Good-Bye Tennessee River

October 24, 2010

After Larry and Donna left us at Goose Pond Marina in Scottsboro (a favorite marina), we traveled on to Ditto Landing Marina in Huntsville, AL.  This municipal marina has brand new docks, clean bathrooms and showers, washer and drier, a beautiful flat bike path that ends at a Publix grocery store, a campground for Buddy to sniff and romp and it only costs $.50 a foot per night-we stayed a week since we also took advantage of the Enterprise car rental weekend rate of 32.36 from Friday at 12 noon to Monday at 12 noon and got to actually drive to places we wanted to see.  There's U.S. Space & Rocket Center where we spent time exploring the hands-on exhibits, flight simulators, IMAX theater, the 354-foot Saturn V moon rocket, full size model of the Space Shuttle  and the Hubble Space Telescope and a U.S. Air Force SR-71 Blackbird spy plane.

Saturn V Rocket

Spy plane

Huntsville is known as the Rocket City because of the aerospace industry, led by the German (he surrendered to the Americans at the end of WWII) Dr. Wernher von Braun.  He and his team were instrumental in the USA's successful rocket program.  The city also is home to the Army's  Redstone Arsenal from which we could hear loud booming testing of some kind of rockets going off-Buddy loved it -NOT!

So between the NASA program and the government presence in Redstone Arsenal, the government money has kept this area in a stable condition.  We found it to be upscale, interesting  and comfortable.  Hmm, we'll keep this place in mind for a possible relocation destination (low taxes too!)

Anyway, the ducks at this Ditto Landing Marina kept us laughing at their quacking at  us. They would swim around the marina and announce themselves to whomever would listen and dare feed them. Different kinds seemed to get along and swim together all day...wonder what their secret is....

Duck diversity

Cliffs outside of Huntsville

Shrimp boil at Joe Wheeler State Park-no, it's not an AARP meeting, but it looks like one!

They'll let anyone in!!!

 Every fall the AGLCA holds a rendezvous at Joe Wheeler Sate Park in Rogersville, AL for interested Loopers.  They hold workshops to learn about the next leg of the Loop, dinners where you'd  meet other Loopers and cocktail hours to party with the Loopers you've met along the way and new Loopers you've just met.  By the time we had decided to sign up for the rendezvous, it was sold out but we decided to go to the marina and catch up with some of the great folks we've met along the way.  What a great time we had with the people there...a gathering every night and a special shrimp boil (feast!) sponsored by a gold looper who contributes the shrimp every year while every one brings some food dish.  How nice is that!

Gloria & Jim(Crawdad) Laura and Bill(Monkey Girl)Ana minus Pete(Blue Yonder)

      Wilson Lock-93' high

Looking up the 90' lock wall

 We left Joe Wheeler with our traveling buddies Art and Sandra (Magoo) to beat the mad rush of boaters traveling up to Grand Harbor where the Tennessee meets Yellow Creek and begins the Tenn-Tom Waterway.  We needed to go through two locks which can be troublesome if a tow is involved.  Usually we had been lucky but this trip reminded us that our luck can run out and it did in, of all locks, Wilson Lock.  We had to wait two hours until a tow locked through before we could lock through.  This lock is over 90 feet and is very intimidating when looking straight up from the bottom to the top.

We have spent over a month on the Tennessee River and were now leaving it.  This river is beautiful and gave us many glorious days and peaceful evenings.  The weather has been as perfect as we could want it, the scenery as exciting as one could imagine and the people as delightful as one would hope for.   This was more than we expected...we will miss this Tennessee River...

More Tennessee River

October 4, 2010 to October 12, 2010

Local knowledge from Stacey and Paul (SeaSea) brought us to a favorite dockage.  Shellmound Recreation Area has a free dock right in front of Nickajack Lock and Dam where we spent a couple of nights.  Buddy loved all the smells and the peace and quiet...so did we!

Our view

Tony M at Shellmound

View of Nickajack Dam at Sunset

Lots of wild life

Some kind of tree house!

Onward to Chattanooga
The stretch from Shellmound to Chattanooga brought us through Tennessee's Grand Canyon, an area of some of the most stunning scenery on this river.  The beginning of this section has small farms and homes but then the mountains drop steeply into the river.  Talk about river meandering!  The river now made about a dozen twists and turns through the mountains. The Prentice Cooper State Forest  and Wildlife Management Area line the riverbank with more than 300 kinds of trees-some turning color but nowhere near New England colors.

We passed another TVA wonder- Raccoon Mountain where TVA created a 520 acre lake on top of the mountain into which water is pumped from the river during times of slack power use.  Then when there are peak electric demands, water is allowed to flow down the mountain through giant tubes and turbines, producing electricity.  Pretty clever!

TVA's  Raccoon Mountain

We arrived in Chattanooga and tied up to the city's dock right in their downtown by the aquarium.  What a nice city-people, food, attractions.  We spent an enjoyable day at the aquarium and the IMAX theater. The largest fresh water aquarium has many interactive exhibits for kids of all ages so you know what that means!

Interactive displays

Beautiful butterflies

Waterfall stairs where many kids were having great fun!

Larry and Donna Edwards met us in Chattanooga and stayed with us for two days as we motored back down the Tennessee.  It was so enjoyable to spend time with long time friends(not old) and were disappointed they couldn't stay longer.  As landlubbers they were off to discover western Tennessee by car.

Donna and Larry

The invitation to travel with us is open to ya all so please consider it!!!

The Beautiful Tennessee River

September 24, 2010 - October 3, 2010

 We followed the Tennessee River to the Yellow Creek where the Tenn-Tom Riverway begins.  We stayed at Grand Harbor Marina who has a courtesy van, enabling Laura and Bill (Monkey Girl) and Heidi and Kelly (Prime Time) and us to visit Shiloh National Military Park.  The driving tour showed us the many monuments, cannons  and historic tablets that detailed the Civil War's first major battle in the western theater.  This two day battle caused 23,000+ men to lose their lives in horrific battles.  We were all quieter on the way back, realizing the grim realities of this ghastly war.

This Tennessee River is quite interesting.  Its originates in Knoxville, TN, flows southwest to northeast Alabama and Mississippi where it turns westward to Pickwick Dam and then turns north up to Paducah, KY.  In 1933 the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) was created to provide cheap electricity  and jobs to the very poor residents of this area.  To do this, nine dams with locks were built that prevented disastrous floods, generating tremendous amounts of hydroelectric power and providing a deep navigation channel for the 652 mile river.  A bonus was the beautiful lakes that  are attached to the dams and locks.  They are awesome-not too populated but well used by boaters.
 Each lock and dam produces a beautiful lake named after the lock and dam.  Our favorite was Wilson Lake-I wonder why...

Wilson Lock with a  93' lift-WOW!

 It delivers you into Wilson Lake and its beauty...

Typical Lake Wilson house

Rails down to their boathouse

Floating down the river, you see many unique sights.

Collapsed building still attached to bank

Cliffs outside of Huntsville

What is this?  Background for a Stephen King novel?

I wonder what the inside looks like...

Indian artifacts and spirits at the Riverwalk Marina in Decatur, Al

They take their Indian heritage very seriously.

Decatur, Alabama's claim to fame

20,000-45,000 gray bats live here until September when they migrate to cooler caves in the hills north of the river

Carol Wicks and cousin Karen visited Saturday.  We had a lovely visit as we motored from Decatur to Guntersville, AL (pronounced Gunnersville).  Carol brought a yummy lunch and Karen brought her carrot cake which has given her numerous marriage proposals (I think Pete was one!) Sorry, Geri, I think this is better than your recipe which is over the top!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of them-could kick myself!  They'll just have to come back!

In Ditto Landing Marina, Huntsville, AL, we were neighbors with the Nina and Pinta traveling boat replicas that a gazillion kids came to see...most enjoyed it but some were looking for the Gift Shop...some things never change...sorry , kids, no gift shop in the marina!

Pete changing the oil

Bill from Monkey Girl waving goodbye after traveling with us for a week

Right now we're in Goose Pond Colony Marina in Scottsboro, Al, run by the city.  There's a championship golf course, amphitheater, restaurant, bait shop, pool and plenty of space for Buddy to run. The people (other boaters) have been very friendly and we'll have cocktails and dinner with them tonight.

Do they fry up the left over bait for chips?

Public docks at Goose Pond



Right now we're enjoying a gorgeous sunny day of 65 degree weather.  Combine that with being on the water and what could be better than that!  We do miss the New England Fall Foliage so you all enjoy that cause there's nothing prettier than those colors!


 

Land Between the Lakes

September20, 2010-September 22, 2010

The hot weather is killing us.  There's no breeze and it's 95 degrees every day.  We had such beautiful weather in Canada this summer that this heat is hard for us to take!

When you leave Green Turtle Bay, you have a choice of continuing down the Cumberland River toward Nashville which become Lake Barkley or use the Barkley Canal to Kentucky Lake.  We chose to explore Barkley Lake for a day before beginning our journey down the Tennessee River on the Kentucky Lake.  With no residents to gawk at, and only sandy shores with some limestone outcroppings, it was a ho hum ride.  We did see a building looming ahead of us that looked castle-like.  When we got closer, we discovered it was Kentucky State Penitentiary known as "The Castle on the Cumberland", Kentucky's only maximum security prison, built with stone from local quarries.

Castle on the Cumberland

Barkley Lake shoreline

We anchored near shore for a swim to try to cool off-it was a little nerve wracking to leave the channel since there are no soundings markings on either the paper or electronic charts so you are not sure how much water is under the boat until you get there and then it could be too late!  Pete sniffed his nautical nose and we were fine for a few hours.  We stayed at Barkley Lake State Park Marina for the night, a KY state facility that was attached to  a resort with an 18 hole golf course  We took a morning walk up to the resort complex and were impressed with the conference center and indoor pool complex-not bad for a state park!

Sunset at Barkley Lake Marina

The next day we backtracked up Barkley Lake back to the Barkley Canal.  The canal marks the northern end of the Land Between the Lakes (LBL) National Recreation Area.  It borders both the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River for about 40 miles.  This spine of land separating the two rivers is up to eight miles wide and is one of the Nation's largest inland peninsulas.  President Kennedy created LBL in 1963 as a recreational and environmental education area.

Barkley Canal

From the Barkley Canal we entered Kentucky Lake, part of the Tennessee River on which we will travel about 440 mile to Chattanooga, TN.  Because of the heat, we decided not to anchor out but to find a marina with electricity for the AC.  We stayed at Kenlake State Resort Park, another nice marina (except there are no shower facilities-what do you want for $22.50!)  As it's even too hot to cook and heat up or little galley and living quarters, we decided to catch a ride up to the resort restaurant and ate a yummy meal.  Our ride back was with the cutey Park Ranger.  When the waitress told us we'd ride back with the ranger, I thought she meant a Ford Ranger truck-not a real live ranger!

Our ride from the restaurant

Mt Dew everywhere-even outside Kenlake Marina bathrooms

Sunrise at Kenlake Marina in KY

Tonight we're at Paris Landing State Park Marina (with showers-yeah) in Tennessee, parked next to the Coast Guard facility.  We'll be going to dinner here too-can't wait to meet this ranger!

Enjoy your coolness!