Fireworks....Fireworks....Fireworks

We love fireworks -- and this year we were able to take in and see 3 different fireworks shows on the Tennessee River. Our "home" marina, Kenlake, had their fireworks the weekend before July 4.  We were invited to a houseboat at the end of our dock for a potluck dinner and to see the fireworks on top of their boat with about 40 other people.  The fireworks were amazing.

Here are a few of our favorites from Kenlake Marina:

I then saw on Facebook that Pebble Isle Marina was having fireworks on July 3 so we made a last minute decision to drive our boat about 50 miles to see those fireworks.  It was also about 60 miles for our daughter and grandsons so they drove to meet us and enjoy the fireworks there.  Here are a few favorites:

Paris Landing Marina hosted the largest fireworks show for about 30,000 people (both on land and on the water) on July 4.  They were spectacular:

 And our "vacation" weeks would not be complete without our oldest grandson joining us for a week or two on the water!!  He thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks, swimming, fishing and riding/driving his Sea Ray!!

It was a perfect two-week vacation taking in the sites and sounds of the Tennessee River. 

Love my Captain....Love Cloud Nine.... 

2018 Boating Season Has Arrived

There is nothing better nor more rewarding for us (other than our incredible grandkiddos) than the arrival of summer and more specifically, boating season.  Last year was our maiden season traveling on the river so 2018 signifies the year to venture out and experience more destinations.  This year we will be checking off one of our infamous "bucket list" items which is to be part of Vol Navy.  For anyone not familiar with what Vol Navy is, it is where hundreds of boats tie up together during a UT football game along the Tennessee River.  The UT football stadium is located on the banks of the TN River.  We have seen pictures and heard stories of how incredible it is -- so we will take about 5 weeks traveling from the most northern part of the TN River where we are located now in western Kentucky over 650 miles to Knoxville, TN - arriving before the first football game scheduled for September 1.  This trip will take us south through western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, northern Alabama, northern Georgia then north into Chattanooga and finally into Knoxville.  We will travel through 8 different locks/dams.

We will begin our travels around the 3rd week in July - so be looking for our blog to pick back up in about a month!!  We know you're not as excited as we are, but we look forward to having you as a "virtual" skipper aboard Cloud Nine!!

More fun to follow...…

Love my Captain....Love Cloud Nine....

Closing Out 2017 Boating Season

Our 2017 journey/adventure on the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers has come to an end solely because freezing temperatures have now arrived in Middle Tennessee.  The good news is, we will continue our journey beginning spring 2018 and we can hardly wait.  The summer/fall of 2017 ranks as one of the best and most memorable seasons in our 39 years of marital bliss!!  We had SOOOOO much fun -- laughing uncontrollably, enjoying each other's company and smiling every nautical mile....and that's a lot of smiling since we cruised a little more than 1,000 miles between August 18th and November 3rd.

During our travels, we visited 10 different  marinas -- several we enjoyed so much we visited more than once!!  We also ate some incredible food but best of all was all the fun and amazing people we met along the way.  We exchanged probably 100 boat cards (these are like business cards with your name, your boat name, phone numbers, etc) so you could contact them again.

We decided to "winter" Cloud Nine at Kenlake Marina in Aurora, KY.  We love the marina, great covered slip, HD cable with over 100 channels, and wifi all included.  The marina is tucked into the Kenlake State Park with numerous walking trails, a lodge, restaurant, cabins and lots of deer, many different types of birds including wild geese, Grey Herons, While Pelicans, Eagles and migrating bird sanctuaries.  Kenlake is about 20 miles from the northern tip of the Tennessee River and the river/Kentucky Lake is so wide and beautiful there, right in the middle of Land Between The Lakes.  We will have lots of exploring to do in the area next spring/early summer.

On November 3, we took Cloud Nine from Pebble Isle Marina to Kenlake Marina.  It was NOT a pretty day -- it was windy and rainy.....2 criteria we try to avoid (luckily we bought new windshield wipers the day before we left -- but we needed to get "her" home so we could get her settled in, and get her washed and waxed for the end of the season.  She was actually winterized today.

Here are some beautiful pictures from our last 54-mile journey from Pebble Isle Marina to Kenlake Marina.  The fall colors on the trees were absolutely gorgeous, unfortunately the rain, fog and wind didn't allow the pictures to give justice to their beauty:

Tree-lined Color leaving Pebble Isle Marina

Our first Time to Have to Use Our Windshield Wipers!!

Leaving Pebble Isle Heading North on Tennessee River

Fog, Clouds, Wind and Rain on Tennessee River

Beautiful Tree Colors on Tennessee River 

Weather Conditions Forced us to Travel Slow.  Finally a Break in

the Weather So We Could Get a "Sweet" Wake For a Few Miles!

Final Barge in Tow We See On 2017 Journey

Home at Kenlake Marina -- Beautiful Colors

Cloud Nine Happy to be Under Cover and HOME at Kenlake

If you didn't get the "gist" of our blog this year, let me reiterate we had the most incredible experience ever.  It exceeded our expectations in EVERY way.  To the family and friends that have followed our Blog, thank you -- we hope it gave you a small sense of amazing adventure.

To the new friends we met along our journey, thank you for sharing your adventures, expertise and thoughts with us.  We learned so much from you in the past 3 months.  We met many folks that were taking the Great Loop -- we wish you safe travels, great fun and creating memories of a lifetime.  Maybe our paths will cross again.

Happy Holidays to each of you.  To my Captain, thanks for all you did to ensure our adventure was everything we hoped it would be -- it was AWESOME.

While this boating season has come to an end -- what we learned this year and the river-boating confidence we gained from the Solar Eclipse to Pickwick Lake, we can't wait to start our 2018 adventures next Spring.

Pickwick Lake back to Pebble Isle

I'm a little behind updating our travels, but we've been really busy deciding what to do for the "winter" months.  Do we go South -- do we stay close to home this year and venture out farther next year -- decisions, decisions, decisions.

Our plan for this year was to travel the entire length of the Tennessee River -- which would take us to Knoxville, TN.  We were on track to accomplish that -- except we learned one of the locks in Alabama, Wilson Lock, was closing October 16 through December 23 for some much-needed maintenance.  It would be closed from 6AM thru 6PM daily -- this means it would be open from 6PM to 6AM but we don't travel in the "dark" so we made the ultimate decision to NOT complete our Tennessee River travels this year, but to pick back up on our adventure next spring.

We enjoyed our 4 days at Grand Harbor Marina -- we stayed an extra day because of a lot of rain and windy conditions.  Luckily we were in a covered slip so we didn't have to deal with the rain too much.  The sunsets were absolutely breath-taking.

Another Gorgeous Sunset at Grand Harbor Marina

One thing we have NEVER seen in all our 20+ years of boating was seeing a plethora of catfish swimming behind our swim platform as our boat was parked at the marina.  We could have had a catfish feast -- if, 1) we had a net to catch these catfish and, 2) one of us had the desire to clean the fish.  We didn't have a net and for sure neither of us wanted to clean these fish!!  These fish were huge and I was feeding hot dog buns to them!!  That's just crazy!!

Catfish swimming behind our boat at the marina

We left Grand Harbor in Counce, TN on Tuesday, October 24 and went about 56 miles back to Clifton TN marina.  It was quite windy, but we needed to giddy-up and get back North toward Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, TN.  Winds were blowing at about 15 mph.  Our first stop was to travel through Pickwick Lock.  We were hoping the wind would die down inside the Lock, but NOOOO that didn't happen; however, we made it just fine thru the lock, got tied up to the bollard luckily we were the only boat in the Lock!!  The 15 mph head wind didn't help our travel speed!

Approaching Pickwick Lock/Dam

Inside Pickwick Lock -- they are opening the doors after our 70 foot drop.  

Off we go!

Our trip back from Grand Harbor Marina in Counce, TN to Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, TN was mostly un-eventful; however; we kept watching the weather on our phones as big storms were all around us.  We only ran into a misty-rain a couple of times.  The temperature was pretty cool though.

We saw houses built out of a lot of different materials, but this one "takes the cake".  It is built out of Stacked Shipping containers -- made into a 4-story home.  This house was between Savannah and Clifton, TN.  That's crazy-unique - huh.......

House built out of "shipping containers"  

We made it to Clifton Marina, one of our favorite stops, about 3:30 that afternoon.  We were the 4th boat to arrive that day so we were "tucked" into the marina in one of the last slips available.  We assumed it would be a quiet night, but all the other transient boaters and the Marina owner were ready to socialize by hanging out inside the marina, have a burger and several cocktails.  As the evening went on, the stories got bigger and the laughter got louder -- it was such a fun night.  One of the boats had traveled from St. Louis -- they had 2 captains on board and they were headed to Ft. Myers, FL for the winter.....ahhhh if I could have been a stow-away for a few months!!  The couple had purchased their boat in Missouri and hired 2 captains to show them how to drive the boat and get them to south Florida.  We had a hoot, to say the least, with the group that evening....and yes that bottle of Makers Mark in the middle of the table was "full" at the start of the evening!!

Marking Memories at Clifton Marina

The next morning, we completed our last leg of the trip from Clifton Marina to Pebble Isle Marina.  It was chilly -- the shorts and tank tops are now obsolete for our daily attire and we are in sweat shirts and long pants at least until mid-afternoon.  We were just cruising along (pun intended!) minding our own business, and our daughter calls and asks where we are.....I respond, well we are in the middle of the Tennessee River approaching the I-40 interstate bridge.  She says -- well I'm on my way home from Memphis and I'm about to cross the Tennessee River at I-40.....OMG -- how incredible is that for the timing of meeting her as she is driving over the bridge at the same time we are driving under that same bridge!!!!!!!

Our daughter parked on the Interstate Bridge taking our picture!!

Our daughter, Michelle, meets us at Cuba Landing Marina near I-40

After some hugs, facetime with her children/our grandsons, and a quick conversation, we needed to get going as we still had about 25 miles to go and it was going to be dark within the next 2-1/2 hours so we needed to shove off!!  How fun to see her along our adventure -- unplanned and unexpected.

We are approaching New Johnsonville, and one of my all-time favorite bridges is this one -- the cars drive on the top portion of the bridge and the trains cross on the lower section of the bridge.  I just love that bridge.

Unique bridge in New Johnsonville, TN

Once we pass under this bridge, Pebble Isle Marina is not far away -- we arrive at the marina about 5:30PM on Wednesday, October 25.

Ahhh it's always good to get home!!

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.