, Tennessee

My ole dog died in the bed of my pickup truck, and my woman left me for the guitar player! We’re in Nashville, the country music capital of the world!

We arrived in Nashville at the municipal docks yesterday a few minutes after noon. We will be here for four night (thru Thursday) taking in the sights and sounds of this interesting city. Tonight we have tickets to the Grand Ole Oprey (no longer in the original theater downtown, but now owned by Gaylord Enterprises).

The trip up the Cumberland River has been interesting with beautiful landscapes around every bend (and there seem to be a lot of bends on this river). We started at Green Turtle Bay Marina at Lake Barkley this past Wednesday morning and anchored for the night on a little bay off Barkley lake at mile 39.9. The next night (Thursday the 26^th of September) we ran about 49.1 miles to Hickman Creek and anchored in another small bay with no houses, only a few fishermen, and on Friday September 27^th cruised to Clarksville, Tennessee, about 38.5 miles further upstream at mile 126.0. There we stayed at the town dock and ate at Kelly’s (old fashioned hamburgers for dinner, an omelet with everything for breakfast). We also toured the Customs House and Post Office Museum (interesting place).

We stayed in Clarksville until almost noon in order to walk around town, visit the farmers market and tour the museum, then headed to the next anchorage at Harpeth River, above Cheatham Lock and Dam. When we got to the dam (with our “buddy boat) we were told that there would be about a six hour delay while two tows were locked through. Our buddy boat attempted to anchor below the dam but couldn’t get their anchor to hold, while we were in the process of looking for a place to anchor closer to shore in what appeared to be a shelf of shallower water. A few minutes later the lockmaster contacted us on VHF to let us know that he would lock us through with a light tow (tug only, no barges) when the tug locked up to pick up his tow of 12 barges which had already been locked up and pulled out the top side by another tug on the upstream side. The light tow took the forward most position in the lock, and we took the first pins on either side of the downstream side of the lock so we were as far away from the light tow as possible in the lock. When the water was fully raised and the upstream doors opened, the light tow attached itself to the end of the waiting barges and started pushing upstream; we waited until the tow had fully cleared the upstream side of the lock and then proceeded upstream ourselves. We still got to our Harpeth River anchorage by 1745 and anchored about a mile upstream just below some limestone cliffs that were at least 100 feet high – a beautiful spot.

The next morning (September 29th) we lowered the dinghy and the four of us took a short ride further up the Harpeth River (said by some to be one of the most beautiful rivers in Tennessee). Our buddy boaters departed that day to go to an anchorage about 13 miles upstream so they could get to the town dock at Nashville (where we both had reservations) early in hopes of getting a spot farthest away from the bridge that spans the river above the dock. We stayed in the river anchorage that day and departed early the following morning for Nashville. When we got to Nashville about noon our friends were already at the dock (farthest spot) and there was a good spot for us ahead of them with one boat in between.

The Nashville town dock is located at the foot of Broadway, the happeningest street in town! Fortunately, we were several blocks from the loudest part of the scene so we were able to sleep at night, except for the commuter train that pulled into the commuter rail station just up the ramp from the dock at 0700 every morning!

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

We’re really behind events but it has been a busy couple of weeks. I’ll try to find the time to bring the earlier posts up to date. We have completed the Illinois River, took a road trip to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa (Bob’s home town), completed the Mississippi River to the Ohio, the Ohio to the Cumberland, and the Cumberland River through Barkley Lock onto Lake Barkley. We’ve been at Green Turtle Bay Resort/Marina for the past two nights, and today will head out with some friends in another trawler to head up the Cumberland River to Nashville. We have reservations at the town docks in Nashville for four nights starting Monday – couldn’t get in earlier due to a football game on Sunday when the docks are full.

Tonight we’ll get about 9 miles away from Green Turtle Bay Resort and anchor, then slowly proceed up the Cumberland, anchoring whenever we can, and arrive there on Monday to tour the Country-Western Music Capitol of the World!

More later!