It’s cool in the mornings, in the low 40s, on our fall trip down the rivers. We were up before the sun to tackle the Cumberland River on our way south.
The Three River’s Quarry is mining gravel at Wilson’s Landing.
And the same vultures waited patiently in the trees, just as they had when we passed three years ago!
The Barkley Lock is the only lock on the Cumberland River, and she’s a big one, dropping Monarch 57 feet.
The descent is smooth, as there are floating bollards to which we tied two midship spring lines.
Exiting the lock, we turn into Green Turtle Bay Marina for the night. They had courtesy vans, which we took to Wal-Mart in Paducah, Kentucky, about 45 minutes away by car.
The docks here are nice, though deserted. We feel like we are sweeping up at the end of the seasonal parade of Great Loop boats.
After leaving Barkley Lake, we transited the Barkley Canal into Kentucky Lake. The lake is a wide spot in the Tennessee River, formed by the Kentucky Dam. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we stopped for the evening at Paris Landing State Park, in Kentucky.
We explored the park, which overlooks the Tennessee River from a high bluff.
This flock of hundreds of American Coots clustered together looks like an obstruction to navigation. They have distinctive white bills and small black bodies.
The park has decorated for the fall season. A ranger picked us up in a van for the short ride to dinner.
The dining room had a beautiful view, and a fair amount of patrons.
Next morning, we departed the park, and shortly after saw this bizarre sight, a fully camouflaged duck blind, motoring under outboard rowboat power, looking for a good spot to put its spuds down for the season.
The high banks sometimes feature homes….
but more often are wild and barren. This is called Lady Finger Bluff for obvious reasons.
An unexpected warm up saw today’s temperatures in the high 70s, causing an extension of the water-skiing season. For the night we anchored at Double Island, just in time to watch a small but intense thunderstorm hurl bolts of lightening to the shore around us, leaving us safe and unscathed. No more warm weather this week!
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