Day 107 Paducah, Ky to Barkley Lake Cumberland River Monday September 2, 2018

Day 107 Paducah, Ky to Barkley Lake Cumberland River Monday September 2, 2018

The temperature stayed warm.  The day was beautiful and sunny - again - with a nice breeze.  Temps in low 90s.

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 Happy Labor Day!!

Well the sun dawned bright yet again. I am amazed at the weather we have had. I checked the radar maps on Lake Michigan over the last several days and it was one big cloud/rain line.

Today was a "short" day compared to what we have been doing over the last ten days or so. I was even surprised to realize that it was only 12 days ago we left Chicago - and nearly 600 miles. But glad to be in a position to slow down and smell the roses.

We "slept" in and I didn't get out of bed until the sun was actually up. We had only about 40 miles to go so we departed about 7:30.  There was tows everywhere - but most were stuck into the banks to wait their turn at the good old lock 52.  The industrial feel to the waterfront soon fell back to a nice tree lined river. We passed a few tows on the way to the Cumberland River that connects to the Ohio about 10 miles up the river. If you look at a map you will see that the Tennessee River connects just above Paducah and distance wise it is much shorter route - but it is full of that barge traffic and delays at the lock.  We decided to go via the Cumberland - and it was a good choice all around.

The Tennessee River is seen here going off to the right.

Here is the Ohio River just a few miles above Paducah. Do you see that blue sky? We feel like we are in San Diego where some complain everyday is the same blue sky - I am NOT complaining.

 The confluence of the Ohio with the Cumberland

 And this is looking right is the start of the Cumberland

The ride on the Cumberland was like the lower Mississippi - It is startling how undeveloped and it was a very scenic ride.

Here is the approach to our dam and lock for the day. The Barkley lock. Look close and you will see that this is not even close to the size of lock 52 and the rise is nearly 60 feet!! as compared to 10 at best at lock 52.

 For my "I spy" friends - do you see anything in the lock chamber?

 How about Now? Yes there is another boat in the lock. And again our "lock luck" held out. At about four miles out I saw on the AIS that a tow appeared to be departing the lock and called to say we were headed that way. "Come right ahead will hold it open for you - drive right in"  A boat ahead of us then called and said they would like to lock up too - so there was two of us.

This is the first of the big locks on the Tennessee - one has a lift of 110 feet!  That will come later.

 And here we are nearly ready to depart after our 60 foot lift - and it went fast!!

The Green Turtle Resort and Marina (seems that they could have come up with a better name, eh?) is just outside the lock so we headed soon into the very large marina.

Again for my "I Spy" friends, can you see the two mega house boats - think they could lease them out as cruise ships.

A nice "short day" as we are fueled and in our slip by about 2:30. Time to relax. We will stay here tomorrow at least.

As the day was a nice easy ride we decided to have dinner on the boat. Faye crafted a great chicken casserole and we enjoyed watching some more pre-season NFL games with our GamePass internet subscription. It will really be fun to have on the boat when the regular season starts next week.

So the sun has gone down and it is thus time to say ................

Good Night and May God Bless