Grand Rivers Kentucky (Port #30) ; Sept 29 – Oct 3

As we reported on the last post, we arrived at the beautiful Green Turtle Bay Marina & Resort on Friday September 29th. After our excitement of running the port engine out of fuel & grounding the boat on Friday, our Looper Life has settled down nicely over the last few days.

Green Turtle Bay Marina & Resort is a large complex with ; Condo Rentals, a 400 slip Marina, a Yacht Club, a Boat Works Repair Center, a Spa & Health Center, Tennis Courts, 2 Outdoor Pools, and 1 Indoor Pool. It is located on Barkley Lake along the Cumberland river, in Grand Rivers Kentucky.
http://www.greenturtlebay.com/

The Green Turtle Bay History is quite the story.
It was the vision to create this large complex by Bill Gary III, father of the now harbor master Bill Gary IV.
Bill Gary III, a lawyer by trade, and lifetime boater, spent a lot of his teen years and time with his children in the area waters and what was known then as Port KenBar. Port Kenbar was quite run down and poorly managed. During one of the summer trips with his kids, he looked around and had the vision of what the area could be.
In 1984 his vision started to happen with approval from the Army Corps to develop the property, attracting a few initial investors, and the incorporation of Green Turtle Bay.
But the area still had limited drawing capability until 1985 when the Army Corps opened the Tenn-Tom Waterway, essentially connecting Tennessee river to Mobile Bay (and creating a safer/shorter alternate Great Loop Route besides the Ole Miss to New Orleans).
The final piece of the puzzle was when Hollywood actress Frances Langford & husband Ralph Evinrude, came thru the newly opened waterway on a 108 foot yacht named Chanticleer in September of 1986. Their new found love of the area enticed them to invest in the family run business now known as Green Turtle Bay. Since then many family members have contributed to what is now known as “Western Kentucky’s Premier Resort”.

Bill Gary IV currently acts as the harbor master & vice president of operations.
Bill’s wife Machelle, a 20 year nurse by trade, acts as the director for the Jade & Earth Spa and Health Complex. Many other family members are involved, the rest of the staff acts like family (esp dockhand Bleu).

Our time at Green Turtle has been a mix of chores, fun, and great meals.

We spent Saturday doing chores; cleaning the boat & going grocery shopping to re-provision from the week of anchoring (Bill Gary loaned us his golf cart with large rear tray for the shopping trip).
We went to dinner at the Thirsty Turtle restaurant/bar on Saturday, with the folks who helped us get un-grounded – Jim & Debbie Pyke.

Sunday we took the boat out for a low/med/high speed test ride, checking for abnormal vibration from the grounding. Luckily, Gettin’ Looped was free of vibration and the stuffing box nuts continue to run cool at all speeds.

On Sunday night Nellie & I went to dinner at the Commenwealth Yacht Club within the Green Turtle Complex.
The club was very nice, with lots of wood accents and many wooden placards of all the boat names of the yacht club members. The club members were very friendly.
I had, maybe, the best meat loaf I have ever had.

On Monday we did more chores.
Mike changed the engine oils & Nellie did some cloths washing.
Gettin’ Looped is now at about 150 hours on the trip.
This was the 1st of 4 oil changes I have planned during the trip.

Just for info, we have travelled about 1500 miles so far, on our journey of about 6000 miles. We left Lake St Clair on July 15th, and plan to return to metro Detroit about next August.
If you haven’t already done so, Check out the GPS Tracker Link = https://share.garmin.com/GettinLooped2017

Monday night we had a blast going out to dinner with 6 other Looper Couples;  Lab Partners (Rip & Beth), Firestorm (Mike & Laurie), Mother Ocean (Dennis & Jan), Thistle (Greg & Reenie), Craic (Tim & Patti), and Donna Mae (Derek & Lori).
The Looper Gang is quite lively & the humor was abundant.

We went to dinner at a place called Patti’s 1880’s Settlement .
It is the nicest restaurant in Grand Rivers.
Patti’s 1880’s Settlement is a recreated historical log cabin village.
The place was all decorated in a Christmas theme, but I am not sure if this is the yearly look or if it was done with the approaching holidays. It is also the 40th anniversary of operation for Patti’s this year.

Patti’s 1880’s Settlement had a very unique restroom (not meant to be used as such), complete with tenant “Indian Joe”.
Who is Indian Joe?
In 1975, the Tullars lived in hotel without a personal bathroom or tub. Patti found a clawfoot tub she fell in love with at the Swanne Flea Market. Bill built a living room and bathroom onto the hotel just for Miss Patti’s tub. When the owner of the flea market decided to sell, he asked Patti if she would like to purchase Indian Joe. Joe had sat at the entrance of the flea market greeting customers for many years. Miss Patti decided he would be a perfect fit to what was then Hamburger Patti’s Ice Cream Parlor. Indian Joe sat in the foyer of Hamburger Patti’s until he was moved, due to making the children scared, to a corner in one of the dining rooms. Indian Joe sat for years enjoying a pork chop but he continued to cause customer jitters and Miss Patti decided he needed a bath. He was moved to the clawfoot tub and has remained there ever since. Originally the bathroom had a toilet along with the original whiskey barrel sink, but many were frightened to turn around and see the Indian. The room now remains a quiet spot for Joe to relax in the tub.

Nellie & I split the very famous 2″ thick pork chops & also split the Patti’s famous Chess Pie.

We are going for round #2 tonight with the Loopers, with docktails at the slip of Lab Partners (Rip & Beth) shown below. Their slip is normally occupied by a local, and most of the very nice Pier-5 is equipped with significant outdoor furniture, outdoor bars, etc.

Next Stop = Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, Tn.
Home of the Loretta Lynn Museum (so we hear ???)