June 23 to June 29, 2007

June 23, 2007 to June 29, 2007 – I have finally got most of the nooks and cranny’s cleaned and the boat is somewhat presentable at this point. I have been whiling away the days doing mostly nothing at which I am very good at since retiring. I go to the reading room and sit and read all the boating magazines just in case I do this trip again I will have a lot of additional research done. Some of the time I play a game called FreeCell against the computer and most of the time it wins unless I get serious. But I have also gotten the charts for the last part of the trip and have been studying them to get ready for it. I have been meeting the people here at the dock and they are a varied lot from retirees to people who just come here for the weekend. They have new boats, old boats, restored boats and they are sail boats, houseboats, trawlers and what have you. Every one of them is just as proud of their boat as I am of Shorty. I still cannot believe the distance traveled in a month’s time aboard the boat. I checked again and got almost 2700 miles in a month. I am still cataloging in my mind all of the things I saw in that period and looking at the photos to make sure I have not forgotten something.

Since I have been here it has been really hot and humid and when it rains I just crawl up in the forward cabin and listen to the rain on the bimini top since Shorty is parked in his garage under the restaurant here called Dockers and he is short enough to be in the shade amongst the dinghy’s for other bigger boats as they come to eat. Occasionally he is joined by the Boat US towboat and the Bippy Pumper which goes from boat to boat when your waste tank is full and pumps it off.

God has been providing outstanding entertainment almost every afternoon or evening when the showers have been coming in the form of thunderstorms. As I lie in the cabin it is like someone who is in charge of the drummers of the heavens has need to practice every day and reward us with the sizzle of the lightning and then the drums rolls throughout the Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland foothills and along the lakes as the peals of thunder roll and echo back and forth off the hills going up the rivers. It seems as though the storms were saved until we are safely ensconced for a while. As the storm moves off into the distance you can hear others receiving the same show. Then the birds come back along with a cool breeze for a while until it heats back up and maybe another show is in the offing. In the cool periods after the rain it is nice to take a walk while everything smells so fresh and the leaves are gently stirring with the slight breeze. And after while reality hits again and it is hot and humid. But all of this is good for the farmers in the area as there crops were suffering in the heat when we arrived here. There is something for everyone.

A couple of slips over at four thirty in the afternoon the turtles begin to accumulate awaiting the arrival of the turtle lady who brings the daycare class down to visit the turtles. She brings bread with her and while the kids feed the turtles she shows them all of the ones she has names for and then explains all of the different kinds that show up for turtle class every day. She has sliders, boxes, mud, snapping and a whole lot of other kinds of turtles and identifies them by there shells. There is one called Nick who was struck by a boat propeller and who seems to be doing okay. I cannot remember all of the named ones but I also go feed them bread and the people above in the restaurant go outside and give them leftover bread and biscuits not eaten so there are about 50-100 turtles in the area next to my boat on a regular basis every day.