October 29-30, 2009

October 29-30, 2009
Pebble Isle Marina, New Johnsonville, TN

Our trip to Pebble Isle Marina was indeed mostly uneventful. As we were leaving Green Turtle Bay Marina at sunrise, a fishing boat pulled into the mouth of the marina channel and stopped to start fishing. We thought we were a rather obvious sight, but needed to use the horn to ask the fishermen to move aside a bit in order to get out. Again the day was overcast and we also encountered some rain squalls so the beautiful autumn colors we were able to see, did not look as good on camera. We needed to slow down for a car ferry and passed an abandoned dock. Pebble Isle has a rather interesting channel to get into their well-protected harbor, but it is well marked.

We enjoyed dinner and conversation with Andy and Frank of Brightwater – a beautiful Fleming trawler that was next to us in Green Turtle Bay and made the trip with us today. This is the third time they have made this part of the river trip. They had great information and promised us that the rest of the trip will be beautiful. They had come down the Illinois River and had also encountered debris from the above average rainfalls with a damaged prop to show for it.

Today, Friday, it was our intent to visit Civil War historical sites as part of our day. The nearest park with some historical remnants apparently had been disassembled recently so nothing going there. There were two museums – one in Waverly that was open by appointment only, and one in the Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park that was approximately 30 minutes away. We waited for the courtesy car and started our adventure at noon. Off to the State Park we went (since we didn’t have an appointment in Waverly) with directions from a marina patron. Everything was going well and we were about 5 miles from the park when we witnessed a transformer on a telephone pole explode with sparks and then a wire came down into road (probably due to the extreme winds we had today). We were able to stop on time, but 2 seconds sooner…. A local guy gave us instructions to take some backroads around the incident and we were on our way. We found the state park and got directions from the office to the museum at the top of Pilot Knob Hill (highest point in West Tennessee), only to find a sign in the locked door that the curator was out to lunch for another 45 minutes. Sheesh!

We took some pictures and, truly, the views were spectacular – we were able to see the Pebble Isle Marina harbor from this peak. We decided not to wait for the museum to open because our time was limited with the car. Instead, we drove back to Waverly to eat at Tequila Johns, for very good Mexican cuisine. This tiny restaurant was recommended to us by another marina patron who knew that the chef had received his training in the Dominican Republic. Just made us go, “Hmmmmmm…..” But every part of the meal was commendable!!

I did a web search for the Civil War Battle of Johnsonville and you can find out more at the following link. We were told that this was the only battle in which an Army Calvary defeated the Navy.

http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/tn/tn032.html

http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/tn/tn032.html