10/6/10 - Pebble Isle, New Johnsville, TN

Wow .... what a day. This morning I woke up about 6:30 and was watching a rerun of MASH when I heard Lee Greenwood singing Proud to be an American and went up to the helm to see about 320 bass fishermen standing at attention in their boats as a parade of bass boats was passing bearing the flags of every branch of service. Apparently what I have been told, this was the national championship tournament for the American Bass Anglers. About 7:30 they were turned loose and 163 boats headed out of the

marina.

The first place prize for 3 days catch was a new boat. If I understood right, second and third place money totaled $35,000. Big fish of the day was worth $5,000.

We finally left around 9:45 for the 30 mile run to Pebble Isle. We passed this railroad bridge to nowhere along with this old grain warehouse that the story goes they tried to demolish it when the lake was flooded but couldn't. Most daymarks we passed were homes for the birds. We are starting to run into boaters we have met in other marinas now. After a fantastic seafood dinner at the floating restaurant, when we were walking back to the boat we ran into a couple from MO that I have followed his blog for a couple years. They actually sold their home in 2006 and have done the loop twice and are now just going back to the places they either missed or enjoyed.

One couple that we first met in Green Turtle told us that the marina that we are going to tomorrow, as are they, has an adult beverage party every Wednesday night and Thursday night and ..... for that matter, every night of the week. The next couple days will be 50 - 60 mile runs each day and tomorrow may be a late start since they serve cinnamon rolls at 8:30 a.m. in the restaurant to all loopers.

We are at: N 36 04.2 W 87 57.8