6/13/18 - Wednesday - Nashville

Today was a day to stay out of the boat (mostly) and explore Nashville.  We walked across the pedestrian walk bridge to downtown at a little after 7am.  Found a place for breakfast (The Corner Bakery) which I came to find out is a chain and ther is one recently opened in Columbus (Polaris).  It was yummy.
We walked around and saw some sites (most things were not yet open. Went into the visitors center and got a map and some info on what we wanted to do.  We went into the 21C hotel which also houses a pretty cool and thought provoking art museum (for free!). Touched base via phone with Norma who said she would come back downtown to go to the John Cash Museum with us.  The Johnny Museum was very well done and we enjoyed it a lot....nice to have had you join us Norma!  We then decided to go to the Country Music Hall Off Fame Museum.  It was also very nice...and BIG!  We stayed there for a few hours until cousin Jimmy called and said that he and his son (Johnathon) had gotten off work early and wanted to know if they could come down for a boat ride and to hang out.  They have lived in Nashville for over twenty years and had never been on the Cumberland River.  After a short cruise through downtown and north of the city the four of us went back up to "The District" to go to some honky tonks and visit.  We started at Honk Tonk Central where Jim and Johnathon had a couple beers (we enjoyed our Cokes) while listening to some good live music.  Jimmy reached his 2 🍺 limit and had to be at work early tomm so they took off.  Renee and I continued up the road to Tulips where we found a VERY good band that we enjoyed very much.  On up the strip we wandered as we were both getting hungry.  Found a BBQ joint (Rippeys) that also had live music (everywhere has live bands in the district!) and enjoyed a nice dinner.  To end the evening we slowly strolled back down Broadway toward the boat while stopping periodically outside many of the places to listen for a few minutes to the different bands.  We got back to the boat after 9pm tired and with some sore feet from walking all day.  Our usual evening cup of joe and bedtime it was....zzzzzzz
A great day in Nashville in the books!

That's my boat!

Outside they Ryman Auditorium

The building with the bat ears was filmed in the batman movie

21c museaum, this is a really cool piece of artwork.  the description says to take a picture of it with the flash on. this is without the flash.

This is the same picture with flash camera on, pretty cool artwork!

Johnny Cash through the years, at the Johnny Cash museaum

Johnny Cash Museum

Johnny Cash Mieum

At the world famous Tootsies Orchid Lounge jammin and dancin!

Broadway in  "The District"

Aquaholic in Nashville💗

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6/12/2018 - Tuesday - Old Hickory to Nashville

Quiet night at Drakes Creek Marina and not to far to travel today. Erik and I both got some work done and had a wonderful breakfast of omelets made with shish-kabob leftovers then decided to head to Nashville. As Erik was prepping to throw off the lines I suggested we call the lock....good thing we did! The lock-master said he had two tugs ahead of us and it would be a 4 hour wait.  So we stayed at the marina and I did some more school work and Erik worked for a bit then took a nap We headed up to the lock around noon and still waited till about 1:30 before we were able to lock down.  Other than a brief rain shower, the 30 mile cruise to Nashville was easy cruising and uneventful. We arrived in Nashville about 4pm.  Unfortunately we had some issues with the electric and could not run the A.C. 蘿

Cousins Norma, Jimmy, and Willow picked us up and took us to Aunt Sharon's for a lasagna dinner, yum!  Spent some time visiting with family before being brought back down to the boat.  Also tied at the dock was another boat that had come up from Green Turtle Bay as well.  We chatted with the couple on Alysana(sp?) for a few who are planning to start their loop in October.  We listened to the Joan Jett and STYX concert that was happening across the river for a while before heading to bed. 

Old Hickory Lock, this is about a 60 foot lift!

Passing the General Jackson Showboat, it had just returned from a trip downtown.

Check out the steps up to this house!!!!  (Actually there is a rail for a lift of some type!)

Coming back in to Nashville. 

Selfie with artwork and Nashville in the background.

Nashville at night, beautiful!

6/10/2018 - Sunday - Clarksville to Old Hickory

Enjoyed the free night at McGregor Park docks.  Started the day with bacon and eggs for breakfast, yum!  Headed out somewhat early for another long travel day.  I'll be glad when we can slow down!  Went up river about a mile to Clarksville Marina where we filled up the gas tanks and pumped out.  Erik replaced a broken alternator belt with a spare we had. After traveling about 20 miles, we hit our first lock for this trip, Cheatham Lock & Dam.  Had about an hour wait to lock through then we were on our way.   The Cumberland river has long stretches of rural areas with some stretches of beautiful homes on the outskirts of Nashville.  As we came through downtown Nashville, there was a music festival going on on the riverfront.  We were just getting ready to drop anchor and enjoy some free music when they started sending people away due to lightning in the area.  There were not many good anchorages out of the way of the many barges, so we decided to push through to Old Hickory.  There was some rain and thunder and lightning so we dropped anchor and waited till the skies cleared a little.  30 miles past Nashville we did our second lock of the day, Old Hickory Lock & Dam.  Just a little way past the dam we found a cove to anchor for the night.  Erik grilled us some steaks on the grill and we relaxed and enjoyed the view of "bird island"(a little island full of birds that made lots of crazy sounds).  Apparently during the night some more storms brewed up and some winds kicked up.  I was awakened about midnight to water lapping against the hull. Since it was so calm when we went to sleep I decided to peek out and see what was happening outside.  I quickly realized we had moved quite a bit.  Because we had been blown into an area I was pretty sure was quite shallow I woke Erik up and we moved the boat and re-set the anchor.  We threw our back up anchor out too just to be safe!  Thank goodness we stayed put after that!  The next time there are storms around I will find a cove with better wind protection or a marina!!!

Erik cooking breakfast.

Clarksville Marina

Cheatham Lock

Beautiful rolling hills

One of many amazing homes

Very neat swing bridge that swings open to let tall boats through or swings closed to let the train cross!

Coming into Nashville!

The "green"method to keep the grass trimmed along the river!

If you zoom in you can see a couple of deer on the river bank 

Rainbow as we were coming out of the Old Hickory Lock

Sunset at Skinny Dip Cove facing "bird island"

6/11/2018-Monday-Old Hickory Anchorage to Drake’s Creek

We needed a break from long cruising days after two consecutive 90+ mile days so today we planned for minimal cruising with maximum floating and relaxing 😎
As we were pulling into our anchorage yesterday evening we realized the starboard engine wa running hot. Upon opening the engine room hatch we discovered that we had broken the alternator belt ☹️ AND the water pump belt was stretched and slipping 😢.  After a long day we decide to run on one engine and address the issues tomorrow when it was a fresh day.  So, this morning after coffee and breakfast while watching yet another nice sunrise we motored in on the port motor to Blue Turtle Bay Marina a couple miles from the anchorage.   We dug out our spare belts and it was determined that the belts we had been using were not the best and that a different belt from NAPA was better.  NAPA did not have exactly what we wanted in stock so we hung loose at the marina and did a few misc other maintenance items while waiting for them to get them to the store.  The store was about 7 miles away and by this time (11am) it was in the upper 80’s....to long and hit a bike ride for me!   This led us to an Uber ride into town (Renee’s first Uber ride ever) where we impatiently waited for almost an hour for the belt to get there 😡.  Belts in hand (4 belts @ $20 a pop...ouch) we walked over to save a lot for a few provisions before Unering back to the boat.  New belts went on nicely and we were back up and going 🤩
We cruised across the lake and down a few miles to a cove where we anchored, swam, napped and just plain relaxed.  Ahhhhh.  We decided 3 days with no real shower was enough so we’d get a slip at a marina.  We have a small shower on the boat, but not exactly luxurious....just good enough to rinse the stank off 😜.  We came into Drakes Creek Marina at about 530pm and got a slip assignment.  Covered slips with electric are great for cooling off with the AC, but not nearly as scenic.  A walk around the marina to check out the boats.  Dinner tonight will be chicken and beef  sish kabobs with peppers, onions, shrooms and baked tatoes...yummmm. Another early night will be in store as we prepare to motor back down to Nashville tomorrow.   Looking forward to seeing some kin. Plan to hook up with my Aunt Sharon and cousin Norma 😁

Momma and Papa mallards came to visit this morning while having our coffee

Two ducks deserved two pictures

The view from our floating spot this afternoon.  Not exactly secluded, but amazing nonetheless!

I won’t buy any cheapo Dayco belts from Advanced any more.  The one I bought from NAPA last year seems much better

Renee sitting on the aft deck at Drakes Creek Marina writing today’s blog while I catch up and am writing this one (yesterday’s)

Liking our Magna grill we got this Winter.  You can see we’re really starving out here on the water! 😉

6/9/2018- Saturday Grand Rivers Ky to Clarksville Tn

The day started early 4am for me since I’m still on eastern time and used to getting up at 5.  Coffee on the aft deck and a nice sunrise.  Plans were to shove off early for a pretty long haul (90 miles) up the Cumberland River.   Plans for the early departure were thwarted by trouble with the fresh water pump.  After checking the breaker, tracing where things were hot (getting electric) for over an hour, we eventually found that the issue was as simple as a bad ground.  Felt silly, but grateful it was simple and an inexpensive (free) fix!
We departed Green Turtle Bay (Grand Rivers Ky) at 9:15am and made our way south on Lake Barkley which is just a dammed section of the Cumberland River.  Lake Barkley is a very different lake than Kentucky Lake (the lake that runs parallel with Lake Barkely to form "The Land Between The Lakes").  On Lake Barkley you have to watch the channel markers carefully in order to avoid going into the flooded shallows and ruining a prop...or worse!   Midway down Lake Barkley we saw our first bald eagle of the trip perched on his/her nest on a stump in the middle of the lake.  No pic though....Renee wouldn’t let me slow down 🤣
After about 45 miles of twisting and turning through the channels of Lake Barkley the waters turn back into a true river.   Any choppiness or waves went away and it was smooth cruising!  For most of the remainder of the today it was almost solely fishing boats that we encountered (and a couple of barges).  Shortly after we were back on the true Cumberland River portion we saw what we at first thought was a log but then noticed it was swimming.  It turned out to be a raccoon swimming across the river.  Loving the wildlife!
After a quick stop to float, eat lunch, and swim to cool off (it was HOT...over 90 degrees) we continued upriver to our destination for the day/night, Clarksville Tn.  In Clarksville we were fortunate to find a municipal doc that is very nice and has electricity so that we could run our air conditioning....yay!  After docking and getting settled in we took the bikes off of the boat and took a ride along the riverfront through a very nice park and stopped to get ice cream! That’s right, we don’t make stops without getting ice cream 🤭 we found a little shop that was Mexican ice cream. Pretty yummy on a hot day. After the ride we came back to the boat, cooked dinner on the grill and here we sit blogging and watching towns people fish on the dock. We’re both pretty tired and I’m sure it’s going to be an early night. Plans are for Nashville and beyond tomorrow.
Sunrise at GTB...bikes look ready to cruise some river towns!
Aquaholic perched and ready to cruise
One more sunrise pic because....why not

The "Castle" aka the Kentucky State Penitentiary. Historical and wow it’s immense!

Fort Donnelson, civil war battlefield

The cannons are lined up facing the river to hold the union troops back....but they did not succeed

At home for the evening at the Clarksville municipal dock

The end of another wonderful day

6-8-2018 - Friday-pictures

breakfast at French Crust in Cincinnati 

Maverick Chocolates

Home at Green Turtle Bay

Thirsty turtle for live music and a sunset

6/8/2018-Friday -Back to the boat

Day one of the 2018 season and we have arrived safely at our floating home!  Stopped to visit Devin and Yong Yun in Cincinnati for breakfast on the way.  Had a delicious breakfast at French Crust near Findlay Market then sampled some amazing chocolate at Maverick Chocolates.  Arrived around 1pm and got the boat loaded before taking a swim in the pool here at Green Turtle Bay. Realizing we had skipped lunch, we had an early dinner then little nap!   We gave the boat a little bath and filled the water tank.  Our systems are still on eastern time and we got up around 4am so it will probably be an early night.  Feels amazing to be back on the water!