10/20/23 – More braaaping in beautiful Tennessee

Friday morning was very wet outside. It rained quite a bit last night, but the forecast this morning was revised to say that most of the rain was done and there would only be a bit more before noon. YAY! We waited until about noon and headed out to see how soggy the trails would be. The gravel road leading to the trails was just beautiful. We hit Tennessee just right for fall colors!!

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10/18,19/23 Braaaping in Pickett Forest Tennessee

Wednesday we took our time preparing for departure. We had a 200 mile day ahead of us, with about half of it on I-75 and the other half would be over the river and through the woods, to Pickett Forest we go. It is right on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee, out in the hills, a perfect place to ride Kawi. I hope. I consulted with the Google and our RV Life Safe route planner which takes the size of Nitro into account, and planned our route. I also contacted the campground where we’ll be staying and asked for a recommended route from the north and also roads to avoid. They gave me both, so that was very helpful too. We really are going into the middle of nowhere, at least it seems so when coming from the north. So away we went!
On our way out of Carrollton we looked for the local road crew (turkey vultures). Each morning that we’ve driven this road there’s been several dozen of these big birds. I finally captured a picture of some of them. There weren’t as many today – they must have had another job somewhere else and split the crew up.

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Day 194- Slowing down on the Tennessee

Wednesday, September 29, 2021.
Temp: 86/63, Humidity: 54/100%, Top Wind: SE5 mph, Precip: FOG. AGAIN! then sunny and hot,
Miles Traveled: 43 in 5.5 hours…. average 7.8mph.

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Even though we were in a covered slip and could barely tell it was getting light outside, we still were awake before 6:30. Captain rolled over and said there was a fog advisory until 9:00. How’d he know that?! So I got up and looked outside. It was OK here in the marina, but I could see out to where the river is, and yep – there was fog. Hmmm…🤔. I reported back my findings and suggested that we could have a delayed start today. You know – like the busses are running one hour late? Not really a snow day, just a late start. So I puttered around and was not even getting ready to go.

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Day 193- From Paris to Cuba

Tuesday, September 28, 2021.
Temp: 85/59, Humidity: 49/100%, Top Wind: SW5 mph, Precip: none-sunny!, Miles Traveled: 50

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This started out as a really nice day, and pretty much stayed that way. We woke up on time with the sunshine, without even trying. Our dumb body clocks are getting into a bad habit of waking up at 6:30 or before. I heard Kenny pick up his phone and moan… it was 6:29. The dingalingalarm went off one minute later. Obviously I was already awake too. 😵‍💫 Time to get after it. We were on the west side of the lake, so as we tootled out of the marina basin to the lake, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise.

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

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. 🤦‍♀️

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Day 190- Back to Kentucky from Tennessee

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.

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Day 189-Flying down the Cumberland

Friday September 24, 2021.
Temp: 75/46, Humidity: 39/100%, Top Wind: SW6 mph, Precip: Fog 🌫, but no rain, Miles Traveled: 64 in under six hours, number of locks: 1, about 23’ drop

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Indeed, the river is runing faster, which is great for our fuel economy!!
We were rudely awakened at 6:30 by my obnoxious alarm that said it was time to go. Booo. So up and atum, make some coffee, then head upstairs to prepare for departure. I swabbed down all the windows, and opened the drivers side. I went back down to get some things for the travel day – like Gladys and my blankie! I came back up, and my window was flogged up again! I guess we were at dew point, plus I was seeing a little bit of fog steaming from the river.

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Day 188- Nashville has been so fun

Thursday September 23, 2021.
Temp: 70/51, Humidity: 34/89%, Top Wind: NW11 mph, Precip: NONE! 👍, Miles Traveled: none

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Brrr! The temperatures have definitely dropped!! Another lovely sleep in day and I got up to blue sky, sunshine and feeling a little bit like Chilly Willy! 🐧 I actually turned on the heat! That’s another great reason to be plugged into dock power!! And I found another spider web INSIDE the boat! 🕸Grrr! We had a full complete web hanging off of the bikes yesterday morning. We figure that we brought somebody inside with the bikes when we brought them in for safe keeping while here in the city. So last night during the witching hour (just around sunset), I was surveying the bikes. I saw a spider sticking out of the end of one of the bicycle handle grips! I tried to grab him, but all I got was four legs. Drat! That left him with a body and four legs. So I sprayed our Terro spider killer into the handle, and that should have croaked him. But this morning, there was a new web over by the coffee maker. I guess I better go hunting tonight, because Miss Muffet must have a friend in here somewhere!
We had no agenda for today, but it was really nice that it wasn’t raining. I suppose we could have got the bikes out and gone somewhere, but we’ve explored Nashville and the surrounding area by car before, so it felt good to just relax and take it easy with no pressing agenda. We watched the goings-on around the waterway while I fixed bacon and eggs for breakfast. Apparently one of the guys who works for the dock management company also runs a pontoon tour boat. The Pontoon Saloon went out a couple of times today, and this was the first time we’ve really seen any people around the dock.

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Day 186- Hello Nashville!

Tuesday September 21, 2021.
Temp: 82/69, Humidity: 67/87%, Top Wind: SE5 mph, Precip: Yep! clouds and some rain, Miles Traveled: 19

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It was a leisurely get-up kind of morning. This crew likes those kinds of days. 😊. We were only going about 20 miles today, and were hoping to not travel in the rain. As we meandered out of the yacht club basin about 9:00, it really was a narrow-through-the-trees kind of channel, even with high water!

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