#9 Sept 1 through 4

Another beautiful day. and very warm.  Labor day and everyone is out on the river; tubing, skiing, boarding, anchored soaking up the sun; speeding up and down, Sometimes it appears they are anchored right in the fairway. Our first stop this day was the Riverside Restaurant for their famous Catfish!! We tied to their courtesy dock and enjoyed our first!
Not bad, we will order it again.
We traveled about 50 miles today.  We like to plan just 40. moving along at about 8 mph. We can have a leisurely start and be settled at Marina or anchorage by middle of afternoon. Care must be taken to stay between the buoys; the river twists and turns and although the waters reach far and wide and appears to be a lake - it is not! The areas beyond the buoys are basically flooded bottom land fraught with stumps, trees and other such stuff. Only the locals have been seen traversing across the waters and their boats are very flat bottom, shallow draft craft.

On the way we passed this barge building establishment. When we passed on our way to Nashville we saw them working on the one behind . The barge in the foreground had been rolled out of the big blue paint shed and is ready for launch and delivery.  Sure would like to see that behemoth hit the water!

Clarksville City Dock for the night.  Strange, nobody, no boaters around.  Bill walked up and got us a Fried Chicken Dinner.  Even though right on the river it was pretty peaceful.  Bill mentioned that there were tows going by all night and created a little swell. I didn't  feel or hear a thing.

All along the river there are establishments for loading the barges. This particular one is picking the gravel or sand from the barge and putting it in the hopper where it is conveyed to various piles on shore. One has to wonder if another set of barges come along and they load those piles in them??

Our anchorage for the evening on the 2nd was up Hickman Creek.  And yes, that is Bill preparing to grill pork chops for supper.  My little screen invention has worked great.  We can sit on the back deck and watch the sunset and watch the little critters trying to get in!

This is our anchorage on the 3rd after a very peaceful run down the river.  I think we had cheese, crackers and beer for supper this night!  Ha!

By and large, this is the view from the Pilot House as we cruise this river.  We will be in Green Turtle Marina this evening; near Barkley Lock and Dam on Barkley Lake.
When we arrived there were three other Loopers here.  One, started in May from Lake Mary Florida!!! Get that? Florida. They are heading home and will complete their Loop pretty soon.  They have twin 300 outboards on their sport fish boat; travel at speeds of 30mph and up!!! Guess we can't buddy boat  with them. The second couple from Ontario,Canada is heading up the Cumberland to Nashville and will leave their boat  till next season. The third couple are from Washington State. Trailered their boat to Peoria 2 years ago, completed their Loop this year and are going around again to catch the Bahamas and all the other places they missed.
There is such a varied mix of folks doing their thing!  What fun to meet them and there is not one we haven't enjoyed.

Our next venture will be to leave here and take the Barkley Cut from the Cumberland River to the Tennessee River. heading South to Pickwick Lock and Dam. We will be in an area where they say we can go to the top of a hill and see the States of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. Also the countryside is where many Civil War Battles were fought and won or lost, depending on which side you were on. We hope to spend a few days exploring the History of the area that played a great part in our countries growth. History is soooo much more fun this way!