Continuing On!

WEDNESDAY

Arose at 0530 this morning only to discover that we were fogged in.

JULI-IV was extremely dewy so we tested our sham wows.  They do not work well unless they are wet.  We had met another couple tied up for the evening and told them that we were going to Nashville and planned on staying at the Rock Harbor Marina.  They told us that is where they kept their boat for the past year, it was really outstanding and the owner of the marina, "Arch" was the best.  They had a newer 43 foot Carver Aft Cabin, (which you can barely see in the photo above) so we wondered if we could afford this place. The fog cleared off by 8:30 and we departed upriver onto a sea of glass.

It stayed like this for two hours.

We arrived at the Rock Harbor Marina about 3:00 p.m. and headed to the gas dock to refuel.  A marina man appeared and asked us what we wanted. I told him that we had called earlier in the day to reserve a slip for the night and we needed fuel, ice, and a pump out. The posted gas price on the pump was $4.99 per gallon.  After I saw that, we really had to pump out.  I asked him if his name was "Arch" and he said yes, and added that he was Wynonna's Ex, the good Ex not the bad one and had two children with her.  I thought this was quite a tale as he was pretty nondescript and the marina was not in the best of shape. He went on to add that he had to leave early as he had to go to the hospital to see George Jones, who is ill.  I thought it really is getting deep here.

(More on the marina in a moment.)  We finished fueling, icing and pumping and Joe went in to pay.  Arch had told us that since we were staying the night he would knock off .25 cents per gallon on the fuel. We took on 91 gallons so it was quite excellent. The pump outs (2) he normally charges $25.00 each for, but he forgot to add them to the ticket so he said just forget it.  He provided us his business card which indicated his full name was Arch Kelley III.  Immediately I leapt to the internet to check out his story.  Amazingly enough, it was all true.  Here is a picture of them in their prime.

We had planned on going to a show of the Grand Ole Opry on Wednesday evening but all of a sudden there was no show scheduled, even though a week ago there had been.  Arch told us just to go to the downtown entertainment district next to the Ryman Auditorium, original home of the Grand Ole Opry, and just go door to door listening to all the different music being played live.

The marina was in pretty poor shape, as the major flood on the Cumberland River two years ago had thoroughly ravaged the place, the water had risen 53 feet and pretty much destroyed everything.  They are rebuilding slowly and it will be much better by end of this season.   

On to downtown.

We summoned a cab for the 5 mile trip to downtown and were dropped off at the "Legends" Bar. Across the street was "Rippy's" which featured barbeque and music.  We dined, then it was back across the street to The Ryman Auditorium.

There was a Coming Out show for a new Nissan Vehicle and the lot was full of them. Mr. Ryman was watching over all this.  And Joe was watching him.

After visiting with Mr. Ryman it was off to live, loud music.

Beth and the star singer of one of the groups really hit it off and she was demonstrating to Beth the proper way to hold the microphone.

 

 Some of the nostalgic items on display.

A cab ride back to the marina and we made ready for the departure back down the Cumberland River to Green Turtle Bay Marina for Memorial Day Weekend.

This was what we saw as we departed the marina. There was a tug with barges just emerging from this.  I asked the tug pilot how thick and far this fog went and he said it was near zero visibility for about a half mile.  We turned on navigational lights, set the fog signal to "under way" and slowed down and closely monitored the chart plotter and radar and kept going.  It was nearer to a mile before we came out into the clear.  Quite nerve racking. On one of the islands there was a volleyball net set up on an interesting court.

 If you stepped out of bounds you were really in deep.  This is the place that we had stopped for lunch yesterday, very nice.

We entered the Cheatham Lock and my trusty crew had us secured in a matter of moments,

  but the Sea Ray following us took about 30 minutes to attach themselves to the lock wall.

  We stopped off the river in a backwater near Dover, dined and retired.

Awoke to this view at 0530.

Continued on arriving back at Green Turtle Bay by 2:00 p.m. Checked in and went to the Yacht Club for dinner. You can see why this place is named "Green Turtle Bay"

Thus far on this segment of our journey we have traveled 591 river miles.

Have a safe, happy Memorial Day Weekend.  We will be back home in Kansas Tuesday.