Grand Rivers, KY - Grand Harbor Marina

Sunday-Monday, September 24 & 25. We stayed another night at Green Turtle Bay. Sunday afternoon we bicycled to the town and just enjoyed kicking back a bit. We sat and chatted with a few couples that had sailboats at the marina and received more advice about anchorages, marinas and locks all the way down to Mobile, Alabama. Vickie Russell even supplied us with a spreadsheet she created over the past 4 years noting the good and bad conditions they found at each stop.

Then on Monday we had reservations to eat at Patti’s 1880 Settlement Restaurant. All the guidebooks say its a DO NOT MISS restaurant when staying at Green Turtle Bay. Simple description—Disneyland’s Frontierland with awesome pork chops and bread with Strawberry butter.

Ready to bicycle to Grand Rivers from Green Turtle Bay Marina.

Inside Patti’s 1880 Settlement Restaurant—no photo of pork chops or strawberry butter. : )

Tuesday, September 26. We left GTB heading to Paris Landing State Park in Buchanan, TN—36 nautical miles away traveling on Kentucky Lake—easy day. While cruising we often see eagles, blue herons, occasional vulchers, but this day we add white pelicans to the list. Oh they are beautiful and so far we only have seen them once. We arrived in the late afternoon and the marina office had Mayfield Ice Cream to serve. At 85 cents a foot for moorage with power, this marina is a gem.

Paris Landing was named after an old steamboat & freight landing on the Tennessee River in the 1800’s. The river landing was an important spot for delivery of goods and shipping point for produce & other agriculture products. This site became a state park in 1945.

Paris Landing State Park-Marina

Wednesday, September 27. We left Paris Landing for Pebble Isle State Park approximately 30 nautical miles away. An interesting site along the way was an old railroad bridge and elevator ramp known as the Old Danville Transfer Elevator used for transferring grain and other goods from barges to railcars above. This structure was built in 1914 out of concrete, and was in operation until the 1940’s when the Tennesse Valley Authorities began clearing out the area to create Kentucky Lake. So much history! Pictured below is how the RR and elevator looks today. We were told the RR portion is privately owned.

Danville Grain Elevator and part of washed out RR bridge.

After arriving at Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, TN, we borrowed a courtesy vehicle and drove to a nearby grocery store, and Tequila John’s for dinner. It was good—we did not drink tequila though.

Thursday, September 28. Today we rode the bikes 2.5 miles up the rode to the Johnsonville State Historic Park museum. We were greeted by a nice gentleman that encouraged us to watch the 25 minute film on the history of this site. The film went into detail about the Battle of Johnsonville during the Civil War, and the historic town that existed 1864-1944. Coincidently, a young Park Ranger arrived that we briefly chatted to the night before at Tequila Johns, as he was there with his wife. He gave us some insight of the displays, and printed a copy of a letter from a 17 year old soldier to his parents durung the Civil War.

Moving on, we rode back the 2.5 miles to explore the Johnsonville State Park, which was named for President Andrew Johnson who also served as the Union Military Governor of Tennessee during the Civil War.

There was a cemetery at the top of the park that showed how difficult life must have been. One family had at least 8 gravesites of children under the age of 5, born to the same parents. It truly struck both of us at how hard life must have been. The dates on the gravesites were after the Civil War.

On a lighter note, I took a photo of hedge apples we saw under the tree Darth is posing in front of.

Hedge apples—being from Washington state, I have never seen these before.

Darth and Osage Orange Tree? Google informed—now confused why they are called hedge apples.

Friday, September 29. We were woken by pouring rain about 1:00am, followed by light and BANG. Yikes, this storm was right over us. By morning the storm passed, and all that remained wet was the canvas and cockpit of the boat. We left early in the morning as we had planned a long cruise for the day. 55 nautical miles to Clifton Marina in Clifton, TN. Photos below while cruising.

Along the river work in progress—-digging up sand/rocks getting ready to send on the barge.

Just a short climb down to the river.

Appeared to be summer cabins along the river.

Clifton Marina. Arrived after long cruise and enjoyed the dock restaurant for food and wonderful music from a local singer.

Saturday, September 30. We ate breakfast at the dock restaurant, I had southern style french toast while Darth had corned beef hash, eggs, and gravy before we sailed away. Our destination for the day was an anchorage along Diamond Island. Oh my it was a HOT day. 88—sunny—beautiful… but 88! We noticed the homes are quite big along this part of now Tennessee River. Did I say it’s HOT…really its getting us a bit. Before we left Clifton Marina, we chatted with a few folks that had launched their pontoon boats and pulled up beside us as we were docked next to the fuel dock. They say they are loving the weather and will enjoy this extra bit of summer! There must be something strange in their water. A few shots along our cruise…..

Little cabins along the river….wow!

Can you see the boat house? It’s a drive through.

Anchored behind Diamond Island for the night.

Sunday, October 1. I woke early and thought the shoreline looked bigger. Darth woke shortly after and turned on the electronics to capture current depth. Sure enough, the 13 feet we anchored in was now 9!! We should probably pull the anchor and head out. Luckily the anchor came up easily and we left without an issue.

This shows the water level line this morning along the river.

We had a short ride to Pickwick Dam that lifted us 55 feet to Pickwick Lake. Locking up took about an hour, which included the lock master preparing the lock for our entry. Again we were the only boat in the chamber.

The audience at Pickwick Lock.

We traveled about 20 miles today passing through a point where we bordered three states. The blue dot shows we are in Tennesee (I keep telling Darth he’s the only TEN - I - SEE—I’m sure he just loves that and not meaning to roll his eyes every time), then on the lower west side is Mississippi, lower east is Alabama.

We are now at the Grand Harbor Marina. Tomorrow we will use the marina’s courtesy vehicle and explore the history in Shiloh National Park.