Green Turtle Bay

Green Turtle Bay resort has been a great place to stay this week!  We bike to town almost everyday and there's a famous restaurant called "Patti's Settlement" (from 1880) that is surrounded by stores, playground, mini golf, farm animals, etc.

 Kids loved the pink tractor at Pattis

 Fishing (catch and release only) was a huge success and constant entertainment.  We all caught multiple fish at the same time which had everyone running to help eachother with pictures, baiting (ryann cut the worms/night crawlers with her little fingers), pliers for the three huge catfish to get the hook out, measuring all of them and flashlights for when it was dark.

 Even I caught several

 Jaxon was so proud of his 17 inch long catfish!

 Ryanns was such a pretty blue color that matched her shirt.

 Craig caught the first one of the day.  Our neighbor/looper friends caught 4 catfish and put them on a line out of the back of the boat to eat in the morning....when they awoke to start cooking there were only the remains of four heads to be found.  Culprit....the thousands of turtles that swarm this place everyday! 

 Morgan and Ryann love tubing behind the dinghy.  Lake Barclay is very nice and after a morning of studying, it was great to have some fun in the sun!

 Jaxons hiding place!

 Helping dad in the engine room is always interesting.

  Best buddies!

 We caught 4 little baby turtles that were just adorable.  Their names are:  Kentucky, Barclay, Marina and Optimus Prime.  Grand Rivers, KY is considered the LBL (land between the lakes).

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 Jaxon even scratches and rubs Ryanns back on our many bike rides. It's constant laughter and singing from that bike.

 There's a beach at this huge marina too.  Lots of walks, bike rides, dinghy runs, swimming and very pretty... not a drop of rain all week and we're having so much fun.

Looper Friends

We've met so many people on this wonderful voyage.  People who seek us out and others we seek out, just to share knowledge, a good boating story, a funny adventure or a 'must see' stop to make.

Just Rosie - Don and Rosie Peck, Spring, Texas

Felix - Jack and Lynn Robinson, Fort Collins, Colorado

 Hullabaloo - Bill and Pat, Charleston, West Virginia

Above:   Amalia - Greg and Leslie Marsh
Duet - Donald and Karen Donaldson, Long Beach, California

 The Goode Life - Allan and Cheryl Goode, Michigan

 GonCruzn III - Greg and Barb Franklin (left)
Present Moment - Darrell and Sue, Boat Moored in Holland, live in Detroit area

 Crawdad - Jim and Gloria (and dogs Buddy and BooBoo) Crawford, Fenton, Michigan

 Scoperta - John and Barb Flint, Jamestown, Virginia

 Moor Stuff - Skip and Barb Johnson, Lombard, IL

Randy and Barb in a Great Harbor

 Bulldog Sally

 Tides In

 Tortuga

 Even a houseboat can do the trip!!

Claddagh - Bob and Elaine Leigh, Pasadena, MD

 Babe Boomer - Bruce and Chris, New Buffalo, Michigan

 Freedom

 A couple from Chattanooga, TN left there Kady Krogen in Michigan and took this runabout back to TN to finish the loop. They will return to Michigan next summer to take their larger boat back.

Dragonfly - Bill and Cynthia, State College, Pennsylvania on a Canal Boat (purchased by the Erie Canal - very neat electric boat). Bill gave us a tour of the boat and it was very impressive! 

Not pictured yet:  
Adena - Rich and Pam Atwood


Blue Yonder - Pete and Anna Gulick, Nantucket, Massachuttes

Grand Rivers, Kentucky

Since we left Grafton, Illinois on Tuesday we have been driving long days to get to this point.  It turns out everyone else has too!  The Mississippi River has an unbelievable current of 3-4 knots so at least we were cruising at a good speed while dodging a million "dead heads" (a.k.a. logs).  We had a good hard rain prior to leaving and it made for an even worse mine field to deal with.

It seems that towns turn their backs on the river front and there wasn't hardly a place to stop, town to visit, no marinas - not fully what we were expecting.  However, everyone has to stop at "Hoppies Marina" or as Jaxon called it all day "Froggies."  You tie up to a barge and Fern the owner "holds court" and gives a river update to the transients.  She lives for this job and considers it her duty to keep us well informed!

We walked to the nearest town of Kimmswick which ended up being very historic.  Pictured below are their famous apple pies each made with 18 hand sliced apples from the Blue Owl Restaurant.  $30 for one pie and the baker is hoping to get put on Oprah!  

We stayed at the Kaskaskia lock with two other Loopers.  When we parked the boat there were a ton of wasps and it was very hot and humid, so we got on the dinghy and drove to the beach to stretch our legs (you can't get off the boat at a lock).  Turned out to be a lot of fun!

We made it Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, Kentucky.  After some long days on the Mississippi River, we were very happy to see such a wonderful marina filled with a ton of our looper friends, three pools w/ slide), playground, courtesy car, on and on.  The weather has been great, but heard rain is coming soon.  This is the Barclay Lock and Dam and we rose 57' to a clear beautiful Barclay Lake. 

 They don't call this marina "Green Turtle Bay" for nothing!  The restaurant actually feeds the turtles everyday....there were hundreds gathered for the feast!