The Upper Tennessee River- Part III

The Wilson Lock is a biggie!

A lot of water creates turbulence

Inside the Joe Wheeler Lock

We left Florence and made our way to the Wilson Lock and Dam. Before we left the marina, we called the lock to find out the lock status. There wasn't anyone locking through, so we quickly left and made our way to the lock in about 15-20 minutes, and entered the lock shortly after our arrival. This was a huge lock and the largest lock east of the Rocky Mountains with a normal lift between 93-100 feet! Jane was beside herself, but we got through the lock and into Wilson Lake with no problem. We continued on Wilson Lake to Joe Wheeler State Park. We had received an e-mail from the Vernons that a boat named Cutie Girl from Panama City was also heading to Joe Wheeler. We entered the marina just behind another boat that turned out to be Cutie Girl. Aboard was Janet and Bert Honchell, and when we sent greetings from the Vernons, they helped us tie up. Also at the marina was Mary Frances IV, but they were out in their rental car when we arrived. We secured the boat and took a nap. That evening we had an unremarkable dinner at the lodge and turned in for the evening.

Happy hour on Cutie Girl

Sunrise at Joe Wheeler State Park

The next morning we got up and did some boat chores. Mary Frances IV came over and invited us to go to the Unclaimed Baggage Store, but we had decided to get the bikes down and get some exercise. We took off for Rogersville, AL in the afternoon, but after riding up some fairly tough hills and arriving at an intersection and discovering we still had 2-3 miles into town, we changed our minds and headed back to the marina to get cleaned up. Instead of exercising, we turned our attention to eating. We were invited to happy hour aboard Cutie Girl and had a great visit before returning to our boat and making a delicious grilled chicken fettuccine alfredo for supper. We watched another of Todd's movies and turned in for the evening.

Betcha didn't know!

Scenery going to Huntsville

We left Joe Wheeler the next morning and headed upstream. Along this section of the river, there is a lot of industrial development which was interesting but not very scenic. After we passed Decatur, AL the scenery started to get much more interesting with hilly to mountainous terrain and interesting rock formations along the banks. And the foliage was just beginning to show hints of the brilliant color changes that would occur. We arrived at Huntsville's municipal marina, Ditto Landing, and topped our tanks with fuel. The price was among the lowest we had seen on the river and our purchase entitled us to one free night's slip rental. Such a deal! We had some laundry and boat chores to do, so we ended up staying a second night.

Mountains, mist, and river

Painted Bluff on the Tennessee River

Jane and friend at Guntersville Lock

Vegetation on Guntersville Lake

Ray, Patsy, Jane, Ron and Jan

Shrimp and grits

We left Huntsville and made our way to the Guntersville Lock and Dam. This lock raised us up another 30 odd feet. Immediately upon entering Guntersville Lake, we noticed that many of the shallow areas were choked with excessive vegetation growth. We found it puzzling that this seemed to occur only on this one lake. While the islands of milfoil provided great fishing areas, it also made navigation a little more tricky than on the other lakes. We made our way to Goose Pond Marina and got tied up. The Goose Pond Colony is a major resort along the river with a golf course, marina, restaurant, cabins and lodging, and even a residential section. While we were debating what to do for dinner, we were visited by Ron and Jan Baysden from Jolly Tolly. They keep their boat at the marina and travel back and forth from the Atlanta area. They invited us to dinner the next night along with harbor hosts Ray and Patsy Whitney whom we met at our first mini-rendezvous at Port St. Joe, FL. Ray and Patsy had relocated to Scottsboro, AL and were now enjoying the river life. The resort's restaurant's signature dish was shrimp and grits, so we decided to give that a try. It was good, but Capt. Larry's version with his bacon-cheese pepper sauce and authentic Cajun andouille is a lot better. The next evening we enjoyed a barbecue buffet with the Baysden's and the Whitney's at a restaurant that was so far off the beaten path, it is doubtful any other loopers had been there. In fact, the Whitney's who guided us there had only been there once, but it was really worth the long drive to get there. We spent the rest of the weekend enjoying the football games and our hobbies, trying to restart our exercise program, and just relaxing.

Formations at Ruby Falls

Ruby Falls

Stalagmites at Ruby Falls

Who says that river cruising isn't affected by the weather. Our plan was to spend a couple of days at Goose Pond, then cruise on up to Chattanooga, but once again, major weather systems moving through this area caused us to reconsider. A major storm front moved into the area early in the week and the long range forecast was for stormy and rainy weather for the next 3-4 days. Since it was looking like we would be socked in at Goose Pond for a while, we decided to take advantage of their weekly rate. This delay would also require about 10 days for our trip to Chattanooga and back by boat. Because we were anxious to start back down stream and get on the Tenn-Tom waterway, we scrapped our plans to take the boat to Chattanooga and decided to rent a car and drive there. We got a car, packed our things and headed out in the rain. We drove to Chattanooga, checked into a motel, and Jane got another bubble bath. It was raining hard the next day which pretty much eliminated outdoor sightseeing, so we settled on visiting Lookout Mountain and Ruby Falls. Lookout Mountain didn't live up to its name that day, since fog and mist limited visibility. Ruby Falls is an underground waterfall in a limestone cavern. Since we would be dry, we took the tour which turned out to be more interesting that we thought it would be. The waterfall was discovered early in the 20th century during excavation to an entrance to another cave and became a major tourist attraction in the Chattanooga area. We had some lunch and then took a scenic route back to Goose Pond, passing several of the sites and marinas along the river that we would have seen by boat. We got back to the boat, greeted some newly arrived loopers, and had dinner on the boat.

Jane gets spaced out

Saturn V display

Space cadet Jane

Apollo space capsule

It was still raining the next day. Since we were going to turn the car in tomorrow, this would be the last day to go anywhere. We decided to head over to Huntsville, AL and visit the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. After a leisurely ride to the center, we viewed some of the exhibits, had lunch, and watched a movie in the I-MAX theater. The movie didn't work with Jane's vertigo and she started to get nauseated. After the movie we toured an exhibit that featured the Saturn V rocket and the chronological development of rocket engines at the Redstone Arsenal by Werner von Braun and his team. We drove back to Goose Pond in the rain and settled in for the night.

Cotton field and menacing sky

Sunset at Goose Pond