Clifton to Pickwick Lake

Our travels aboard Cloud Nine never cease to amaze us -- we are "in love" with our Adventures!! 

Thursday and Friday we traveled from Clifton, TN to Pickwick Lake.  We are now at Grand Harbor Marina -- The Harbormaster informed us the marina is in Mississippi yet once you walk off the marina to "dry land, you are in Tennessee!!  So today, we have traveled in 3 states!!  Within a 3 mile stretch on the Tennessee River, the state line changes from Tennessee to Alabama then to Mississippi---so we have traveled a 3-state tri-fecta in less than an hour!!

Sunset at Grand Harbor Marina - ooh-la-la

Another Sunset Picture -- worth posting 2 pictures -- Gorgeous

The landscape continues to change and amaze us.  I never thought there would be such an array of hills, rocks, and houses of every shape and size.  Many are built on stilts in case of flooding.  We passed a couple of huge barges and a passenger paddle riverboat.  Our day ended on a high note Thursday when we locked through Pickwick Dam.  The dam lifted us 70 feet into Pickwick Lake.  We were calm, collected and no one got yelled at -- we looked like pros and this is just our 2nd lock to go through!! 

Houses along the River

American Queen RiverBoat in Savannah, TN

Inside Pickwick Lock Holding Rope to Bollard keeping

us secure as we are raised 70 feet

What a huge and gorgeous lake Pickwick is....a "bucket list" item Gene had was to explore Pickwick Lake.  Well we'll be here a few days so he can check that off the list!  We spent the night at Pickwick State Park and Marina that is 1 mile past the Pickwick Dam.  We arrived at the marina around 4PM.  It is a lovely and quiet marina -- we were the only transient/overnight boater there!!  We had dinner at the Pickwick Lodge with a large buffet -- needless to say Gene took total advantage of that all-you-can-eat opportunity!!

Pickwick State Park Marina Entrance

Pickwick State Park Marina Office and Transient Area

Friday morning we started exploring Pickwick Lake  aboard Cloud Nine -- WOW they have some incredibly HUGE houses that are out of this world and drop-dead-gorgeous on hill-sides.  The lake is about as big and beautiful as the northern portion of Kentucky Lake.  We only went about 30-40 miles on Pickwick Lake then turned around and went back to the marina where we had reservations, Grand Harbor in Counce, TN.  This is a really nice marina with a huge condo complex and large gorgeous houses surrounding it.  There are many Ole Miss fans here so we feel right at home at the marina!!

Gorgeous home on Pickwick Lake

4-Story House on Pickwick Lake

Beautiful home at Grand Harbor Marina

Grand Harbor Marina Store

Condominium Complex at Grand Harbor Marina. 

We plan to stay here for a few days and "take in" the experience.  From here, we will venture back to Tennessee and see where we go next.  Have a happy weekend.

Pebble Isle Marina to Clifton Marina

It's been a while since we have made a "trip", but we have taken multiple "day trips".  We have wanted to travel more, but it seems every time we have a trip planned, a hurricane seems to come up through the Tennessee area which changes our plans.  We are "fair weather" and "daylight" only travelers at this point so if the weather seems to be rainy or windy, or may require travel after the sun sets, we just stay put and wait for the weather to clear.  We have thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking with many boaters that have stayed the night at Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, TN (where we are calling home base for now).  The folks that are traveling the Tennessee River are so friendly and eager to share their stories (both good and bad) with us.

But today, we continue our travels south on the Tennessee River.  The scenery has changed significantly throughout the day and we'd like to share some pictures of our adventure today.  We started the day with bright blue skies and a temperature of about 45 degrees.  We had to wait for the dew and fog to lift so we could see where we were going! 

The dew is so heavy, we have to dry off our windows before we can leave

As we left the marina, we passed the "steam plant" which produces electricity for TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority).  It is a huge plant and very impressive.

TVA Plant

We then go under the Hwy 70 bridge.  If you notice the picture below closely, there is a railroad track under the Hwy bridge.  The center section of the railroad bridge actually raises in case there are boats that need extra room to get under the bridge.

Notice the center section of the bridge is higher where the railroad crosses under the main highway bridge

This is the same bridge and the center section is lowered so trains can go under the highway bridge

The water is sparkling from the sun and the gentle breeze.  So beautiful.

We also went under the I-40 Bridge at Cuba Landing (exit #137 - for our Nashville friends, that is 70 miles west of Nashville on I-40.

I-40 at Exit #137 (70 miles west of Nashville)

As we move on down the river, the river narrows -- we are transitioning out of Kentucky Lake.  We also start to see lots of cliffs and rock including huge slabs of limestone.  Up until now, the river/Kentucky Lake has been very wide and flat.  Now the water is looking more like a river and we are seeing big cliffs and rock.

Then we see a "site for sore eyes" as there is a boat that is on land......so glad that isn't us!!  Guess they "zigged" when they should have "zagged".  No fear, the water will get deeper next spring....

Boat "ashore"

It took us about 6 hours to go 62 miles, but we soon reached our destination today at Clifton Marina.  It's a quaint marina but the owner could not have been any more friendly.  He was sporting an "Ole Miss" belt and flying an Ole Miss flat at the fuel island.....so we had lots to talk about as we have an Ole Miss alum in our family (Justin).  The marina owner, Gene Davidson, went to Ole Miss so he was oh-so-familiar with The Grove and Saturday football games!!  He loved the University as much as Justin did.

Entrance to Clifton Marina

We will leave Clifton Marina Thursday morning and head to Pickwick Lake -- and we'll have to go thru the lock at Pickwick -- hopefully I wont dread that one as much as I did the first one we went thru!!  More pictures and update from Pickwick Landing Marina and State Park tomorrow night.