Kentucky – Stark Adventures

10/17/23: More Kentucky adventures and an Ark

October 17, 2023October 20, 2023karenstark

Tuesday our first order of business was bourbon tasting. Say WHAT?! Yep – a month ago I made a reservation for the only tour available today at the Woodford Reserve Distillery at 11:15. Kenny’s favorite bourbon is Woodford Double Oaked, so this is a treat for him. We were camped about 1.5 hours away from the distillery, and we were supposed to be at the distillery just before 11:00. Our plan was to peel out of here by 9:15 or so to make sure we got there in time, since our route would take us over the river and through the woods.
On our way, we saw a variety of large open barns/sheds. At first we thought they might be bourbon ricks, but looking closer revealed stuff hanging inside.

10/15,16/23 Kentucky adventures and Creation

October 16, 2023October 20, 2023karenstark

Sunday – Woah! The Seattle Seahawks were playing the Cincinnati Bengals HERE in Cincinnati! And WE are here in Cincinnati! We should have bought tickets to go see the game. The stadium was nowhere near sold out. And hey – these people know how to do some serious tailgating! This was what we could see as we went by on I-75. This parking lot is on the west of the freeway, the stadium is on the east side. As it turned out, since the game was not sold out, it was not on local TV either, so we didn’t get to watch it. Just as well… the Bengals won. 🙁

Day 191&192- And…Back to Tennessee from Kentucky!

September 27, 2021September 27, 2021karenstark

Sunday, September 26, 2021.
Temp: 79/48, Humidity: 35/99%, Top Wind: S5 mph, Precip: a little morning rain, Miles Traveled: 64

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Do you remember being a little kid (or maybe a teenager) and telling your mom that you’re too sick to get up and go to school? Yeah – that’s kind of the story I get every once in awhile from the crew here. But today, it was a little more pre-school in nature, after playing peek-a-boo on the video chat with our toddler grandbabies the other day. I got up and checked the weather and found out that it was cold and damp with a little bit of fog/steam rising from the water. I went down to tell the Captain that it was time to get up, and all I found was covers completely pulled up with a big lump in the bed and a small quiet voice that said “you can’t see me”. 🙈 Where Gwampa? “He not here”. Oh dear. 🤦‍♀️

Day 190- Back to Kentucky from Tennessee

September 25, 2021September 26, 2021karenstark

Saturday September 25, 2021.
Temp: 76/53, Humidity: 56/96%, Top Wind: NW6 mph, Precip: a little morning rain, Miles Traveled: 73 in less than 7 hours

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It’s hard to convince the sleeping beauties (both of us) that it’s morning when we’re docked under cover. It is much harder for the sunshine to find it’s way into our bedroom in the bow of the boat! So when the alarm says it’s time to get up, we have to trust it. 😩 What was weird was that in our sleepy state, we kept hearing things dropping on the bow. I knew it couldn’t be rain, but I really hoped it wasn’t giant blobs of spider poop!! Or bird poop. So THAT is what made me get up, so I could look. It was big drops of water, from condensation on the underside of the roof. Well darn, now I was up. Might as well get atum.

Day 182- Wet day on Lake Barkley

September 17, 2021September 18, 2021karenstark

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.

Day 180 & 181 More days at Green Turtle

September 16, 2021September 17, 2021karenstark

Wednesday September 15, 2021.
Temp: 86/73, Humidity: 57/92%, Top Wind: SW8 mph, Precip: mostly cloudy, Miles Traveled: none

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This morning I went to the spa for an hour long massage. AHHHH! How nice! I like deep tissue massage, and the therapist always seems to find all kinds of sore muscles! In the last few months, I’ve had two bum shoulders at different times, and a rib stabbing me for awhile. I will certainly feel better now! And then, guess what?! I got my Costa Rica book! Book #2 arrived! So I called Alton marina and left them a message that they can open the package that came for me there, and offer the book to anybody who wants it. Now I get to start planning a future trip 😁 in my spare time…. Captain says I can’t stop working on the one we’re in the middle of!

Day 178 &179- Green Turtle Bay

September 14, 2021September 15, 2021karenstark

Monday September 13, 2021.
Temp: 87/69, Humidity: 55/93%, Top Wind: S7 mph, Precip: None- hazy & sunny, Miles Traveled: none – but we’re at 4200 exactly for the whole trip so far.

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This was not an exciting day, but Kenny did change the oil. He’s using Amsoil, and had it delivered to Alton marina, so we’ve had it for about a week. He was going to do the project there, but decided to wait a few more hours and change the oil here. We have 479 hours total on this trip, and 245 hours since the last oil change back on the Hudson River at Shady Harbor in June. There is a boat yard here so it’s an easy place to dispose of the old oil. No pictures of that event. I hung around to be a tool helper, and when he was done, I went to see the turtles. There is a spot where the marina has official marine animal food that you can feed the turtles. I didn’t feed them, but they were looking at me like I should be! Their lil noggins were all sticking up giving me the look!

Day 177- On to the Cumberland

September 12, 2021September 17, 2021karenstark

Sunday September 12, 2021.
Temp: 84/66, Humidity: 54/90%, Top Wind: SW7 mph, Precip: None- hazy & sunny, Miles Traveled: 45, Number of locks: 1 with about a 50’ lift (Goin UP now)

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I’ve never lived someplace where the bugs pop out of the water over night and take over the world. But it happens! Would you look at this?! Mayflies! Bug-pocolypse. The Entomological Society says mayflies live most of their lives on the water bottom living on algae and decomposing matter. They finally get wings, fly out of the water, molt one last time, mate, lay eggs, and die in a matter of days. It’s called a Mayfly bloom. Not pretty.

Day 176-Out around Paducah

September 11, 2021September 13, 2021karenstark

Saturday September 11, 2021.
Temp: 84/64, Humidity: 49/83%, Top Wind: SW9 mph, Precip: None- hazy & sunny, Miles Traveled: a few on foot
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It was a rocky rolly night on the outside of the dock in Paducah. We both woke up several times as tows went by and rolled us. Oh well, we’re just thankful there is a marina here! It was just opened in 2017. Prior to that, it was nearly 300 miles between marinas, coming down from Alton to Grand Rivers, which meant at least three nights at anchor. This cuts off about 45 miles, which doesn’t seem like much, but it is the difference of a day on the marina-less journey! And they have fuel here, so for gas powered boats or boats with less than 300 miles capability, it matters!
This is the marina. Notice how tall the pilings are?

Day 175- Hello Kentucky!!

September 10, 2021September 12, 2021karenstark

Thursday September 10, 2021.
Temp: 83/53, Humidity: 34/100%, Top Wind: S19 mph, Precip: None- FOOOGGG!! then sunny, Miles Traveled: 54 in 7 hours, Number of Locks: 1, raised (Going UP River now) 10’
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I got up before the sun and looked outside. Just a bit of fog rising from the warm water. I received this nice photo of our Girl’s booty from Legacy, who was anchored behind us.