Green Turtle Bay Marina

It’s hard to believe that we have been here in Green Turtle Bay Marina for almost a week. Situated on Lake Barkley, the marina is about 25 miles east of Paducah, Kentucky and home to some of the largest house boats we’ve ever seen! The average house boat here is probably 80 feet long and 18 feet wide—all with two stories and numerous sundecks, most with hot tubs, central air-conditioning units sitting right out on their aft decks, sliding boards, beautiful teakwood furniture, and each one looking like it could sleep twenty or more—huge floating condominiums is what they are!

AGLCA flags have been coming and going all week—and new “waves” of Loopers are expected in here over the next few days—as all the boats that were stuck up-river of us have begun to catch up with one another. This marina is easy and pleasant to remain in for several days! They have good laundry facilities, an indoor pool, a workout room, two saunas, two on-site restaurants, cottages and golf carts for rent, a fairly decent book swap, four “loaner” vans, numerous gazebos in pretty spots, a movie rental on site, and the ever famous restaurant, Patti’s Restaurant, with-in walking distance. Our week has been full and we’ve had beautiful weather every day—how lucky we have been!

In trying to remember it all, I’m sure I’ll miss something—but here goes on our week. The first two days were spent “cleaning house”—Louis spent the better part of those two days below deck—cleaning the strainers and the bilge from all the mud of the Mississippi River and then washing the boat. I did very necessary interior cleaning, five loads of laundry, and cleaned the nasty—lock besieged— fenders. After we were satisfied with all our cleaning, it was time to relax—so we signed up for one of the loaner vans and took off for Paducah. Six of us set off for downtown to specifically see the murals, the River Heritage Museum, and the National Quilt Museum. We also wanted to have lunch, do grocery shopping, go to the marine store and of course—find a liquor store! (Our marina is in a dry county, so we’ll all have to “brown-bag” at dinner!)

The quilt museum was breathtaking—the pieces displayed (actually owned by the museum) were stunning in their complexity, colors, and fabrics—we were blown away with the art of such fine stitchery—a lot done by men too. I could have stayed in that museum for hours—I thought of you Judy—a definite road trip for you sometime soon! It is inconceivable to me how anyone who has labored so long over any one of these quilts would/could/should dare part with them. We were told that the museum rotates the quilts every 3 or 4 months, so they must have an awesome collection hidden somewhere special.

The “downtown” murals are very special too—thank you for telling us about them, Jan! Painted on the inside (town-side) walls of a huge concrete man-made levee—are scenes depicting the history of Paducah. Covering over 300 years, the hand painted murals were so interesting to see and very graciously donated by individuals and businesses—and so pretty a covering for such a drab grey concrete stretch of wall. Having recently been built, the levee is the only barrier in keeping the rising waters out of the downtown area—1993 being the latest (and hopefully last) river surge which flooded all the businesses there.

The week was spent dining out several times too—imagine that! We ate at Patti’s in Glen Rivers—just a short distance from our marina. The restaurant is famous for its’ grilled 2” thick pork chops—we all had one and it was truly delicious. By the time we were done with dinner and dessert, we were stuffed and miserable! Patti’s so reminded us of the old Hartmann’s in Durham, with its many connecting rooms—except these rooms at Patti’s were extravagantly decorated—too, too much. Stuff was everywhere! Each room had a different theme—and by Christmas time, all the rooms will be “decked out” in you know what. We also went to dinner at the marina’s club house, which was delicious too, followed by a van ride to the local “community” theater in town where we saw the cute play, “Bus Stop”. That play, so we were told that night, launched the career of Marilyn Monroe back in 1955. One other night, we went to a small house nearby that the owner, Marilyn, primarily uses as a cooking school. Knowing what we were getting into, eleven of us sat in her kitchen one evening and ate a completely German dinner/buffet—in celebration of Oktoberfest. It was a fun and entertaining evening with lots of laughs, but not something any of us would do again any time soon—it was just too heavy and meaty a dinner. Bring out the Rolaids!

All in all we had a great six days there—seeing faces we hadn’t seen in a while, and meeting new members of our AGLCA crazy group. Two afternoons (one the day we got there and one the last we were there), we had “Looper” cocktail parties out on one of the gazebos overlooking the water; those parties are always fun—and we spent one afternoon out on our dock celebrating with “My Cin” and “Whichaway” both of whom have just crossed their wakes this week—congratulations to them for finishing the Loop—go Texas! (Now go get that gold flag!)