More of Paducah

We thought Paducah was charming.  Loved the vibe of this little river town.  We wandered around on Monday before we left for Grand Rivers and took some shots to share with you.

​After the Vikes game Sunday, we headed downtown for a little dinner.  This trio was playing in the town square and we enjoyed a little Johnny Cash.

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​Our morning walk in Paducah was incredible.  We walked the Paducah Wall to Wall Floodwall Mural Project.  Along the river they have constructed a flood wall overlooking the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers and on the city side of the flood wall there are these fantastic murals painted by renowned mural artist Robert Dafford and his team.  Each mural captures a snapshot of the history of Paducah.  The mural project was started in 1996.  We came upon Robert Dafford working on one of the murals, he is pictured above painting away.  We asked if we could take his pic and he obliged.

Tom checking out the life like murals.

We really liked this mural. It's the view the a boat captain has from the pilot house.

This mural is of a boat christening along the shore of Paducah.

The Mississippi Queen was docked in Paducah.  We commented to each other about why the Mississippi Queen would be on the Ohio with a full tour group aboard.  When we got back to our boat on the Paducah Transient Dock and our neighbor said that this particular Miss Q tour got diverted to the Ohio because the Mississippi River was too flooded and running so high that the river boat couldn't make it under some of the bridges.

A Mikado steam engine Locomotive No. 1518, one of the the last "Iron Horses" used by the I.C.R.R., was right along the mural wall and we couldn't pass up a pic.

After our morning tour, we cast off our lines for Grand Rivers, KY and Green Turtle Bay Marina.  We had decided to do the alternate route up the Ohio and then the Cumberland River and the Barkley Lock instead of the Tennessee and the Kentucky Lock.  We'd heard that the Kentucky Lock and Damn was not locking Loopers thru in a timely manner - 4 hour waits and longer.  Even though the alternative route up the Cumberland is twice as long, the Barkley Lock was cooperating with rec boat traffic better.  So up the Ohio for about 12 miles and then to Cumberland River for about 30 miles.  The Cumberland was beautiful and much smaller than any of the rivers we've been on.  Tom said, "I feel like I'm on the Root River!" We didn't realize though that there would be so many barges on the Cumberland and big rock quarries.  We had some narrow turns with oncoming barges - Yikes!  But we made it to the Barkley lock and Green Turtle Bay Marina by late afternoon.  Below are photos from the Barkley Lock.  It was another bollard lock and we raised 53 plus feet.  

View of the back door of the Barkley lock.

View from inside the Barkley lock. Jealous Mistress and Lark, two other Looper boats, are infront of us on the lock wall.

Holding on to the line that goes from the boat clete to wrapped around the bollard and then back to the boat with a half clete wrap to keep the boat on the lock wall.

More from Green Turtle Bay this week.  
All for now~