After 3 long days of travel, 4 locks, 2 nights at anchor and about 250 miles with 95 degree weather and no AC, we finally reached Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, Kentucky on Lake Barkley/Kentucky Lake! Some photos from the locks and Paducah:
We have never been so happy to just take a shower and sit in the AC! It is gorgeous in that area and the marina is very well set up! 3 swimming pools, a gym, a beach with lake access, a spa, golf cart rental, a turtle feeding pond, a yacht club and two other restaurants, super fast wifi, ships store, condos to rent, a campground nearby, and a full service repair shop.
And on top of all of that, there is a cute little town right around the corner called Grand Rivers.
The marina was fittingly named -there were turtles everywhere! The office sold turtle feed for $1 and it was worth every penny! The turtles started swimming up from every direction when we would throw it in the water! I've never seen turtles act like piranhas lol! We try to challenge ourselves to find at least some free or cheap things to do in each place and this was simple, almost free, fun!
The yacht club at Green Turtle Bay is a members only club, but they give transient guests a day pass to use at any time throughout their stay, so Dustin and I went up to have a drink one night to enjoy the views and meet some locals!
We spent a week at Green Turtle Bay. The town itself is teeny tiny but really cute and only about 1/2 an hour from Paducah, which is a very good sized city with all the conveniences one could ever need. We scootered into town a couple of times since it was only less than a mile from our marina.
We were immediately drawn to Patti's 1880s Establishment, which is kind of the town's claim to fame. There are shops, an event center, landscaped walking paths, a petting zoo, putt putt, koi ponds, and a delicious restaurant that reminded us of a more eclectic Cracker Barrel. The food there was so good and the place was massive! My favorite part was that they have 17 different desserts to choose from and next door there is a tasting room where you can taste moonshine flavored to taste like the restaurant's most popular desserts!! They were all so good!!
A couple of days after arriving, I borrowed the marina's courtesy vehicle and drove into Paducah to get my hair done! It was getting very sun bleached from being outside so much and it was in dire need of a touch up. It felt nice to get a little pampering and to and up looking like me again! (Nikki Elliott at Destini's Salon in Paducah, KY does a great job if any other Loopers are looking to get their hair done along the route!) There is also a city dock in Paducah not far from the salon!
Grand Rivers is situated in between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake. We stopped in at another marina called Lighthouse Landing to take in the sights of Kentucky Lake one night while we were in town and they had gorgeous views!
Earlier in the week when we had first arrived at Green Turtle Bay, we had barely tied the boat up when it started to downpour. We were frantically trying to zip up the windows in the bimini/dodger and several of them ended up ripping! They had been poorly stitched up by the previous owner and were already on their last legs when we left for this journey. Well, one night when we were in town getting ice cream, I spotted a sign for a canvas shop, which was incredible, given the small size of the village that we were in! Dustin called them the next day and the owner came right over and picked up our bimini and then completely restitched/reinforced the whole thing for us for a great price! We learned through him that the material our bimini was made from is made by Ferrari!! Pretty cool!! We always say how we aptly named our boat because we really do keep having "lucky finds"! But to us, it really isn't luck - it is blessings. We know it is actually God going before us and making our way smooth! :)