In the Land of the Tennessee Valley Authority

When we passed through Barkley Lock on October 11, we passed into an area that was greatly affected by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) projects of the 1930's and 40's. A New Deal program designed to make the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers navigable, mitigate flooding on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and generate hydroelectric power focused on building a series of dams. The completion of the dams resulted in the flooding of the land upstream of the dams and the creation of artificial lakes, the largest of which is Kentucky Lake. Lake Barkley is its counterpart to the east, and the park area between the two reservoirs is known as "The Land Between the Lakes."

What this all means is that essentially we have been cruising through a huge resort area for the past few days where boating and fishing are paramount. Aside from a few groupings of homes here and there, the landscape is mostly natural. Unlike our cruising on much of the rest of the Great Loop, the marinas are quite self-contained and not often near towns. So we boat during the day for seven or eight hours, then hang around in our marina for the evening. We socialize with other Loopers when possible, but there isn't much land-side exploration to be done.

Leaving Green Turtle Bay Marina
Grand Rivers, KY

Finally! Ice cream in Grand Rivers. They had a German
Chocolate "hurricane" (like a DQ Blizzard) that was
awesome!

We are grateful to have had absolutely gorgeous, sunny weather for our cruising. Fog on the water has been an issue a couple of mornings, but it's usually burned off by 8:30 or 9 a.m., so it hasn't delayed us much. Because the waterway is so wide, and the commercial boat traffic scarce compared to the Mississippi, it has been a very relaxing area to cruise. The only negative aspect has been that, although we are cruising south, we are going "upstream" on the Tennessee. Current against us wasn't a big issue in the wider part of Kentucky Lake, but as the river channel narrowed it became more pronounced and we found ourselves increasing engine rpms to maintain a reasonable speed. (And as engine speed goes up, fuel mileage goes down.)

Former grain shipping warehouse
 flooded by the
Kentucky Dam project

Docked at Pebble Isle Marina near
New Johnsonville, TN (Old Johnsonville was flooded
by the Kentucky Dam project). This was the site of the
Battle of Johnsonville in 1864--the only time in military
history that a cavalry force defeated a naval force

Lady Finger Bluff. A legend from pioneer days says
that a lady leaped to her death from this site rather
than be captured by attacking Indians.

Anti-flood architecture on the Tennessee. The house has
a heavy concrete lower level. $25,000 for a lot if you
want to take your chances with flooding.

Fishing on a foggy morning at Clifton, TN

George Washington didn't stay in
Clifton, nor did Mark Twain, but they
do have a historical sidewalk!

We cruised yesterday by a portion of the Shiloh National Military Park, the site of the Civil War Battle of Shiloh in 1862.

Cherry Mansion, headquarters of General Ulysses S. Grant
during the Battle of Shiloh

After passing through the Pickwick Lock yesterday afternoon (October 15), we left Tennessee behind and are now stopped for a couple of days at Aqua Yacht Harbor in Mississippi. We'll spend today on maintenance and cleaning, then hope to drive to the Shiloh battlefield tomorrow.