Grand Harbor Marine, Counce, TN 10/21/05

Kismet is at Grand Harbor Marina - on the borders of Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama - for an extended stay. The price is right. Great place to take side trips from. It is more like a resort than a marina. Very professionally managed with condo units adjacent, pool (closed), excercise room, and boater's lounge. Again, like Burnham Harbor in Chicago, Reefport Marina in Peoria, Alton Marina in Alton, IL this marina is absolutely overflowing with boats but in the week we have been here we hardly see anyone. It is like we have the whole marina to ourselves and a few other "Loopers". No one on our dock but one couple last weekend. We never see anyone in the showers and lounge and there are always plenty of courtesy cars available since... no one is here!

We rented a car to take some extended day trips. We ventured into Memphis on the first day where we drove up to Graceland, just for a photo opportunit. Lisa had never been there before. Not what she had expected. We tried to go to the Civil Rights Museum, but it was closed. We did see the site where Martin Luther King was assassinated. We visited a place called Slave Haven. This was a place used as an underground railroad during the 1800s to help slaves find freedom. We were the only people there at the time and got a one-on-one tour with the guide. Needles to say we learned a great deal about the misdeeds of generations past. Memphis is a nice city. the next day we went to Shiloh Civil War Park. This was the site of one of the bloodiest battles during the war... The battles lasted 2 days and there were 10,000 deaths and a total of 24,000 casualties. A battle fought on 40,000 acres just beside the Tennessee River. Again we learned a great deal about our country's history.

Tennessee Anchorages - 10/18-19-20/05

Ginger Bay, Denson and Diamond Islands. All great, secluded, spots. We love to anchor out. It is so peaceful and quiet. We have heard what sounds like prehistoric bird sounds and a coyote howling to a full moon. The sun risings and settings have been awesome. All three of these mornings, in the most remote of spots, we woke up to fishermen right outside the back door of our boat. They are everywhere on the rivers. Not clustered together but spread out evenly all up and down the rivers. They all have their special spots. The morning we were at Diamond Island, what a surprise to wake up to a drop in the river of about 4-5 feet. Good thing it was plenty deep there for our boat.

Mosquitoes, Spiders & Flies... Oh My!!!

They have bugs here that look like large mosquitoes but they don't seem to bite or make a noise. There are zillions of them though.

Spiders are everywhere for boaters. Don't look up at night or walk under dirty marina roofs. Shake out the towels or anything else left outside before it comes back in the boat.

Hurry in and out the door, don't let the flies in. The flies...they are sneaky, they hitch a ride on your back as you dart in and out, so do it quickly and shut the door fast. Then get out the fly swatter and go to work.

Green Turtle Bay Marina-Barkley Lake, Kentucky 10/15/05

We decided to spend a week at the Green Turtle Bay Marina, on Barkley Lake, Kentucky. A nice full service marina. We arrived on Tuesday. The boat needed to be cleaned in the worst way and we needed to get out and stretch our legs. The marina is in a beautiful park like setting, nice for taking long walks. There are some huge houseboats here. They are like 2 story houses. Real party boats.
A charming small town, Grand Rivers, is nearby, about a one-mile walk.

And yes... there are green turtles here... Lots of them in a small pond just next to the marina.

This is the first time we have seen more than a handful of "Loopers" in one spot. Must be 10-20 boats in all. We all came together, on the very nice gas dock/patio, for cocktails and exchange of boat cards and many stories about the rivers and many boat problems. That night we went to dinner with Todd on "Egress" and Wade and Suzi, on "Miss Happ", we had shared some some tie up and anchorage spots with them. It was Wade and Suzi's anniversary, they asked us all to join them at the restaurant, in town, called "Patti's" to celebrate. Their specialty was a 2" pork chop and it was tasty. Also Jim says that the peach pie was the best he has EVER had.

We are enjoying this stop immensely.

Mississippi - Ohio - Cumberland Rivers 10/09-11/05

We've seen the water raise about 6 feet since we've been on the Mississippi. Since our last posting we've anchored out two nights. Our last night on the Mississippi we spent just north of the mouth of the Ohio River near Cairo. As we anchored at the entrance of the inlet the river current was zipping by at about 4-5 miles and hour. The next night we anchored on the Ohio River at the mouth of the Cumberland River at Toehead Island. The next day we saw another flood wall in Cairo similar to Cape Girardeau. After our stay at Towhead we both felt a bit ragged having been by ourselves on the boat for so long. We were wondering if our water and holding tank were going to last until we made the next marina. They did.

Mississippi River - Cape Girardeau - 10/08/05

From Hoppies to Barkley Lake there are no marinas. So you have to be somewhat creative about finding spots to tie up or anchor. We mostly rely on other boaters for this information and of course Fern gave us a lot of suggestions. From Hoppies we went to Cape Girardeau. We had heard that a guy named Neal had moved an old barge right to the downtown shoreline for boats to tie up to. We called him ahead of time and made arrangements to spend the night there. It was different. Very rocky and noisy with the water splashing all around our boat and pretty big waves when a tow and barge would go through. Floating logs would often hit our boat as they raced down the river. Nice town, nice people. A major, 20 ft. high, flood wall, with huge doors, protects the city when the river rises in the spring. The town has beautifully painted murals depicting much of this town's history on both side of the walls. Before we left the next morning Lisa was able to get a wifi signal just on the other side of the wall so that we could send and receive email and update this blog. All was good.

Mississippi River - 10/06/05

Today we're tied up to a barge, on the Missouri side, in the Mississippi River called "Hoppies". We missed the famous "Pie Lady" in the North Channel when she retired but we were able to visit "Hoppies" before Hoppie and Fern give it up. It is a down home, "glad to meet you" kind of place. We walked into the small town of Kimmswick. It has the feel of an old west town. It has an old metal bridge that was built in 1856, lots of gift stores and many friendly people.

At 4:30 every day Fern has all the boaters, who are headed further down the river, grab their chart books, paper and pens to sit down with her while she passes along pertinent information about conditions on the river going south down the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. She told us of the rough spots, the hidden dangers, the places to anchor and not. We learned about how the river can rise 3-4 ft overnight and about wing dams and why certain spots are so turbulent. There were 5 boats represented and everyone was busy jotting down every word she said. All this for the price of one night's dockage. I think many of us became more conscience of the dangers that, until now, we blissfully ignored. It was a restless night's sleep for us and a little anxiety began to surface as we digested Fern's warnings and instructions. the next morning we heard that other boater's were affected the same way.

I think at this most unusual place we became aware of how incredible circumstances had brought all of these people, from all walks of life, to venture out on their boats, of many shapes and sizes, to travel on these rivers and grab a bit of adventure and see a small part of the world. Here, we all converged to share in this unique experience along side a barge, on the banks of a very small town, as the guests of Hoppie and Fern.

Mississippi River - 10/05/05

As we make our way down the Mississippi we head to Alton. A charming town on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. We had a refreshing dip in the pool at the city marina then headed for town for burgers and on to check out the library for WiFi possibilities. None available there but we were directed to a coffee house closer to the marina.

St. Louis - Dorothy & Benjamin

No, these are not "little Jim & Lisa's" they are figures of Dorothy and Benjamin Croissant, our dear neighbors at our old Wenonah St house. They were created by Dorothy and Benjamin as a going away present to us so that we could take "them" on the trip with us.

Illinois River - 10/03/05

We picked up our mail in Grafton, IL this morning and headed up the Mississippi to a Marina that is able to do mechanical work on boats. We have been experiencing a noise in our transmission which has gotten worse. They diagnosed the problem today and ordered parts. Did not have to have the boat hauled out.

We are going to use their van to go into St. Louis tomorrow for some sight seeing, grocery shopping and visit a library to access email etc. We should be back on the water by Wednesday or Thursday hopefully.

Illinois River - 10/02/05

Today marks our last day of adventure on the Illinois River. We've seen great American Industry, tug boat/barge traffic, navigated 8 locks and about 40 bridges. We've seen wonderful nature in the interior of Illinois. We've even seen a deer swimming across the river in front of us today. We've met people from all walks of life including a fellow from R.I. who is single handedly doing the loop on his sailboat - well almost single handedly... he has help from his 3 small collies and one cat. It is interesting how easy it is to make new friends.

The last two nights we anchored near islands right off the Illinois River and have usually had the company of fellow boaters who are also on the loop. Today we tied up early to a dock in the small town of Hardin, IL. This dock is outside of a popular restaurant we have heard about from other "Loopers". The brisket is to die for we hear. Well, we will find out tonight. While we were having lunch on back of the boat, just after we tied up, a big helicopter flew right over our boat and landed about 100 feet from our boat. They had landed there to have lunch at this restaurant. We found out later that Mr. Busch (Beer) was the passenger.

As we sit here in Hardin it is 89º and humid.

Monday we pick up our first mail drop in Grafton, Illinois and onto the great Mississippi for the next leg of our journey – about 210 miles south until we head east on the Ohio River.