October 31: Denson Island, TN

We woke to a cabin chilled to 56 degrees by the cool night. Gallant Tom got up and cranked the generator so we could have heat to get up. But today was a beautiful day on the Tennessee River; sunny and warmer than yesterday.


We cruised south from 9:00 am until 4:30 pm closely following the marked channel. In general the channel was between 20 and 30 feet deep, but just beyond the markers you could see birds standing in the water where it was very shallow. It was amazing to see fishing boats scooting around between the sand bars at high speed. They must be very familiar with the water way and where there is deeper water.


The forests were red and brown along the shore, and we passed big white tug boats pushing empty barges. We passed a huge Dupont plant and a railroad bridge operated with huge old pulleys. There were giant gears above the pilings that were used to haul the center section of the bridge up about 30 feet to provide clearance for the tug boats. There was also a railroad bridge which went to no where. Apparently most of it was disassembled, but two spans still reached out from the bank reminding us of days gone by.

There were birds everywhere: blue herons, white pelicans, hawks, and strange little black ducks with orange beaks that swam along together in a tight clutch. They were actually swimming close enough to touch. We even saw a huge nest perch precariously on the top of a tall marker; that reminded me of home.

We have not seen many pleasure craft along the way, but there was a 32 foot sailboat, the Hilda Rose, and a 40 foot house boat that we passed during the day. Late this afternoon we decided to pull in behind Denson Island between Perrryville and Cuba, Tennessee to spend the night. It must be a good anchorage, because all three of us choose it for safe haven tonight.

October 30: Panther Bay

This morning we cruised from Barkley Lake through the Barkley Canal into the Kentucky Lake. It was a lovely day warming into the afternoon as we travel south from Kentucky back towards Tennessee, but this time on the Tennessee River rather than the Cumberland.

Tonight we are anchored out in Panther Bay surrounded by forests that are painted for autumn. It is obviously a fine fishing spot since we have seen many bass boats as the day waned.

Tom is enjoying reading his book about the Mississippi floods of 1927, and we are close enough to civilization that our antenna picks up a couple of stations.

October 29: Green Turtle Marina, KY

We have really had a cold snap of weather; it was nice to have electricity so that we could run the heat all night last night. This morning there was glistening frost on the dock as we shoved off. It was cold traveling, so we were wearing multiple layers of shirts and sweatshirts, hats and gloves. The wind on the river really magnifies the cold.

I took a lot of pictures as we cruised through the 11 miles of Cross Creeks National Wildlife preserve along the Cumberland. There are 250 species of birds found here, but we mostly saw Snowy White Egrets and White American Pelicans. There was a huge colony of hundreds of birds. When the pelicans were in flight, you could see that the outer most row of their wing feathers were black, but it doesn’t show when their wings are folded. We also saw a doe and her fawn on a sand bar island who was obviously distressed by the boat. The mother ran towards the end of the island and realized there was no more land and then reversed her path and dashed off to the distant tree line. Her baby followed her in both directions. As we continued into Kentucky, we saw horses on the river shore.

We arrived at the Green Turtle Bay Marina in the mid afternoon. We were happy to discover the diesel fuel price had dropped to $3.32 per gallon – the lowest we have paid for the entire trip. Docked in a transient slip, we took our zip locked bag of quarters to take advantage of the nearby washer and dryers. Tom was excited to have cable again, a real treat for the trip.

They were very kind to loan us the marina van and we made a quick trip to Paducah to the grocery store and to Circuit City to get some software for my new laptop. Then we dashed back to the boat to see the Obama’s infomercial making us two of the 3.3 million people who watched. When it ended, we returned to Grand Rivers to Patti’s 1880’s Settlement for a wonderful dinner of pork chops and baked apples and bread in the flower pot. Yum, Yum.

October 28, 2008: Clarksville, TN (again)

We were up early this morning saying good-bye to Nashville with the sun just rising over the Gateway Bridge. We are backtracking downstream towards the Tennessee River.

I should comment that we have enjoyed listening to the Nashville station on FM 95.5 “the Wolf”. It is the Nashville Country Music station and every time they play a ten song uninterrupted series, they call it a Wolf Pack. It makes us NC State fans feel right at home.

We were now headed downstream on the Cumberland, and we saw some fall colors highlighting the trees along the shore. There were golden corn fields lying quiet in the sun. We passed through the Cheatham Lock and Dam to return to Clarksville to spend the night at the city dock.

Since we had not been off the boat all day, we took a walk through the river front park to Wendy’s for our big outing. Tom plugged in the tiny white lights that were already embracing the trees along the path and made it like a wonderland. I guess the city will wonder how the lights came on... maybe fairies.

October 27: Nashville and Monday Night Football

Today while I was working, Tom took a 35 mile bike ride through the country side. He stopped briefly at the Hermitage library which was a voting site where he saw a Tennessee ballot on a bulletin board. Surprisingly there were 8 candidates for President. He joked with a lady there about whether she was running. She said she wasn’t, but acknowledged that things were different in Tennessee. He also saw the J Percy Priest Lake Dam that ekes hydroelectric power from the Stones River before it enters the Cumberland, and spotted the General Jackson again resting at the Opryland dock.

Tonight was the big game at the Nashville LP Stadium: Monday Night Football between the undefeated Tennessee Titans and the Indianapolis Colts with Peyton Manning. We piled on all our extra clothes to prepare for the 40 degree weather predicted for the evening. We joined the current of fans crossing the river bridge to the stadium. The city had covered all the lights on the bridge with blue cellophane to decorate for the game – light blue being the team’s color. There were lots of grills and tailgating in the parking lot and Tom and I purchased a hotdog, hamburger and fries for our gourmet dinner. The attendance for the game was almost 70,000 and mostly wearing blue, our UNC friends would really have been at home here. They gave all the fans extra large blue tee shirts on entering the stadium. The shirts were so large that Tom and I put them on over the top of our coats – we looked like blimps.

The Titans with Kerry Collins (#5) as their quarterback won the game 31 – 21. The Colts played well with Manning (#18) passing for 223 yards, but could not recover from the two interceptions picked off by Chris Hope. The fans chanted “Seven and oh” as they left the stadium celebrating their 7-0 record. I have to confess that although the "big time" game was fun, I missed the band playing at halftime – guess I will always favor college sports.

October 26 (Sunday): Nashville

This morning we walked up Broadway to the First Baptist Church of Nashville. It was a bright sunny day projected to be in the 70’s this afternoon. There was music wafting through the air and we think it was from speakers at the corners. The sanctuary of First Baptist was totally renovated in 1967 and it had several huge stained glass windows in abstract patterns of jewel toned colors reminding us of the window at Trinity at home. The interior is all brick and the robed choir of over 100 sat below an extensive set of organ pipes. Their youth choir of 40 high schoolers sang with their sanctuary choir and then sang the anthem the old spiritual “Shut de Do’ (keep the Devil in the night)”. We really enjoyed singing “How Great Thou Art” with the congregation full of voices. The pastor’s message was on preparing for the storms of life when they come, with the title “Fire Drills.”

This afternoon we took a 14 mile bicycle ride back across the pedestrian bridge by the LP Stadium and down to the Shelby Bottoms greenway. It reminded us of the trail around Shelly Lake in Raleigh with lots of people out enjoying the beautiful Sunday afternoon. There were roller blades, fast bikers, families on bikes, walkers of all ages and strollers for those not walking yet. We rode all the way out to where there was a pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River to the Opryland Mall part of town and then circled back to downtown Nashville.

Next we visited the Nashborough Fort on the river front behind a stockade. There was a group of log cabins with a two story house at the corner for defense. There was a historical marker there recognizing Colonel James Robertson who brought settlers to the area in 1780 and built the fort. He defended it against Indian attacks and stayed with the colony when other leaders gave up. He was called the Father of Nashville.

The local news is covering the Monday night football game here in Nashville and asking people who work downtown to leave early to go home if they can. All the photography of the stadium, including the Ghost Ballet sculpture are views that we have from the boat. Tom was able to track down tickets for us to go to the Colts versus Titans televised game tomorrow night. So look for us on Monday Night Football.

October 25: Nashville

As we were finishing breakfast this morning, a couple of US Coast Guard boats pulled up to the dock behind us. Tom went out to investigate, and they told him that they were support staff for the event today. It turns out that there was a rubber duckie race planned today for the Boys and Girls Home of Tennessee in the Cumberland River where we had a front row seat. The duckies were dumped by a front-end loader from a bridge and then corralled by a couple of jet skis as they floated by us.

After lunch we took our bikes out for a five mile ride around Nashville to get a little exercise and also to find our way to the LP Stadium. We road over the Shelby Bridge to the football stadium and found the name of the lovely red steel sculpture, “Ghost Ballet” that we had seen from our side of the river. We returned across the bridge to find a bride with her 14 bridesmaids having her portraits photographed on the bridge. Wow, this must be a special place.

We road out the greenway past the Nashborough fort on the river front which was the original settlement for Nashville. The regional government was established here in 1780. There was a statue there of the famous Jaques Timothe Montbreun, who was the French Canadian fur trader who escaped Indians in the cave we saw in the bluff by the river. Montbreun served as an officer in the American Revolution and was later Lieutenant Governor of the Illinois territory.

Part of the bicycle trail ran through an area known to be ancient sulfa flats where many marina fossils had been found. To acknowledge the history, there were small little sculptures along side the paved path of fish and turtles. We rode to the Nashville Bicentennial Park and saw their long marble “River” wall engraved with quotes about the river systems in Tennessee. Farther down, we passed the Capitol Building and then came to the History wall which ran alongside the park. It was similar to the River wall in that it was carved with notes from the history of the region. As we rode along, we heard a carillon playing in the distance. Following the music we came to a series of

bell towers where the melody was being played. The park was really a beautiful celebration of Tennessee and we enjoyed the ride through the area.

On the way back to the boat, we rode down Broadway by the First Baptist Church. The church has been rebuilt, but the bell tower built in 1886 was preserved for their heritage.

Tonight we walked back into town for dinner and wound up buying me a cowboy hat to commemorate our trip to Nashville.