Brush Creek Island to Straight Creek Marine

Day 17: Monday, August 29, 2016

You can monitor our trip at the link: Second Winds Progress Live

We had a peaceful night’s sleep. By bed time last night, the winds died down, the boat settled down and the river became calm.  On the back side of Brush Creek

First Mate hanging out laundry

Island, we were protected from the wake of passing barges so we slept well.

We fried up our last packet of pancake mix and used most of the last of our syrup.  We still have a number of breakfast choices left so we will not run out before the end of the trip.

We got underway at our typical 9:00 and traveled another glassy river.  Like the last several days we were traveling through sparsely populated country.  We passed very little industry.  There were a couple of huge power plants and some gravel pits but none of the big chemical plants that we saw back up stream.  We did pass a big lime quarry/processing plant not far from Maysville KY.

We got to the beautiful town of Maysville at about noon.  This is one of my favorite places along the river.  Like many others, this village is steeped in history and they proudly display it. They too have a mural wall that depicts the coming of the first settlers and the hunting activities of the early Indians.  One mural shows a herd of buffalo that had just

swam the river climbing the snow covered bluff in the area where the town now resides.  Here, the Indians would fall upon the struggling animals and harvest them for their winter stores.  Interestingly, there is now a road that follows that old buffalo trail as it winds up the bluff. 

The last time we were here, we were given a ride to a restaurant by an interesting couple who drove us up that trail as they brought to life the history of their proud town.

Buffalo Hunt Mural

In town, Janine and I went to Delites Downtown Food and Drink restaurant where I had a great hamburger and Janine had chicken tenders and fries.  This little place is obviously a popular local hang out.  It is decorated with 50’s memorabilia.  Back out on the street, we passed and talked to two different local folks, one of whom was so into telling us about her town that we had trouble getting on to our picture taking tour.  One of local celebrities was Rosemary Clooney.  Her nephew,

George Clooney is also from this area and still owns a home in the small river town of Augusta, KY.

Back in the boat, we headed 9 nautical miles downstream towards the town of Ripley, OH.  In Ripley, one of the main attractions is another 1950’s style establishment that sells ice cream.  We also found this great little place on our last trip down the river.  By 3:30 today, the temperature was again above 90 degrees with a heat index of in the neighborhood of 100 so we had to stop for ice cream. Rockin’ Robin’s

A small sample of beautiful Maysville

Soda Shop is also filled the 50’s stuff, including a juke box in the form if the rear end of an early Ford Thunderbird that plays old rock music.  I had to have a Tara’s Turtle which is two scoops of ice cream with all sorts of toppings on it and Janine had a hot fudge sundae.

Back outside, the heat was sweltering.  We got back onto the boat and began motoring so as to provide a bit of a breeze to make the ride more bearable.  A few miles down the river, we picked up a light following breeze, so we raised the sails and road for about an hour ghosting along at about 2-3 knots. 

Inside Rockn' Robin's

Our destination is a little used, but really nice, well-maintained Straight Creek Marina.  Someone has put out a lot of cash to excavate this off the river basin and put in really nice professionally-made docks.  There are probably 40 slips of which only 15 or so have boats.  The fee for the night

The Juke Box

was a reasonable $16.00.  They have few amenities besides their showers but it was a perfect place for us.  We were the only people on the premises after the overly accommodating owner went back across the highway to his home.

Straight Creek Marina

It was still hot at the usual time we would prepare a meal so we decided to again forego the cooking process and Janine had one of her few remaining chocolate Uncrustables and I got to break into my stash of Spam and create a Spam Rollup!  It was wonderful.  After we finished our main course, we slathered on a whole lot of cream cheese icing on a blob carrot cake that we had baked in our Bake Packer last evening.

And finally, we topped off this interesting day with pleasant showers. We got to go to bed clean.