October 28, 29 & Monday the 30th; Grand Rivers KY to Buchanan, TN
Due to rain and then cold nights and cool days, we spent a few extra days at Great Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers Kentucky after our adventure in Nashville. Friday was predicted to be rainy and it poured in the afternoon and improved in the evening a bit. In the morning I returned the rental car 40 miles away in Paducah and did a little food shopping and then found a consignment store, hoping for some additional warm clothes. That happily worked out and I did a wash later in the day, meeting additional loopers in the laundromat. Its still amazes me how many are still heading south out of the Great Lakes this time of year!
We ate dinner with our Euchre friends Chad and Michelle on our boat and unfortunately the guys won the tournament (of course we play women against men – ‘marriage saver’ rules). It was fun and we’ll miss them and the S/V Certain Way as they take their boat up to Nashville and we head south.
We managed to stay warm enough Saturday and, thinking we would leave in the morning, went once more to Patti’s with friends Nancy and Rick (Andiamo) and new friend Chris, Jen and Emily from Toronto – Canadians-eh? Nancy and Rick crossed their wake here – almost a year from they day they started the loop! Note the winter clothes being worn in the photo – it was in the 30’s!
On Sunday the chill was too much for a day on the water, so I made plans with Nancy to walk around the little town of Grand Rivers. We ambled around Patti’s again and saw some interesting plants and lawn ornaments and I bounced on the pink tractor.
Monday the October 30th to Buchanan TN
Today we got our pump-out at the fuel dock and were getting a push off when Dirk saw that there was no oil pressure in the starboard engine. Stop the bus! The issue took a while to diagnose, but after a going through a lot of oil and getting some help from friends, the problem turned out to be an extra oil filter gasket left over from changing the oil filters earlier in the week. Various boat owners chimed in “that happened to me once” and helped cheer up Dirk. We finally left a few hours late and arrived here at the Paris Landing State Park Marina around 5pm. Two other loopers from Green Turtle Bay are here and we toured the Shangra-la, a 1975 Taiwanese-built trawler that actually has two stories including a stand-up engine room. Dirk was a little jealous.
The trip down here on Kentucky Lake was beautiful. We saw a house boat zooming along – probably moving it to it’s winter home before it get too much colder.
Wandering Star 