PEACE AND SERENITY ON THE CUMBERLAND RIVER

Recently, one of my friends who reads this dribble asked something along the lines of, "Where the hell are you going?"  We, we are cruising on the Cumberland River on our way to Nashville, yes, Nashville, Tennessee.  Why are we going there?  Because we can.  It's definitely a side trip off the normal "loop route", but since the beginning, we have not necessarily always followed the normal loop route.  We have done a number of "side trips" so to speak.  We went to Philadelphia, and that was a side trip.  We went to Washington DC, and that was a side trip.  We went to Providence, Rhode Island.  That was a serious side trip.  For that matter, the normal Loop route doesn't go to Key West, but we went there.  So why do we do these side trips?  I don't know how you can get this far and not.  So there it is. The best part of it is that our great friends Jodie and Barry have made a couple of these ridiculous side trips with us making it even more fun.   We are headed off the beaten path to, what we understand is a very cool city to visit, to play with my mom for a few days.  Yes, she's flying in to Nashville and we are going to have a great time.
 

Yesterday, we crossed from Kentucky into the State of Tennessee.  There was not really much difference in the environs noticeable as a result of this crossing of a state line.  Nevertheless, it seems that the further up the Cumberland River we go, the prettier it gets.  We are moving roughly south east from GTB,  It sure isn’t getting any warmer.  The trees are all in the process of changing colors and now the leaves are starting to fall.  When there is a breeze and leaves are falling, it looks a little like a fantasy land.  It is very peaceful on this river.  There is little or no traffic and we have only seen two barges in the last 3 days.  There are a whole lot of different birds to see.  Of course, there are heron, eagles,  gulls, vultures, white pelican, and a number of other species I can’t identify, but which look very colorful and pretty.

Peaceful.  It is so peaceful in the anchorages on the Cumberland River, that when one of those copper colored leaves falls from the tree and settles on the water, it echoes.

It's ironic that in one of the most peaceful places on earth also exists one of the most violent.  Along the banks of the Cumberland River in Kentucky sits the Kentucky State Penitentiary which, as a rather dubious claim to fame, holds the record for the most executions to take place in a single day.



We also passed a place called Fort Donelson.  We'll try to stop and visit this place on the way back down the Cumberland.  It's hard because it's right next to the town of Dover which doesn't have a dock and there is no place close by to anchor.  We'll have to see what we can figure out.  Nevertheless, this is supposedly where there was a significant Civil War conflict involving a number of iron and timber clad vessels brought up the river by the Union folks.  When they came around the bend near mile marker 86, they saw a whole lot of cannons.  You have to sort of let your imagination run with this one.

Today, we will leave for Clarksville.  You may have heard of this town.  It was mentioned in a song by the Monkees in 1966 - Last Train to Clarksville. This was written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, a songwriting team who came up with many songs for the Monkees. Boyce and Hart wrote this as a protest to the Vietnam War. They had to keep this quiet in order to get it recorded, but it is about a guy who gets drafted and goes to fight in the war. The train is taking him to an army base, and he knows he may die in Vietnam. At the end of the song he states, "I don't know if I'm ever coming home."  Well, for what it's worth, there was never an intent on the part of the songwriters to reference Clarksville, Tennessee.  Actually, when they were writing the song, they were thinking about the name of a town that would sound good.  There is a town in Northern Arizona that Bobby Hart used to go through called Clarkdale.  Then, as the story goes, they thought Clarksville sounded even better.  So they used Clarksville.  It just fit the bill, so to speak. It just so happens that there was, and still is, an Air Force Base near Clarksville, Tennessee.  There is also a Clarksville in North Eastern Texas. It should be noted that, when this song was released, it went straight to number 1.  Here is a link so you can hear the song.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUUSdvwEC_Y

 More from Clarksville on the Cumberland.....on the way to Nashville.

It was really foggy when we were getting ready to leave our peaceful
anchorage, delaying our departure an hour or so.

Clarksville was a cool surprise.  We had a beautiful day on the water and were planning on stopping in Clarksville.  There is a municipal dock there that is very inexpensive.  The city is very cruiser friendly.  The dock is right in the middle between the old historic downtown district with all the museums and points of interest to the right, and all the restaurants, and, of course Harbor Freight Tools, to the left. 

An absolutely beautiful day on the water.

 The city is The Montgomery County seat.  So, when you walk in the downtown area, you see the courthouse, and all the other government buildings.  You first notice that they all appear very new.  Strange for a town that was founded in the mid 1800's, right?  Well, the plot thickens. 

In January, 1999, a devastating F3 tornado plowed into the city in the early morning hours.  It was dark out when it hit.  Fortunately only 5 people were hurt.  However, .  Virtually the entire city was wiped out. 

The tornado was on the ground for only 5 minutes, yet the damage was horrendous.  It ripped apart a 5 block area of downtown Clarksville and tore up buildings in Austin Peay State University. In the aftermath of the storm, Clarksville was said to resemble bombed-out London during World War 2. Bricks and glass were strewn everywhere. The photo editor of the Leaf-Chronicle newspaper, Fred Dye, said "It looked like somebody walked through with a broom and knocked over whatever else was loose enough to knock down."  There were 124 buildings destroyed and 562 buildings damaged. These figures included residential, commercial, government, public and buildings at Austin Peay.


Despite the devastation, the city has been rebuilt and restored. 


There is one very interesting building in Clarksville.  This is the Customs House. The 1898 portion of the Museum was originally designed for use as a Federal Post Office and Custom House to handle the large volume of foreign mail created by the city’s international tobacco business.  The importance of this building, other than its uses over the years, is in its architecture.  It is one of the most unique building designs around.  The building is very eclectic.  It incorporates several architectural styles including Victorian, Gothic, Stick, Queen Anne, Italianate, Romanesque, Flemish and Gothic.  It has highly pitched roof sections, topped with large eagles on the 4 corners, steep gabled windows and some rather elaborate terra cotta ornamentation.



Inside are a number of wonderful art exhibits as well as a series of exhibits demonstrating the community's heritage.  Of particular interest was an exhibition of sports memorabilia related to the accomplishments of local sports heroes.  There is a Nascar driver from Clarksville.  There is a mountain climber who is the youngest to summit Mr. Everest who is from Clarksville.  There is a female, black Olympic Gold Medalist from the 1950's who came from Clarksville. 

There is a great Civil War exhibition inside the museum that establishes a time line demonstrating how the Civil War played out in this area.  There is also a cool exhibit in the basement with several old transportation modalities and a demonstration of how tobacco is packed and moved.

My favorite exhibit was a series of oil paintings by a local artist.  Entitled "Tennessee Perspectives", the exhibit consisted of 40 to 50 paintings of landscapes across the state.  The paintings are all of different seasons.  Some are water views.  Others are true landscapes.  Either way, the work is very good and you leave with the sense that you have now seen what the state looks like from all different angles during all different times of the year.



Later that afternoon, we met some very nice folks who own and operate a most interesting boat.  The boat is called "Annie" and was hand built over a period of 16 years.  She is a 53 foot wooden river boat.  She is more than 20 feet wide, and draws 3.5 feet.  She is powered by twin 180 hp diesel engines and had two generators.  The galley rivals any land based custom kitchen and has all the appliances you could every want.  The boat is amazing  Check out this link and you can see a slide show of what the boat looks like.  http://www.jaysboats.com/annie.asp

Ron built this boat from the ground up using a set of plans he bought.  It is an absolutely astonishing work of art. 




We had a nice time in Clarksville, but had to move on as my mom is flying into Nashville.  We did, however, stop for the next night in the town of Ashland, Tennessee.  We tied the boat to a dock in front of a restaurant on the Cumberland river and then walked across the bridge to visit the town.  It would appear that Ashland is the home to the world's largest manufacturer of home based water heaters, as well as Tracker Boats.  In reality, other than that, there is not too much going on here in the seat of Cheatham County.  It is a pretty spot, though.  There is a Co-op, a home center, and a discount seller of beer and tobacco.  There is a McDonald's and a couple other fast food places.  However, generally, this is a working town.

Sections of rivers between lock and dam complexes are often referred to
as "pools" or lakes.  In our case, we just left the Barkley
Lake and entered the Cheatham Lake.  This is the Cheatham Lock and Dam.

That's us at the dock across the river from Ashland, Tennessee

That's Ashland.  That's it.  All of it.

Ashland City Hall, Courthouse, Government Center, Mayor's Office, District Attorney, etc. etc. etc.

We will be making our final leg to Nashville today.  As I am writing this, there is a storm that is about to move over us.  This is one of those storm fronts that will bring some furious rain and wind for a couple hours and then will dissipate as the front moves past.  I have no doubt that we will make it to Nashville today.  It just might be a little later in the day than originally planned as we will have to wait for this storm to pass.  It's nice being on a narrow river as the wind and rain will not affect the water like it would if we were on Lake Michigan.  However, we have to be wary of lightning when it is forecast.  A lightning strike could not only do very serious damage to the boat, but it could be deadly.  So, we'll stay put until the storm passes and then move along in its wake.

I'll write again from Nashville.  Bye Y'all.