Once underway, it didn’t take long for the rain/lightning/thunder to begin. It was difficult to see at times, but the one good thing was that many of the barges pulled off to the side so we didn’t have much commercial traffic to contend with. Shortly before reaching Lock 52, the rain let up so we were spared locking through in the rain. However, it still proved to be somewhat of a challenge. The lock is old (it is one of the locks being replaced by the new Olmsted lock) and there is a lot of turbulence in the chamber. We had a hard time attaching to the wall – sort of “kissed” the side and once attached we were constantly fending off either the bow or the stern. One of the other boats we were with sort of “kissed” their stern against the wall as they left ….. so all in all we were glad to be out of the lock.
When we reached Paducah we had to make the decision on whether to continue up the Ohio to the Cumberland River or whether to enter the Tennessee River at Paducah. The Tennessee River route is shorter, but the Kentucky Lock often has long delays because of all the commercial barge traffic. Three of us decided to continue via the Cumberland and the other boat took the Tennessee route. (We actually contacted each other later and they beat us by about ½ hour).
The rain returned again, but it was still a fairly easy trip up the Cumberland. By the time we reached the Barkley Lock the rain had stopped and we locked through with no problems. The lift was 57 feet, it took about 12 minutes and there was no turbulence at all.
One short mile after the lock we reached the Green Turtle Bay Marina where we’ll be staying for the next 5 nights. We’ll actually be staying in a condo for 2 of the nights. We won the 2-night stay at last spring’s Great Loop rendezvous in Charleston.
Once all the boats were squared away and in their slips, we had happy hour on Christina Diane. We were glad to be off the rivers. It had been a long few days. Later in the evening we all went to dinner at Patti’s 1880’s Settlement. They are known for their 2 inch pork chops and lemon meringue pie. In keeping with “trying out the local fare”, Linda had the 2 inch pork chop. It was so tender you could cut it with a fork. She did, however, need a huge doggy bag to take home the leftovers which fed both of us the next day.
This is a shot of the 3 boats behind us shortly after heading out early in the morning
This is the metropolis of Metropolis. The guidebooks mentioned that the water tower had a huge painting of Superman on it (because he is, of course, from Metropolis). However, either it is no longer there or we just missed seeing it because of the heavy rain.
Here we are locking through Lock 52 ... by far, our least favorite lock of the entire trip.
Here is Gerry ready to fend off. The picture is much brighter than it actually was. It was so dark, the flash went off when I took the picture, even though it was the middle of the day.
Leaving lock 52 .. maybe on a nicer day, it wouldn't have been so bad.
One of many bald eagles we saw in this area .... picture is not too good, but the best I could do given the weather conditions.
Boats turning into the Cumberland River
Crusing up the river, the weather started to improve a little, so this was the most pleasant part of the day (well, aside from happy hour after arriving)
Approaching Barkley Lock
Inside the lock. This is one of the bigger locks we have encountered, but it is newer and easy to attach to .... it has floating bollards and you attach your line midship.
Approaching Green Turtle Bay Marina -- home for the next 5 nights.
The gang at Patti's.
.... and the pork chop at Patti's. Note though that I did select the side of veggies instead of fries. They are also famous for their lemon meringue pie, but they were out of that. All 6 of us shared one of their sawdust pies. Not sure how they came up with the name, but it had pecans, caramel, bananas, graham cracker crust and a bunch of other stuff. It was good, but a couple of bites was sufficient.
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