Kentucky: Grand Rivers

Day 97
No boat travel

They don't call it "Green Turtle Bay" for nothing!

Our morning today was spent returning the rental car.  Again we had the circus of getting the courtesy car, driving to Paducah in two cars, dropping off the rental, and getting back to the marina within the two hour limit.  We learned that the low tire pressure idiot light in the courtesy car is always on because the owner of the vehicle disabled the sensor, so the idiot light assumes the worst. Wish we had known that last time we drove it!  Anyway, with that knowledge, Clark drove the 70 mph speed limit, so this time the trip to Paducah took the expected 30 minutes to complete.

I needed a couple of items that were unavailable in Grand Rivers stores, so after dropping off the rental car, we made two stops while in Paducah - Walgreen's and Kroger's.  Man I miss real grocery and drug stores.  It's heaven to be able to walk into a store and find what you need, which is something I very much take for granted when in NJ.  After our running around, we got back close to on time.  We had to stop to refuel the courtesy car for the next user or we would have made it back more on time.  After all the mucking about with the cars, it turned twelve o'clock and time for lunch in no time at all.  

After lunch today Clark and I spent a portion of our afternoon doing research on options for our travel plans after we leave here. Since we seem to have way more days than needed to get to our next scheduled destination, we decided to add one more day to our stay at the Green Turtle Bay Marina. The main reason for this decision has nothing to do with boating and everything to do with the Badgett Playhouse show on Friday night entitled "Variety! Music, Memories, and More".  We have heard that the shows are phenomenal and a patron gets way more than they paid for in entertainment.

I am very much looking forward to attending the show.  The theater is about a mile from the marina.  That is an easy walk in the daylight, but the dock master said the walk "would get old fast" at night in the dark.  He recommended we rent a golf cart for $20 to use Friday night to go to the show.  I think the weather may make the decision for us on the walk or rent options.

Angie and Dan from Sea Horse stopped by a couple of times today to say hello and talk about such things as how to make wood floors on boats shiny, the wonders of "magic erasers" on boats, and the amazing cleaning power of "Goof Off for Bathroom Cleaning".  Since Sea Horse and Sea Moss are both Mainship 350s, we have a lot in common.  We showed them a few of the upgrades we put on our boat like the hot / cold shower in the stern, they Ocean Aire screen on the master stateroom hatch, and the covers we placed over our port holes to allow us to keep them open even in rain storms.

Loopers are boat enthusiasts and discussions on boat care and maintenance are as popular topics as discussing the places we have seen or the places we plan to see.  With so many loopers at the Green Turtle Bay Marina right now, it is easy to overhear conversations and immediately tell the people talking are loopers.  Besides boat care discussions, popular topics are bugs and locks as these two issues are just about as equally annoying as each other as well as conversations on the lack of sleep and very early mornings on this most recent, river segment of the great loop.

We met Angie and Dan in May of 2014 when we were each planning our Great Loop adventures for some date in the future.  Just over a year ago, Angie and Dan set off on their voyage.  Earlier this week they "crossed their own wake" meaning they completed their Great Loop voyage.  As "in-progress" loopers, we display the white AGLCA burgee (flag).  As loopers who have completed the Great Loop, Angie and Dan now proudly display a Gold Burgee on their boat showing their impressive new status.

Sea Horse owners, Angie and Dan, 
proudly display their Gold Looper Flag

The last time our paths crossed with Angie and Dan was when they passed by New Jersey this past spring.  At that time we took our boat out past Sandy Hook to welcome them to NJ and lead them to an anchorage in Atlantic Highlands.  After dropping anchors, the crew from Sea Horse, Sea Moss, and Horizon Chaser had dinner together in town.

From the start of her adventure, I have followed Angie's blog, and she has followed mine, but it has been months since we talked.  Obviously we had a lot of catching up to do, so we scheduled dinner together for tonight at the famous Patti's restaurant in downtown Grand Rivers.  From the time we set up the dinner date until we actually went to dinner, the dinner party had grown to 10 people as first the crew from Penny Pinching and then Dream Catcher as well as Mazel Tug joined our looper dinner.  Impromptu dinner parties such as this are a common occurrence with loopers.

The food at Patti's and the amazing desserts were all that we had heard they would be, in other words, delicious!  I had a savory steak that melted in my mouth with Chess Pie for dessert.  The list of pie selections was quite long and many had a story behind the names of the pies.  "Boo boo" pie was named because the cook made a mistake in the recipe, which accidentally improved the end result.  "Chess Pie" is named as such because the woman who made the first Chess Pie told her neighbor, when asked what kind of pie she made, "it's jus' pie", but with her strong accent it sounded like she said "chess pie", and the name stuck.

After all the food (and calories) I consumed in tonight's meal, I wished I was walking the one mile back to the boat. However, we had transportation provided for the 10 of us as the restaurant provides a van to port patrons to and from the marina.  When I mentioned my lack of exercise to Clark, he reminded me that it is 1/4 mile to walk to the restroom before going to bed tonight.  (I clocked it using my Fitbit so I know.)  Round trip that makes a half mile to add to my Fitbit total steps and mileage log!  Hey, that almost makes it worthwhile having to walk half a mile to use the toilet.

NOTE: In yesterday's blog I posted a picture of a mystery bird.  My long-time friend, Leslie, sent me a note to let me know that the bird is a Black-crowned Night Heron.  (I knew he was no mocking bird relative as told by the little girl, but I did not know where to begin to figure it out.)  With Leslie's input, I looked him up on Wikipedia and sure enough that is him!  Thanks Leslie!  He comes back every day to the same  fishing spot.  He was quite irate today as Clark and I stood on the docks by our boat talking with Angie and Dan and disturbing his fishing spot.  He flew off in a huff squawking loudly as he went.

Black-crowned Night Heron