Land Between the Lakes

September20, 2010-September 22, 2010

The hot weather is killing us.  There's no breeze and it's 95 degrees every day.  We had such beautiful weather in Canada this summer that this heat is hard for us to take!

When you leave Green Turtle Bay, you have a choice of continuing down the Cumberland River toward Nashville which become Lake Barkley or use the Barkley Canal to Kentucky Lake.  We chose to explore Barkley Lake for a day before beginning our journey down the Tennessee River on the Kentucky Lake.  With no residents to gawk at, and only sandy shores with some limestone outcroppings, it was a ho hum ride.  We did see a building looming ahead of us that looked castle-like.  When we got closer, we discovered it was Kentucky State Penitentiary known as "The Castle on the Cumberland", Kentucky's only maximum security prison, built with stone from local quarries.

Castle on the Cumberland

Barkley Lake shoreline

We anchored near shore for a swim to try to cool off-it was a little nerve wracking to leave the channel since there are no soundings markings on either the paper or electronic charts so you are not sure how much water is under the boat until you get there and then it could be too late!  Pete sniffed his nautical nose and we were fine for a few hours.  We stayed at Barkley Lake State Park Marina for the night, a KY state facility that was attached to  a resort with an 18 hole golf course  We took a morning walk up to the resort complex and were impressed with the conference center and indoor pool complex-not bad for a state park!

Sunset at Barkley Lake Marina

The next day we backtracked up Barkley Lake back to the Barkley Canal.  The canal marks the northern end of the Land Between the Lakes (LBL) National Recreation Area.  It borders both the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River for about 40 miles.  This spine of land separating the two rivers is up to eight miles wide and is one of the Nation's largest inland peninsulas.  President Kennedy created LBL in 1963 as a recreational and environmental education area.

Barkley Canal

From the Barkley Canal we entered Kentucky Lake, part of the Tennessee River on which we will travel about 440 mile to Chattanooga, TN.  Because of the heat, we decided not to anchor out but to find a marina with electricity for the AC.  We stayed at Kenlake State Resort Park, another nice marina (except there are no shower facilities-what do you want for $22.50!)  As it's even too hot to cook and heat up or little galley and living quarters, we decided to catch a ride up to the resort restaurant and ate a yummy meal.  Our ride back was with the cutey Park Ranger.  When the waitress told us we'd ride back with the ranger, I thought she meant a Ford Ranger truck-not a real live ranger!

Our ride from the restaurant

Mt Dew everywhere-even outside Kenlake Marina bathrooms

Sunrise at Kenlake Marina in KY

Tonight we're at Paris Landing State Park Marina (with showers-yeah) in Tennessee, parked next to the Coast Guard facility.  We'll be going to dinner here too-can't wait to meet this ranger!

Enjoy your coolness!