Last Great Weekend in Kentucky Lake

  This is the photo I took last Friday morning looking out at Lake Barkley from "Nickle Cove". From here, it was just a couple of miles over to Green Turtle Bay where we met up with Madge and Jerry. Brett and Christine came down with some other friends from St. Louis, too, Brad and Leslie.
  After a nice dinner at the Green Turtle Bay Yacht Club we went back down to the dock where a group was gathered around and Jerry and Bobby kept us entertained with some guitar playing and singing. As the crowd thinned out way after midnight, it was just Bobby, Jerry, Rosie and I...and another friend, Jack Daniels. Having been admonished earlier about not keeping quiet during some of the more quieter tunes, Rosie was doing her best to refrain from most of her comments but just as Bobby began to pluck out a tune, Rosie spied a bag of snacks sitting on a table in front of him and she belts out, "HEY, ARE THEM PEANUTS??!!" She's great at concerts too.
  On Saturday morning, our friends from St. Louis, John and Tina, along with another couple from La Grange, KY, showed up and by 11 A.M. we were loaded up and following Blonde Moment over to the Quarry for a day of fun.

  Here from the left is Jeff, Sandy, Rosie, Brett, Brad, Tina, Leslie and John sitting in the cockpit of Swing Set. You can see the rock walls of the quarry in the background.

  Swing Set is rafted up with "Blonde Moment" on her port side and "Just One More", owned by Steve and Dina, on her starboard side. The raft up was under way when we arrived but they split the boats to squeeze us in.

  This was how most of the day was spent, just lounging around in the water, but as the sun went down, the fun really started.
  One couple we met in the quarry last weekend showed up and brought us a big bag of sweet corn, just out of the blue. Everyone has treated us so well down here. They're trying to get us to stay for a few more weeks, but as some entertainer once said, "Go out on top", or something like that.
  Brett hooked up his strobe lights and fog machine and people danced and partied into the wee hours. John Travolta would have been proud. We eventually wound back up at Green Turtle Bay at nearly 3 A.M., after a minor detour or two.
  A big dock party that Madge and Jerry had been part of had already wrapped up, and Jerry helped us in to drop off our visitors and we shared some of the highlights of our day. Some, is the key word here.
  Brett and Christine and Brad and Leslie departed about mid-day on Sunday after hugs were shared and tears were shed. We know we will see all of them again, but we don't know when.
  We couldn't get too motivated on Sunday, plus it was very hot, somewhere around 98 degrees. I had to switch out one of our shore power cords and I needed some help from Rosie just to get through it. Accomplishing this great feat called for a celebration, and we didn't want the ice cold beers still floating in the cooler to go to waste, so we started knocking those down.
  By early evening, we joined Madge and Jerry for one last go around at the Yacht Club at Green Turtle Bay where another Sunday evening crowd was gathered at the beautiful bar there. I met a well traveled fellow sitting next to me and got filled in on some travel tips for the Tombigbee Waterway. I don't think you can ever sit at the bar at any Yacht Club and not learn something. We were really having fun but right after I finished my sandwich I felt myself running out of gas. I left Rosie in good hands with Madge and Jerry and I went back to the boat and sat with Holly for a bit and then turned in. The whole weekend had finally gotten the best of me.

  Speaking of Holly, I just had to include this picture I took on Friday morning. Holly is becoming right at home on Swing Set and has mastered the stairs to the flybridge and chooses the upper stairs to survey her kingdom from on high. I think she is a mixed breed, part billy goat and part fish.
  This morning we'll fill up with diesel fuel and water and get a pump out, and then head upriver, leaving our last lifeline of support from our friends. We cannot express our thanks to Madge, Jerry, Brett, and Christine enough for the things they have done for us in the last few weeks. We're also very happy that we got to visit with John and Tina, and Jeff and Sandy, and Brad and Leslie, one more time. We have no doubt that we will see them all again at some point. I think they all had a good time this weekend but I'm sure they got wore out too.
  Our adventure resumes.