Crispy bacon and cinnamon scrolls for breakfast

The parallel US-70 highway and CSX (ex-L&N) railroad bridges cross the top end of Kentucky Lake

A loaded barge tow follows us beneath the bridge

US-70 highway bridge, connects Nashville and Memphis

The quietude is interrupted by a downbound barge tow

I called this award-winning composition "Two trees by the river"

I then called this (on the opposite bank) "Two more trees by the river"

Laid up for winter. Ersatz tourist stern-wheeler has diesel engines and is powered by propellors.

These riverside blocks cost $20-30,000. Another $4-7,000 for the RV shade house. That's it!

But some folks actually build a vacation home (flood-free, of course)

Approaching the entrance to the Clifton Marina. A tight squeeze.

Rosie talks to the marina lady as I try to sneak past the frightening Halloween decorations

It's raining outside, but the Marina Bar & Grill is cosy and dry

Day 24: Pebble Isle to Clifton, TN

October 26 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

We're still in Tennessee. Preston crisps the bacon in the convection oven while we have coffee and wait for Billy, the marina owner to arrive with the free cinnamon scrolls he always delivers to his guests each morning. Cinnamon scrolls and bacon... a new experience. The scrolls arrive, half-cooked and doughy, but get eaten anyway.

We're eventually under way... no rush today, just a 58-mile run up the Tennessee River (we leave the lake behind). We pass the OxyChem Plant at New Johnsonville ("We unlock potential by reaching for the impossible and achieving it. At Oxy, we provide society with reliable energy and essential products while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and making the world a better place to live." But of course!). We also pass the gigantic 1,200 MW Johnsonville Combustion Turbine Plant with its 20 units. The plant also creates steam needed for the production of titanium dioxide (TiO2) at the adjacent chemical plant.

The forecast rain arrives. The boat could use a wash anyway. We motor up-river through heavy and light rain. The showers abate just as we need to get outside to berth at the Clifton Marina, but later in the evening heavy rain sets in. Doesn't trouble us though. Rosie and I have a drink and dinner in the marina bar & grill and get talking to some Loopers from Texas who own a deer ranch! He's retired from oil & gas.Read more