Cinnamon Buns and Fried Catfish! New Johnsonville TN

A relatively short ride today - about 45 miles down the Tennessee from Paris Landing State Park to Pebble Isle Marina near New Johnsonville TN.

We were last in line of the 6 boats in our little party with Jim's Joy in the lead. Kermit engaged Otto the auto pilot as often as he could in the straightaways. This reduces wear and tear on the pilot and uses less gas since we travel in a more or less straight line - straighter than we could do ourselves. That is until Otto decides to check out the scenery on the side of the river! On two occasions the boat suddenly veered to the left side in a dramatic fashion. The boat's action caught the attention of the entire group who inquired quickly whether we were ok. Kermit double checked the first time it happened to be sure we didn't snap a fish net like we did on Lake Huron. But everything was fine - except for Otto who just went a little screwy. We just have to be sure to not take it for granted and pay attention.

The river is very beautiful. I know I have said this about almost every place we have seen. It gets a little boring after a while - one beautiful scene after another. I just pull out a book. The trees are changing colors a little, the water is calm, and the sky has fascinating cloud combinations since we are ahead of a big weather front. No rain but cloudy, moving skies all day.

 Upon entering Pebble Isle Marina, you just follow the street signs!

 Deciding what to do next.,,

As we traveled today we noticed buildings sticking out of the water towards the shore and bridges/railroad tracks that jut into the water a few yards then die out. A constant reminder that this area used to be a river and is not a dammed up lake with entire towns covered by water. We saw the top of a building at one point!! It is especially easy to see these structures now that the water is pretty low.

Rusty had two great walks today - this morning at Paris Landing and this afternoon a walk and swim at Pebble Isle. He met a nice puppy about 30 pounds of mixed breed that followed us all around the ramp at Pebble Isle. Rusty was happy to make a friend although he really doesn't like to play rough anymore.

Every marina that caters to Loopers tries to find a way to distinguish themselves from the other marinas. After all, Loopers follow essentially the same route. It all starts to look the same after a while. So smart marinas find ways to separate themselves from the crowd.

Pebble Isle Marina would be a nice marina under any circumstance. The people who work there are great – nice, friendly, talkative, helpful. Fuel is low priced. The marina is tucked into a picturesque corner of the Tennessee River. The buildings themselves are nothing special. But they go a step further. Pebble Isle Marina, under the leadership of Tammy, Randy, and their team, offers great food. Surprisingly great food. The menu is nothing special. The room is ok. But the people and the food are AMAZING.

Tammy provided appetizers for our docktail hour – the sweetest, crispest, freshest catfish I have ever eaten, along with fried pickles and fried mushrooms. I don’t eat mushrooms so I don’t have an opinion on them but the fried pickles were spicy, crisp, and somehow fresher than I ever had before. Served with homemade tarter sauce. This is turning into a restaurant review, isn’t it?

We stayed for dinner and had platter after platter of fried catfish, fried chicken, hushpuppies and French fries along with the wine and beer we brought to the table. We laughed and talked and teased the nice ladies in the kitchen. There were 18 people in our group and 18 new Pebble Isle fans!!

You would think a great dinner would be enough. But Tammy and Randy have something else up their sleeves to make us raving fans – cinnamon buns and sausage biscuit. Fantastic!! This is no Pillsbury canned cinnamon buns. No sir. Randy makes these yeast buns made from scratch every morning. With a creamy frosting that is to die for. Cinnabun should be very, very worried. We leave Pebble Isle Marina 5 pounds heavier, three hours later than our normal departure, and very , very happy. Thank you so much Pebble Isle Marina!!!  You are a Looping Treasure!!

It seems like this corner of the world is just filled with really nice people. As we left the restaurant on Thursday night we met Gene Lowe (not sure of the spelling), a talkative, friendly fellow who became a new friend. He and his wife are retired now but they lived for 40 years in the Chicago area where he started a company that created heavy duty food mixing equipment. He described the intricacies of this big equipment with a great passion for his creations and was rightly proud that the equipment he designed and manufactured solves a problem. I couldn’t find this company when I googled it but he has a cool email address: bestblend based on his pride. Cool huh?

We met more loopers at this stop to add to our collection including a couple from Washington State. They had their boat shipped from Washington – a Bayliner Motor Yacht kind of like Jim and Karen Sigmunds, although probably without all the cool upgrades Jim and Karen put on.

Not all looping couples are as happy as we are! And we are fairly happy, hard to believe. Gossip on the Pebble Isle dock was the night before one couple we don’t know had a huge fight and she stormed out of town. They just started their trip, only traveling 87 miles and already she completed enough of the loop for her. According to the gossip mill, he plans to continue without her. Hah!!! NOTE: We understand that the fellow left before us and is already down the road!

It is one thing to look at this pretty scenery and say it is nice. A lot has happened in this part of the world. We are getting into Civil War country. Johnsonville was the scene of a famous Civil War battle. This Confederate General Forrest was a very smart guy. One of the few CSA generals who did not go to West Point, he started as a private and got promoted quickly based on his leadership ability. He was a particular annoyance to General Grant along the Tennessee River. 

Johnsonville, where we stayed at Pebble Isle Marina was the site of a famous battle. Actually the marina is located is located where the Union soldiers lived. Across the river is the Confederate soldier site. The river covers the site of Old Johnsonville since the dam covered the old town. 

The Union captured Johnsonville early in the war, 1862, and used it as a logistics depot to supply the entire Union army in the south. It was huge. They even built a railroad to move supplies from Nashville to this site on the Tennessee River. Several of the Union army defense lines are still preserved. Here are pictures of two at the ridge above the marina. 

This is also Davy Crockett country. The original Davy Crockett died at the Alamo in 1836 but he grew up in East Tennessee and his descendants lived in this area. There is a cemetery at the ridge in the Johnsonville State Park with markers from the Crockett family among others. Most of the markers date from just after the Civil War. 

Anyway, Forrest had the idea of taking out the entire depot to disrupt Union logistics. He did this in a spectacular fire in 1864 started from strategic cannons placed in such a way that the Union boats at dock (a couple dozen) and the Union soldiers stationed around couldn't get them. The entire depot burned. Unfortunately for the CSA or fortunately for the Union, the timing in 1864 was too late in the war. General Sherman was already  marching through the Atlanta and the war was almost over. I suspect if Forrest took out the depot earlier in the war, we would need passports to make this trip.

The State Park has a neat visitors center with a great video about the battle of Johnsonville. Another interesting element was the large number of US Colored Soldiers working at the depot. There is another visitors center across the river with the story from the CSA point of view but we didn't have time to visit that one.

It rained Thursday night. Katherine’s perspective: I didn’t hear much but was enjoyed the comforting sounds of a thunderstorm to clear the air. Kermit’s perspective: He got up twice to tighten lines in this fierce storm. Bottom line: I enjoyed the rain and Kermit worried. That about sums up our trip so far!!! At least we each have our jobs to do!!!

Update: The generator worked perfectly!! Kermit turned it on while we were driving and I made fajitas for docktails. Great food at docktails tonight from everyone!!

Technical Update: On 10/11 we traveled at about 8.3 mph using 43 gallons of gas. We did not fill up on arrival even though gas was a very reasonable 4.38 a gallon because we still have 3/4 tank left and plenty of places to get gas on this leg of the journey. On 10/12 we traveled to Clinton TN at Mile 158, another 60 mile travel day. So far we used 100.1 gallons of gas in the two days of travel. 

Critter alert: We saw flocks of white pelicans today. One time Kermit say a couple of white pelicans with an entire flock of sea gulls following after it in a goose formation. Cool! No pictures because they moved too fast. Tonight we saw a tiny green frog sitting outside our boat as we returned from dinner. Also no pictures siince we left the camera on the boat.


I forgot to share pictures of the welds on our railings. Kermit is not pleased with the way the railing looks. Our sleek, elegant looking boat has a little buggered up welds on the railing now. I am not upset by it. At least they hold. But Kermit is getting a price on a new railing. I am pretty confident we will NOT be buying an entire new railing just because the welds are bumpy.

In this photo you can see that the railing is still a little bent. Other than these minor imperfections, the rail is strong and doing its job.

Quiz Time: What the heck is this craft? Rusty can't figure it out. This craft sits at the entrance to Pebble Isle Marina. It appears to be made of metal and is sealed at all entrances. Could it be a submarine? Let us know what you think.

We traveled about 60 miles on 10/12 to Clifton TN. We traveled through a heavy haze and arrived almost at dark. I will have pictures and commentary in the next post.