Ohio River and Cumberland Rivers

9/23/07

Today we are doing the Ohio River. The part we do is about 60 miles. There are two locks today. Lock 53 and 52. The first one we waited about an hour to go in and the second about 2 hours. So we finished late in the day and were not able to get to Barkley Lake like we planned. The Ohio is wide and pretty. The water is getting cleaner and we are seeing birds again. We were a little concerned about using a lot of fuel because we were going against the current, but it was very minimal. Probably because it is fall and there have been no recent rains. That was a nice surprise. We have satellite radio so we are able to listen to the Packer Games on WTMJ. That was nice for me because I was lazy and sat below and listened while Rolf and Jere had to mill around waiting for the lock to open. We finally found a place to rejoin Jere & Diane. Paducah has a floating barge as a city dock and we stopped for a few minutes. Jere got off and Rolf and I went to the Cumberland Island Towhead anchorage. Jere gave us much gas about our high tech anchor light. The light is from Aquila and the mast is a boat hook. We think it's cool.

9/24/07

Rolf and I traveled down the Cumberland about 30 miles. It was the prettiest so far in that it looked very picturesque. However in the middle of it there was this great big, and I mean big, gravel pit. It was quite a sight to see.

We had to go through the Barkley Lock at noon. It is a newer lock and moves quite fast. We went up 57 feet in about 15 minutes. That is a lot of water to move and we had to struggle a little bit to keep the boat from mashing into the wall, but did ok.

There is one coming up that will be 84 feet. That will be impressive as most of the ones we do are about 30 feet or so. We got into Green Turtle Bay Marina on Barkley Lake. It is very large and well known around here and hope to stay here a few days. We need a couple of days of down time and then will be on the road again.  We feel that we made it quite far south and now can slow down and enjoy some beautiful scenery in Kentucky and Barkley Lakes. Also the funny thing we notice is that we are at the end of their tourist season so the shops and facilities are winding down for the year. Since it is still so hot, it is hard for us to get a handle on the idea that summer is over and they consider this fall weather. It hasn’t been below 80 yet. We are having it nice though because it is a warm fall all over. Others that were here last year say they had just the opposite and needed hats and mittens. We keep saying that if this is their winter, it is ok. The accents are also so different. While I am listening, my brain is thinking, “This can’t be how they really talk!” So far if we want a fix on home talk we just walk off the boat. The couple on the right is from Escanaba and the one on the left is from Georgian Bay.

Jere and Diane left on Wednesday, 9/26 so now we are on our own for a week or so. Many thanks to Jere for helping us get through some long hot days. The Bremers also carted us around to pick up medication, food, wine and plumbing parts. We are told the next counties are dry.