Tennessee River

Howdie,

It has not been the most interesting of weeks so I have not a lot to say (or type) and do not have many photos of interest.
We are now on the Tennessee River after traversing the Ohio and the Cumberland Rivers.  We have stayed at two very friendly Marinas - Green Turtle Bay and Mermaid. Both had wonderful owners/employees who were very hospitable and helpful. The Mermaid had just recently been bought by Betty and Barry in the last three months and we wish them well. The Tennessee and Kentucky accent was a delight to listen to and I could have stayed and talked to them all day.
An interesting occurrence happens at the end of September of every year as the water is let out of Kentucky Lake in preparation for the upcoming winter. This makes a significant difference to the depth and current on the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. The depth drops significantly making some marinas unable to take boats that have a draft of 4 feet or more. The current may increase to 2 knots/hour flowing north (against us).
We went through several locks, one (Barkley Lock and Dam) with a lift of 57'. We have been through one other lock, The Carillon in Canada which was 65' and will go through the Wilson Lock (at 93') and the Whitten Lock (at 84'). We passed Olmsted Lock, a lock in construction (to be finished in 2014 maybe) and were interested to see the cranes and tugs needed to complete the work on the new lock. The new lock will  replace two old locks, one of which we waited for over 3 hours to get through. We heard on the radio that there were 45 tows ahead of us (they take priority over pleasure craft) and planned on anchoring for a long while. We were let through with 3 other pleasure boats ahead of our turn, which we did not object to.

                                     The new dam under construction.

                         One of the huge cranes leading down to the river.

We think this was the lifting mechanism for hoisting pieces of the dam into place.
We saw several tows/tugs but not half as many as we saw on the Mississippi.

                                                   A mini tug!

                                               A washed up tug!

             We think this tug was towing the lock gates for the new Lock.

 We saw several tugs carrying loads of mulch. This must be where they are picking it up from. I wish they would deliver it to Pasadena!!!
Being in Tennessee we are seeing lots of work completed in the early 1930s by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The TVA was established to help areas hit hard by the Depression and covered most of Tennessee, a portion of Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky and a small slice of North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia. They were responsible for helping with navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertiliser manufacturing and economic development.

Steam plant built by the TVA. I guess it produces electricity, but I am not sure.
The homes along the rivers continue to built on stilts due to flooding. We saw the following house and think it was designed to rise with the flood water.

We also passed many trees with mistletoe growing on them. When you think about it - the plant is parasitic and sucks all the water and nutrients from the host tree, killing it in the long run - why would you want to hang mistletoe up at Christmas in the hopes of getting kissed!!!! Who came up with that wonderful idea? They must have been a sucker!!!!

I shall finish with a few photos I thought were rather nice:

I tried to come up with some puns to accompany my photos but was unable to despite "pund"ering for a while. I could not come up with "mulch" even though I "reflected" for several minutes and had to "tug" on my thoughts. I was "moonstruck" for puns, to no avail.
I would like to finish with offering my condolences to those who lost loved ones and friends in the tornadoes that hit the United States yesterday. You are all in our thoughts and prayers.
 
Kingston Rover Loop Map