Hot Cinnamon Buns, Pearl Farms, Road Trip for a Cause, the Denis Sullivan and Abe's Grill

October 25 Through October 31 (Click on the images to see and scroll them in full size)

Lots of water covered in the last few days. Nashville to Clarksville, Clarksville to Dover Island, Dover island to Green Turtle, Green Turtle to..... finally new water when we passed Paris Landing and ended up in Pebble Isle Marina.

On Tuesday, we got complementary, FRESH, HOT cinnamon buns from the marina office. Did I mention FREE? Yes, they were awesome. We also visited the only freshwater pearl farm in the US

Wednesday we moved from Pebble Isle to Clifton Marina, great run, lots of pelicans, no locks today.

Thursday VERY foggy, traveled with several other boats including Anne Marie and Make it So. Fog burned off around 8 AM. Lots of radar, fog horns and chart plotter to get through it. Transited the famous Pickwick lock with music from the lock master and stayed on Pickwick Lake at Grand Harbor Marina that night.

Friday I picked up a rental car for my 650 mile run back to Racine, WI so that I could join my brothers and sisters from Guardians of the Children, Belle City chapter at our annual Boo at the Zoo event. Left the Enterprise car rental in Counce, TN around 8 AM in my Dodge SUV and arrived in Racine at 7:00 PM. I stayed at GOC member's home and bright and early Saturday morning we headed over to the Racine Zoo to set up. We spent the day giving away a TRAILER of candy to all of the kids that came by and fulfilling our mission of educating the public to recognize and react to child abuse. For more information on Guardians of the Children, please see their website.

Sunday it was time to return to the boat and continue our trip downriver. Monday morning we ate breakfast at an awesome place called Abe's Grill. It is a family owned and run roadside grill that is tiny with no tables, you eat at the counter and are served by Abe, his wife and their son who have owned and run the place since they opened. Hours are from 4:00 am until 2:00 PM, Monday through Friday. Awesome breakfast and so much packed into such a small place. There was character enough here for everyone. Consider this a MUST STOP if you ever find yourself in Corinth, Mississippi!

As we were pumping out our black water tanks before leaving Grand Harbor we found out that the Denis Sullivan, a tall ship that had been built in Milwaukee back in 2000, was on a adjacent pier. She had sailed the waters of Lake Michigan out of Milwaukee for the last 20 years before being sold last year to a group that will base her out of Boston during the summers and out of the American Virgin Islands during the winter. It was great to see her one last time.

We anchored over night in a very quiet bay just above the John Witten or Bay Springs lock and dam. We also took our dingy in to see the visitor center which we had all to ourselves. On the way back, I got to use my towboat captain skills as our traveling companions had problems with the shift lever on their dingy, so we towed them back to the boats. We will continue down the Tenn-Tom Waterway through more locks and dams headed for the Gulf Coast and I will cover that in our next blog. Till then, fair winds and following seas....