Friday, June 18, 2010

This is the Mermaid Marina "mascot".

This was taken at Mermaid Marina. How did they get that up there?

This was taken at Freddy T's.

We have had no service since the last time I posted, so here we go. Wednesday we tried to get an early start (5:45), but we called the John Rankin lock and they told us to wait for an hour because there was a barge going through. We also went through the Sonny Montgomery Lock and the Jamie Whitten Lock on Wednesday. The Tombigby Waterway is mostly undeveloped and nice to look at. There are, however, lots of "jugs" floating to avoid, much like the crab pots. They have fishing line, weight, hook, and bait on them. No metal traps though. We stopped on Wednesday shortly after 3:00 at Grand Harbor. We were all so hot that Sue, John, and I all got in the swimming pool. Ahhh! After about an hour, a storm blew in and we had to get out. We borrowed the courtesy car and went to Freddy T's for dinner. What a cool place that was. When you see John, ask him about the men's restroom.

On Thursday, we discovered a diesel leak from our port engine. It leaks only under pressure and into the pan under the engine. We put absorbent pads under it and were told by a mechanic that we can wait until we get to Kentucky Dam Park to have it fixed. There was only one lock to pass through on Thursday (Pickwick). We stopped for the day at Mermaid Marina. Their restaurant is only open on the weekends, so we went to the harbor next door for dinner. It was called Fisherdock. They have live bands on the weekends. It sounds like a really good time. When I get to a place with wi-fi, I'll post a couple of pictures from Mermaid Marina.


Today , it's gorgeous out, the skies are clear, the birds are singing, and we are in the beautiful Tennessee River. It doesn't get better than that. We are planning on staying at Paris Landing State Park tonight .