Brown Eyed Girl: Pebble Isle and Clifton

We stayed at Paris Landing State Park Marina on Monday night. The trip was very short so we arrived early and got settled. There were two other Looper boats (Jeremiah and Seamore) and they asked us to go to dinner with them. There is a lodge about a 1/2 mile away across the highway. I don't know why but the park rangers pick you up and drop you off in their official cars which means I was in the back of a patrol car with bars and locked doors. I am not saying I have ever been in one but I was sweating just a little. The dinner was a buffet with ribs, chicken, hamburgers, salad, vegetables and desert for $9.95 each. The down side is that the county is dry - but that just saved me money. There was a free concert at the park and fireworks at dark. All in all a very nice place to stay and did I mention the cost to stay one night was $28. All three boats left the next day but we were only going to Pebble Isle Marina which was about 40 miles and they were going much farther, but when we got to Pebble Isle they turned in also which was nice to spend another night with them. There were other Looper boats there including Sweet Pea who we have been running into. Pebble Isle Marina is in New Johnsonville, TN and is a very nice marina. They have free appetizers at night and free cinnamon rolls in the morning. They also have great ribs for dinner which we ate on Tuesday night.

I wasn't going to tell this story until we knew how much damage we did. When we left Green Turtle Bay we decided to anchor out for the night all by ourselves. We picked what we thought was a very easy place and according to the guides had plenty of water. The opening was wide but there was a pontoon near the shore so we went just a little wide to the right and guess what. Yes, we ran aground. We were pretty calm (well Ginny was) and we took our time and then decided to back off the sand bar - only it wasn't just sand, it was mostly gravel according to the noise. We got back in the river and I ran the boat up to full speed to see if there was major damage. It seemed OK so being a college graduate I decided to try it again and well you can guess the results, so we bagged it an went to Paris Landing. I knew Paris Landing did not have haul out facilities so I called ahead to Pebble Isle and Randy said he could probably haul the boat and check the damage. When we got to Pebble I talked to Randy and he suggested getting a diver to check the props before we did anything else. That sounded good to me and he said the diver would be there on Wednesday morning. I had considered using the hooka that Bill from Candy Dish let me use but it was pretty cold. The diver showed up as scheduled on a small boat with a compressor for air and a butane burner like they use to cook outside. The first thing he did was light the burner which seemed odd to me but he said it was used to heat water in a hose that he put down the front of his wet suit to keep him warm. Anyway he went under and said that the props were fine except for a few scratches. Ginny and I high-fived and the rest of the day was spent washing and waxing the boat because we didn't have to sell it.

We left Pebble Isle on Thursday and went 60 miles to Clifton Marina in Clifton, TN. Clifton is a nice little marina and they let us use the courtesy car to go to the store. We are planning on just one night here and then moving on the Grand Harbor in Pickwik where we will stay for 3 nights.