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Sea smoke on the water as we left. In the early morning, we made the very difficult decision to leave Pebble Isle Marina. As I told the owner the evening before, "We came for the cinnamon rolls.  We stayed for the cinnamon rolls.  We are leaving because of the cinnamon rolls." She even tried to send some along with us to bake later. NO! The "sea smoke" cleared pretty quickly. This is a huge chemical plant. I looked up their website to see what they make... CHEMICALS. Very vague. The river along this way is pretty much the original Tennessee River, as it would have looked 180 years ago.  Well, not the bridges, of course... White pelicans on the sandbar. Traffic was backed up for 50+ minutes due to an accident. Google knows everything. This was next to the big power plant. These guys had the best view. These guys were the loudest and had the biggest rooster tail. Many summer homes along the lake. The leaves are getting prettier. Parks and campgrounds in many places. T

  DAY 176 October 9 Another day at Pebble Isle Marina near New Johnsonville, TN. We started the day doing all the fun stuff like buying groceries, doing laundry, etc. We took a bike ride down a road and found lots of Tarzan vines on the trees.  I asked Paul to show his skills, but he shyly said he didn't want to show off. In the afternoon we borrowed the curtesy car and went to the Pearl Museum. We learned all about pearls and the only pearl farming in the US. Very interesting. For more info read this article  or watch this video . 95% of all cultured pearls start with mussel shell pieces from Tennessee. The size and shape of the nucleus determines the size and shape of the pearl. In this tray you can see the different shells, nucleus shapes and finished pearls. The inside color of the shell determines the color of the pearl. This is why pearls come in so many colors. Japan's pearl oysters have been developed to grow faster than the Tennessee mussels. They produce pearls faster