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.