Wednesday, September 27 - Clifton, Tennessee

Woke up early this morning to this beautiful sunrise in Pebble Isle Marina!

As we leave the marina at 8:00 a.m., the real bird from the sign decides to bid us farewell!😉

Four miles upstream is the CSX Rail Road Lift Bridge where we see a couple of guys already hard at work this morning.

Once again we see some evergreen trees growing in some very unusual areas!

At mile 116.1, we come to Cuba Landing Highway Bridge which is the end of Kentucky Lake.  The limestone-lined Tennessee River is predominantly the feature from this point south to the 

Tenn-Tombigbee Waterway.

And the Tennessee River does not disappoint after we exit out of Kentucky Lake; it's breathtakingly beautiful!

Beautiful homes sit on the top of some of this picturesque rock.

One of the homes is designed as a lighthouse!😲⛯

Oops, be careful of that landing!!!😂

Shortly after these home we see in the middle of the channel what seems to be dredging equipment.  The closer we get, however, we see that while the river is being dredged, the machine on the barge is separating the special rock from the sand.

Maybe the sand was put on this island so everyone could have a private volleyball court (Krystina and Tony, wouldn't you love this)?!

We find it interesting that some of the homes are built on stilts like we see on the Mississippi River.  Since the Kentucky Dam can control this pool, we were surprised that a home would need to be stilted this high!?

At mile 130 we come to Lady Finger Bluff.  This bluff is a prominent landmark formed when the Tennessee River carved a path out of the limestone found in abundance in this area.  The river narrows here and the current begins to increase at this point.  As we pass this bluff, the depth of the river is 73 feet; it then scales back to a depth between 30 and 40 feet.

Notice how clear this water is!!!

And, how windy the Tennessee River can be!

We wanted to stay at this marina, but they told us their marina was too shallow for our boat.

I don't think this guy got the memo!!!😲😄

A little further upriver (yes, we are going upstream even though our compass says we're going south!), and we see these beautiful homes with very large wrap-around decks (thinking of you and the love you have for a wrap-around porch, Jacqui!).

One of them even has palm trees!!!  I was so excited to see this plant, as I know we are finally in the southern part of the United States!💗🌴

Check out the overhang on these homes; it is definitely needed to keep cool on these hot and humid days!😎  Since leaving Hoppie's Marina (our last marina on the Mississippi River -
remember Fern?😊), we have had a string of very hot and humid weather.  We start the day with 95% humidity and get to the low to mid 90's, but then in the evening it cools to the mid to low 70's and the humidity drops to 45%.  Tomorrow that will finally change when we get to the low to mid 80's with only 75% humidity!  I LOVE IT!!!🌞

Kelly Island!!!

 Of the south, that is; the one in the north is on Lake Erie and is just a little bit bigger!  If it were truly my island, you know there would be plants with pink flowers budding all over!!!😂💗🥀

We've seen a total of five towboats today in a seven-hour cruising day; three helper towboats and two pushing the normal amount of barges like we see back home - 15 that is.  These barges are full of woodchips.  Seriously, sometimes I can't believe the captain can see a thing over all of the cargo!

Right before we come to our destination in Clifton, we see a permanent-site campground.  I guess the only way to beat the heat of Tennessee if you're camping is to have your own roof-top!

And here we are, Clifton Marina; home for the night!  It looks like a few people need to come visit their home!😏

When we got to Clifton, we met up with some more loopers.  We have met Jim and Nancy from "Keokuk" (the boat that was anchored on Kentucky Lake) and Dan and Jean from "Time Out", a 

40' Mainship Trawler.  This evening while we were having docktales with some of these people, into the marina pulls "Dog Den" from Red Wing, Minnesota!!!  What a small world!

Well, that's it!  Two days behind and I got you all caught up in one evening!  Good night, everyone!💗🌙