Cuba Again?

Breaking Away was in Havana (IL) for 3.5 weeks, and now we're in Cuba again -- Cuba Landing Marina, TN. It's right near Interstate 40, and Bert had to leave today for the Nashville airport to fly home. Bob had to leave us on Friday because he had a business trip to Shanghai yesterday. We had a fabulous time with them here. They and we loved every second, even the running aground a few days ago.

Bert was the breakfast man! He made either fabulous egg or pancake specialties -- or he'd say "Hey, you can have cereal this morning." hahaha Not really, he would have always made specialties if we'd wanted them.

I should mention that Rick is the lunch king. He makes us "Dagwood" ham/turkey/cheese sandwiches with all the fixins every day. YUM!

Isn't this interesting? Bridge to Nowhere. You see some unusual stuff on the Great Loop. Right next to it was an old skeleton three-story building from the days before they created KY Lake and it had been sitting at the TN River's edge.

Isn't he cute? We had anchored in a little cove for our mid-afternoon lunch/lolly gagging, and we kayaked over to the nearby tiny island to explore. Bob first spotted this little armadillo rummaging around for food. He paid no attention to us regardless of how close we got. How did he get there? Janet A. told us later they can swim, although with all that armor they look like they'd sink.

Anchorages here on Kentucky Lake/TN River have lots of bugs, as we've seen many many times on this boating adventure. The midges were squishy, but sometimes we got invaded by the common housefly. Well, Bert was like son Brian was once on our Trinity Lake houseboat trip -- he HAD to kill em all!! Quickly! It worked. The survivors must have flown back to tell their buds there was a madman on that boat, so don't go there.

Bob, Bert and Rick at one of our nightly Happy Hours. We enjoyed our quiet anchorages, our kayaking, our dinghy excursions, these happy hours, our dinners, and finally watching movies. Great times with great friends!

Here's Bob exploring our anchorage. We had just investigated a duck blind, where hunters hide inside a branch-covered shack so the innocent cute little ducks can't see them with their rifles aimed at them. It looked like there was enough room for a stove, ice chests for beer, and a TV to watch football.

This is the scene from Pilot Knob, TN, the highest point in Western TN - 669 feet! It's looking back across the KY Lake/TN River toward our marina called Pebble Isle. After Bob had to depart, Bert, Rick and I took the dinghy across the lake to Nathan Buford Forrest State Park and hiked up to this point. There was a TN cultural museum there (which we enjoyed) plus a monument to good ole Nathan. He was famous for destroying a Union supply depot on the river there late in the Civil War, but apparently he later helped form the Ku Klux Klan and was its first Grand Wizard. What a guy! I think his state park should have been at the lowest point in Western TN.

We later borrowed the marina courtesy car and did some grocery shopping to restock. Luckily there was a liquor store nearby, since grocery stores in TN don't sell booze.

Every morning we get pretty thick fogs rolling across the water, and this sight was one of the coolest. Our nights have become very cold - in the 30s - yet the days are still hot - in the high 80s or 90s. Rick calls these "perfect" days.

Later this same morning from Pebble Isle Marina, Bert and I took a fabulous 30-mile bike ride across the TN hillsides. We crossed this Dog River Bridge and thought the rock walls were stunning. Just last spring when we heard about the terrible flooding in TN, this river got right up to the bottom of the bridge and flooded all the surrounding fields. And, Bert and I twice had to out-sprint a pit bull that came chasing after us, just as TN hunting dogs are bred to do!

Isn't this attractive? Yesterday we departed from the main river channel at a place called Birdsong River to anchor for the night. It was still early, so we dinghied farther up the river to a marina/campground to explore. Well, the first thing we saw was this monstrosity. An old riverboat from Memphis that had sunk, which they had intended to be a floating restaurant. They paid to haul it from Memphis, but this plan didn't work out as intended. The bottom two floors of what used to be a floating hotel in Memphis are under water now, and they have no idea what they're going to do with it.

But this photo at exactly the same place was one of those special "treasure finds" of doing the Great Loop. These are logs that are holding mesh bags of mussels that are producing pearls! This spot is the only "pearl farm" in North America! We did not even know this until we got there and the dock master told us about it.

We went to their little Pearl Museum and watched a CBS segment with Charles Osgood from some years back explaining about pearls and this only fresh-water spot on the continent. An entrepreneur and his family started it back in the early 60s after testing water sites all over the country for the right conditions. It was so much fun to find this "gem" (hahaha) accidentally while exploring in the dinghy.

Today we left Birdsong and cruised 9 miles to Cuba Landing. Bert and I took another incredibly scenic bike ride before his shuttle arrived to take him to Nashville. Then I took the opportunity to change the oil and filter, change the generator oil and filter, change the fuel filter, do three loads of laundry with Rick, and cook up a Nestle/Stouffer lasagna dinner! Rick and I now have 23 days to travel about 700 miles to Pensacola, FL where the boat will rest for two months. We will travel through Mississippi and Alabama, and reach Mobile on the Gulf Coast.