Friday September 17, 2021.
Temp: 76/67, Humidity: 91/100%, Top Wind: E6 mph, Precip: rainy off & on all day, Miles Traveled: 29
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Yeah – look again at that humidity. 🥵. We knew it was going to rain this morning until about 10:00, then maybe give us a little break, so we took our time getting ready to go. We weren’t going far… only a few hours of travel. And since we’re going to have lots of opportunities to get rained on this week, we took the covers off of the front windows during a lull in the rain. Along with that, made some other preparations for the possibility of driving from downstairs. We cleared out the helm and got out our raincoats. and got Baby Gladys out, charged, and hooked up. That’s our old little iPad that didn’t have enough memory for Navionics, so got replaced by Big Gladys. But – it still has Garmin Helm on it, which is an app that transmits through wifi exactly what is on the upstairs Garmin. Pretty sweet. So Captain can sit at the downstairs helm and view the upstairs Garmin that has the AIS and radar integrated in its display.
It sprinkled as we left, but then stopped for awhile. YAY! The scenery on the lake is really pretty. I told Kenny that it’s like being in Puget Sound on a low flying cloud day when you cannot see the mountains. Lake Barkley was created in 1966 when the Cumberland River was damed up by the Barkley Lock and Dam.
Ooooh – look at this mysterious place! K.S.P. Any guesses who lives in this castle? Kentucky State Pennitentiary. It was built in 1884 as a pennitentiary. It’s a cool looking place on the outside, but I’m sure that the people who live there don’t care about the appearance. Seriously – it is Kentucky’s maximum and supermax prison, and home of Kentucky’s male death row inmates, so it also contains the execution facility.
We had some rain, but not hard rain. Light rain, off and on several times through the day. Captian wore his rain coat and kept the window open for better visibility. His legs got a little soggy.
There weren’t a lot of homes along the banks of the lake. There are a LOT of coves, so maybe that is where the residences are.
Everything west of Lake Barkley is Land Between The Lakes Recreation area, so it is not populated.
After only about 27 miles, we arrived at the cove where the Lake Barkley State Park Marina & Resort is located. It was a 2.5 mile meander in to the marina from the main lake.
This is a very large marina, with all covered slips. Most slips are occupied by local long term lessees, including lots of houseboats! The locals on the docks were so nice, as were the members of the marina staff.
After the rain finally subsided around 5:30, we got Speedy out so that I could go scope out what else was here. This meadow had at least a dozen deer in it. You can only see a couple of them with the reduced clarity for the blog. 🥺
Ah ha! I went past the building with the exercise facility and pool, and found the entrance to the lodge. Something about State Parks in the south…. many of them have lodges and conference centers!
This was the drive in – just so pretty with a million petunias.
This is looking back at the marina and part of the channel that comes in from the lake.
I stepped into the lodge just to get a peek. It was pretty neat! Lots of big timbers and rustic feel.
This was looking down into the big dining room, but they were only serving take out. There was some sort of conference going on, but I didn’t see anybody.
I went down to the dining room just to look outside. What a pretty spot!
On my way back to the marina, I spied a few more deer. But they spied me as well, and didn’t stay put very long. And Speedy has squeaky brakes, so there was no sneaking up on them!
There was a little cafe in the marina building that had a small menu of sandwiches and burgers. We didn’t partake. I had thawed out a steak, so we got out the little propane bbq grill. It was a nice deal for dinner tonight since we were under cover. We didn’t have to worry about rain on the steak or the chef! I roasted some parmesan potatoes in the oven and put together a salad, and we enjoyed a quiet evening at home. 😉
We are in there somewhere. We parked bow in… it makes it easier for grilling, and a little more privacy. Except for our giant sized windshield! I’m so thankful that I made curtains! They work pretty good on tension rods.
We had a yummy dinner, and watched an after-dinner movie. This place has good wifi!! Tomorrow will bring us more rain, and we have about an eight hour day ahead of us as we travel about 70 miles upriver to Clarksville Tennessee. OH! And remember my worry about the bridge construction after Clarksville to get to Nashville? Well, there is a member of AGLCA that lives up-river from Nashville. He had just posted a bunch of information on the AGLCA Forum encouraging people to take the side trip up to Nashville. He also just did a podcast with our AGLCA director that we listened to. So….. being the smart, curious, and proactive navigator that I am, I sent him an email asking if he had any current information about the construction. I got an email back from him this morning, and YES he did! He said that he talked with the project manager a couple of weeks ago, and they had already completed the structural work that required the navigation channel to be closed, so there is no longer an issue. Work barges are still on site, so please radio upon approach and maintain no wake through the area. TA-DA!! YAHOO for super helpful AGLCA members! This is a great group of people, helping each other all the time. Thanks Zyg!!! We are good to go!!