Paducah – CountUp

Village Between The Lakes

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about the other Savannah – the one on the Tennessee River known as the “Catfish Capital Of The World”.

Continuing downstream on the river on my upcoming American Cruise Lines paddlewheeler ship cruise – it’s Grand Rivers Kentucky down in the southwestern corner of the state. It’s about 167 miles downstream from Savannah, and the journey is scheduled to take about 17½ hours, for an average speed of about 9½ MPH. There is no elevation drop between Savannah and Grand Rivers, as the entire journey is actually on Kentucky Lake – created by Kentucky Dam at Grand Rivers. At 160,309 acres it is the largest artificial lake by surface area in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River.

I’ll be part of a 3-hour-plus shore excursion that afternoon in Land Between The Lakes – the federally-protected national recreation area between Kentucky Lake (Tennessee River) and Lake Barkley (Cumberland River). Our first stop will be the Woodlands Nature Station. Our next stop will be the Elk & Bison Prairie.

Paducah Kentucky (“Quilt City U.S.A.”) is another option on this day while docked in Grand Rivers. It’s about a 30-minute luxury coach ride into downtown, and then you’re on your own to do your own thing there for up to 3 hours before the coach returns back to the ship.

That night back on the cruise ship we will officially transfer over from the Tennessee River downstream to the Cumberland River upstream. (Both rivers flow into the Ohio River.) The 1.75-mile Barkley Canal essentially acts as a short-cut between the two rivers near their closest approach to allow vessels to bypass the Ohio River some 22½ (Tennessee) to 30½ (Cumberland) miles downstream. The Barkley Canal was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) from the late-1950s through the mid-1960s. It was completed and filled in 1966. The water depth runs from 11 to 15 feet depending on rainfall.

Once on Lake Barkley our 22-hour journey upstream on the Cumberland River begins. The river narrows into a traditional river and winds its way southeastward towards downtown Nashville, and that’s where I’ll be – next – #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. So let’s recap. After 24 cruises at sea via Norwegian, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Disney – I declared that my 24TH cruise (and 16TH on Carnival) would be my final cruise ever. It was one of my greatest cruises ever on the newest and biggest ship I’d ever been on. (That was 3½ years ago in January 2023.)

Fast forward to 2025, and I was getting that cruise feeling again. Ads in print and on television for American Cruise Lines were increasingly intriguing to me. Research ensued, and during the final week of February 2026 I booked my cruise online on the Ohio River for nearly 5 months later during the latter portion of July 2026.

As I revealed in last week’s #TravelThursday (and to some museum friends a few weeks earlier) – that cruise was cancelled due to emergency drydock repairs that had to be made to the ship that I was booked on. (The ship was repaired within a week down in the Louisiana Bayou, and it resumed its regularly-scheduled voyages on the Ohio River starting with the immediate cruise after the one that I was booked on.)

I was given 3 options to proceed. One of the options was a definite no-go for me – a full refund of my cruise. Nope. I didn’t want my money back. I want to cruise a river. I want to see America. And I want to do so as soon as possible.

The other 2 options were enticing to me for different reasons. One of the options was to rebook on a 16-day / 15-night Grand Ohio Cruise for no additional charge. In other words – nearly double the cruise that I was originally booked on. It was a repositioning cruise at the end of the ship’s Ohio River season in late-August into early-September from Pittsburgh all the way to St. Louis. It would travel the entire length of the Ohio River downstream (981 miles), and then up the Mississippi River a bit (195 miles). YES PLEASE !

The caveat for that is that there must be a single balcony stateroom available on that cruise (which is what I booked for my original cruise). For a couple of days – there was one available. And then there wasn’t.

Oh well – it’s on to the last remaining option, and it’s a good one too. Choose any upcoming 9-day / 8-night cruise anywhere (among 28 ships and 50+ itineraries), and rebook for no additional charge – AND – get 30% off my next cruise after that. YES PLEASE !

I already knew which cruise I wanted to book. It would’ve been my Spring or Summer 2027 cruise that I would’ve booked during the original Ohio River cruise. It’s on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers through Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky. It runs between Chattanooga and Nashville (both directions). I’ll be flying in to Chattanooga the day before the cruise. Ports-of-call are Decatur / Huntsville Alabama, Florence Alabama, Savannah Tennessee, Paducah / Grand Rivers Kentucky, and finally Nashville. I’ll be flying out of Nashville. Airfare is included, and American Cruise Lines books the flights based upon my requests.

Incidentally – I plan to use the 30% off my next cruise after that – on the Ohio River cruise in Summer 2027. Starting with next season – it becomes a 10-day / 9-night cruise with an additional port-of-call added. (I believe it’ll be Wheeling West Virginia.)

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll look back at past visits to “The Volunteer State” – Tennessee. Let’s keep traveling together.