I ran a recon mission prior to G14 looking for a new river run.
I found 2 good restaurants.
http://jacobmyersrestaurant.com/
this is right in Dayton, on the same waters as our marina.
it is too close to be much use for the V-8 mahoganies, the dock is too small.
But, it is a nice looking place, worthy of a good look.
Perhaps a run for the Ampeaters/Squirts/skiffs/Canoe??
I'll dub this one River Run 1.0
Then I found the mexican restaurant. https://amigorestaurantonline.com/
this is in Island Cove marina about 25 miles down river, just up from the dam.
This is our classic river run
I'll dub this River Run 2.0
Ken, did you look into Steve's Landing waterfront grill? https://www.steveslandingsoddy.com/dockside/ They say they have plenty of car and boat parking on their website. I'll call and ask what "plenty" of boat parking really means.
Its about 2/3rds the distance of Amigos. So a little closer, north of the big powerplant on Chickamauga. Pretty cool to have so many more destinations and coves to visit. Might need to add a day to our stay and do multiple runs.
vupilot wrote: ↑Wed Sep 23, 2020 5:26 pm
Ken, did you look into Steve's Landing waterfront grill? https://www.steveslandingsoddy.com/dockside/ They say they have plenty of car and boat parking on their website. I'll call and ask what "plenty" of boat parking really means.
Its about 2/3rds the distance of Amigos. So a little closer, north of the big powerplant on Chickamauga. Pretty cool to have so many more destinations and coves to visit. Might need to add a day to our stay and do multiple runs.
if that the one on west side, it dinner only, no lunch.
one of those on the west side even looked to be closed.
Anybody that wants to venture out is fine, but I chose what I did such that folks can show up and we make a 'go' of it right out of the box so to speak.
I chose what I did because they were open, had lunch, had docks, had what we need.
Besides, whats wrong with mexican food & Margaritas?
ok, I missed the weekend lunch part. it still doesnt look as inviting as the mexican place. I drove by on a Thurs about lunch time and it say dinner only.
a pretty old looking joint, though
Less potluck and more dinner runs........? maybe.
I drove around the whole lake looking at restaurants with docks.
that was thursday of G14. all my findings are in the alternative location thread
For our classic River Run the mexican place was obvious for G15, to show up, launch, throw the lines off, and go have our run, with a new venue and a new lake, and something that'll work. The host showed me their docks and they are acceptable, as is the restaurant clean. The host welcomed us as a group of boats.
There is other places I saw that are:
bar food without the bar,
bar food in a trailer park,
old greasy joints not open for lunch,
paid reserved docking, transients unknown,
places you can't tell if they really open or not,
open dinner only,
marginal lunch menu but marina operator says 'no transient' docking (Harrison park)
all of these can be (should be) further explored from the water, you betcha, but I in no way recommend them to successfully host our river run the first time out, on a new venue, and have any expectation of it to work.
Places open for dinner?? 2 of them are the west side of lake down near the dam, I couldn't see because they were closed (lunch time drive by) and the logistics of a 'dinner run' is too much of a unknown. That would be an unseen restaurant, unknown night time return, in unknown waters
I think I saw 7 different joints from the car, which is 7 different places to explore by boat. Dinner run is a possible, but the thought of a night return on water is a bugaboo for me, at least on a new strange water route, that I never run before.
