Our Week at Green Turtle Bay Resort and Marina
It has been a very laid back week for Jim and I. We have been enjoying the down time and planning for our future travel down the rivers.
Green Turtle Bay is in Grand Rivers, Kentucky. Yep, y’all, we are in Kentucky. It still amazes me how far we have come, in really, such a short period of time. 136 days ago we left Florida. In that period of time we have been in 14 different states, 25 townships in Canada and have made 86 different, unique stops, traveling 3,843 miles to this date. We are well on our way back to Florida. We expect to be there around the middle of December.
We have slowed down at this point in our journey, hence why we stayed at Green Turtle Bay for a week. The insurance company that covers the Happy Destiny, requires that we stay above Demopolis Alabama until November 1st. Hurricane season is still in play near the Gulf of Mexico, so we have to stay above where the Hurricane paths tend to take. This is not unlike when we had to scurry up the Eastern seaboard to get above the northern most part of North Carolina last June. Anyway, all this is to say, we are going to take our time going south from here. We also have a slower time constraint because we will be flying back to Los Angeles again on October 25th, and need to leave our boat somewhere. There aren’t many marinas going south on the rivers from here on out, so we have to plan our time accordingly. Our plane will be departing from Nashville Tennessee, so we are going to rent a car and do some exploring on our way to Nashville. Fun!
One of the days here, I joined a new friend Judy and her sister Nita for a trip back to Paducah by car. We enjoyed the day wandering the small brick building city, where everything was closed on Monday, except for the National Quilt Museum and the local deli and bakery. We enjoyed lunch and went to the museum. Now, I have to tell you, I am a big fan of vintage quilts. I think they are beautiful and I wish I owned one. That is what I was expecting to find at this museum.
The National Quilt Museum, located in Paducah, Kentucky, is an art museum that exhibits fiber art and quilting from around the world. The museum is recognized as one of the world's top quilt displays.
The National Quilt Museum was established by Bill and Meredith Schroeder of Paducah and opened to the public on April 25, 1991. It is the world's foremost museum devoted to quilts and the only museum dedicated to today's quilts and quiltmakers. The main gallery is devoted to a rotating selection of the museum's permanent collection of over 500 quilts. Its two other galleries exhibit rotating fiber art exhibits throughout the year. The people who have their quilts displayed here, enter contests hosted by the museum. It evidently is quite the honor to have a quilt you made displayed here. I was told that, let’s just say you won the Best of Show award, you would be awarded $20,000.00 but you have to leave your quilt forever. There are people who don’t take the money because they don’t want to part with their quilt.
I don’t know anyone who quilts, but I was impressed with the amount of work that must have gone into the making of these pieces of art work. I was told some of them took 5 years to make.
Jim had an electronic guy, Justin, on board to install a new VHF radio, an AIS System and he also fixed our depth finder. All three of things are important when you are on a boat navigating waters. Here in the River System, as I have shown you, are these huge tugs and tows. The new AIS System will allow us to actually see the boats and identify them by name. Jim can then call them on our new radio and establish which side they want us to pass them on. The depth finder is important because we need to know how deep the water is under our boat so we don’t run aground. We do have a second set of working radios and depth finder, but now everything is in one place.
We also met up with other loopers for “docktails” each day. This is where we all meet up and basically talk shit about our adventures. I’m really not a big fan, but I’m also not rude. We get invited and we show up. There is lots of alcohol being consumed, and for me, and I think for Jim too, we just as soon stay at home and drink our iced tea.
One of the days we used the loaner car provided by the marina and went to Walmart. We got some groceries and a few other things we needed. We had to buy a new suitcase for our upcoming trip back to Los Angeles because on our last trip, the one we had, busted it’s zipper in the luggage compartment of the plane. 🤣
This marina is huge. It is a resort with condo rentals, a spa, a conference center, a yacht club and a few restaurants on the grounds. When we arrived we were placed at the end of a very long pier. It was a quarter mile walk to the street each time we left the boat to go somewhere. I actually counted how many times I did the walk. It was 12 times. That’s 6 miles just in dock walking! The dock we were on had some amazing, very expensive boats on it. Seriously, these people had big screen TVS mounted on the dock, full size dining room sets and huge barbecues. The house boats were 100 feet long. Super cool, but not very practical as far as I could tell. They stay in the slip most of time I would imagine. Maybe they go out onto the lake and anchor, but that seems like a whole lot of work!
Let’s talk turtles. Green Turtle Bay does not lack in the turtle area. So many cute, green turtles. They congregate in one area, and the ship store sells food for them in a bag. I fed them every day.
Our time spent here was restful, but as the days went by, my longing to be back on the water grew stronger. It’s nice to stop and relax, but I really, really like the adventures on the water.
Our trip continued on Friday Morning. As I write, we have traveled another few hundred miles. We have spent time on The Kentucky Lake, The Tennessee River and we have now entered the Tombigbee River off Pickwick Lake. We stopped for two nights in New Johnsonville, Tennessee, ( where we finally got to a meeting), spent one night in Clifton, Tennessee and we are now at Grand Harbor Marina in Counce, Tennessee. We will spend a few days here. There is some weather that is supposed to be coming our way, so this is a good stop for us. It has been bloody hot and humid the last few weeks, so the cool breeze and the impending rain is refreshing. We have been traveling with a couple from Greenville South Carolina this past week. Judy and Marshall are a really nice couple. I really have enjoyed Judy’s company. It’s nice to have a girl to chat with. Their Boats name is “Let’s Go”. We traveled with them awhile back, but many times, while on this journey, we all go our separate ways and then you might or might not see them again. I’m glad we got to catch back up with Judy And Marshall. They are definitely folks that both Jim and I will want to stay in contact with for a long time to come😊
I’m going to end this story now. Both Jim and I are doing well. Jim’s finger is healing nicely and we are both healthy. We have traveled over 4100 miles and have been through 86 locks. We have burned 2500 gallons of diesel fuel, and have seen some of the most beautiful scenery that one could ever imagine.
Our view tonight-
These are my parents at their 50th wedding anniversary in October of 2005. They were both very ill and ultimately both passed away in the following few weeks. I always find October to be a month I’d just as soon forget, but not so much this year. It’s just ok and I know they are both smiling down on me thinking that our Happy Destiny adventure is totally cool!
Also, October is going to be the month of LIFE from now on too! Jim will become a grandfather for the very first time, (any day now), as his son Peter and the lovely Giselle will welcome a new baby boy. How special for us all!
Until next time, I hope you all are happy!
peace and our love ❤️
