Nashville Trip (Trial Run) - 7/21 thru 25/2022

Trial Run to Nashville, TN prior to leaving for the Great Loop (scheduled for Oct 9, 2022). This allowed us to prepare and work out kinks and experience entering and exiting a "LOCK". Summer Place (our boat) and Jus Relaxin (our Green Turtle Bay, boat neighbors: Rob & Jaime) and friends Mark & Liz MacLean headed out the morning of July 21st for a long fun weekend.

Day 1, after approx. 8 hours of time on the water, we arrived in Clarksville, TN for an overnight stay. The dock staff was friendly and helpful. We filled up with water, fuel and ice. It was a very hot day, temps were in the upper 90's.

Day 2, our 5 hour day turned into an 8 hour day. Due to recent construction on the Lock, it was backed up. We had to wait 2.5 hours before we were allowed to enter. We arrived in Nashville just in time to shower, have dinner and enjoy some night life and people watching!

Day 3, we toured the Country Music Hall of Fame. This year Chris Stapleton was featured, great read. Highly recommend this stop, it was also air conditioned (a plus for the hot temps). Had dinner at the Merchant, Shout out to Sam, our waiter (super great at his job).

Day 4, we had an early start and stopped at Rock Harbor Marina (TN) for fuel, water and ice. We also needed to clean the front of the boat because people crossing the bridge where we docked in Nashville (Nashville Riverfront Marina) tossed food over which landed on the bow of the boat and made a bit of a mess!

Here we met an "up and coming" country music songwriter and singer, Connor McCutcheon. He opens up for Rascal Flats in August (2022). You can check his music out on Spotify.

Rock Harbor is where we purchased Summer Place (our boat), 3 years ago.

On this day, we only had to wait 30 minutes to enter the lock. We arrived back at the Clarksville Marina in plenty of time to relax a bit prior to showers and dinner.

Day 5, started the journey back to Green Turtle bay (Grand Rivers, KY), the river current and winds were with us allowing us to return an hour earlier than we expected. There were a lot of things to see on the trip.

Overall it was a GREAT trip, no major hiccups! The trip allowed us to familiarize ourselves with the boat and gain an understanding as well as anticipate what to expect when entering and exiting "LOCKS". Included are some pictures of people and sites we encountered along the way. Shout out to Mark and Liz for their help on this trip. Yes, we (I) made a few mistakes, dropped the bumper twice, saved both times by Mark and Jaime!

Thanks for reading the blog!

<Boat Fuel

Below: Nashville Skyline

Above: Rob & Jaime's boat, Jus Relaxin (That's Rob in the pic)

Joel and Mark, cleaning French Fries off bow of boat (dropped from Nashville bridge, when we were docked at Nashville Riverfront Marina)

Tracy & Liz met Connor McCutcheon (up and coming singer / song writer), Check him out on Spotify!

Mark & Liz, huge help while on the Nashville Trip - Thank you!!!

Chillin' before dinner (at Clarksville Marina).

First lock EVER, thought it would be more difficult than it was. Note: It's my understanding we will travel through 150 locks while on the GREAT Loop.

Lines wrapped professionally - lol