Going Downstream- Tennessee River Part IV

Starting to get colorful

Scenery along Wheeler Lake

After spending a 9 days in Goose Pond, it was time to move on. We left early on a Saturday morning to make our way back to Ditto Landing Marina at Huntsville. Most of the scenery was a repeat of what we saw earlier, it was just a little more colorful. We locked through the Guntersville Lock immediately upon our arrival and then proceeded on to Ditto Landing. We listened to LSU and other college teams play on satellite radio and we fairly satisfied with the outcomes of most of the games. For supper we had a pizza delivered to the boat. We watched some TV and then called it a day.

More Wheeler Lake scenery

Nuclear power plant discharge

Ready for dinner

Let's eat!

The next morning we left early again to go to Bayview Marina at Athens, AL. At Bayview we would hook up with our friends Roy and Elvie Short aboard Roy El. We first met Roy and Elvie at a mini-rendezvous at Port St. Joe, FL two years ago, and have maintained close contact with them ever since. We had an added benefit to go into Bayview as we were going to go into a free, covered slip that was provided by another looper who were moving their boat. It's all good, baby! We got the boat secured and were invited to Roy El for happy hour, some football games on TV, and dinner. The next day Jane and Elvie took off to Athens to do some shopping. It's a wonder Roy and Capt. Larry have any money left as they left at 10:00 a.m and didn't return until 5:00 p.m. We were again invited to dinner aboard Roy El, after which we watched Monday Night Football. We left around half-time and turned in for the evening. The next morning Jane and Elvie went walking and then off shopping again. Capt. Larry remained on board and started preparing the evening meal of smoked tuna dip, grilled marinated chicken breasts, bean salad, and dirty rice. Roy and Elvie joined us for dinner, then we went to Roy El to watch the Republican debate (Bavarian Cream really needs a satellite TV dish!) and have dessert.

Getting together on Seemoore

With Dave and Joyce on Joysea

The next day we all piled into Roy and Elvie's car and took a scenic ride over to Decatur, AL to have lunch with Carlton and Becky Moore aboard Seamoore. We had first met Carlton and Becky at Port St. Joe a couple of years ago, and spent time with them last spring in Fort Pierce and Titusville. The Moores had just completed the loop and we were excited to see them again. We all went to a seafood restaurant for an extended lunch, an exchange of stories, and a loop completion celebration. It was a great visit. The next day we took Roy and Elvie to lunch at a really great mexican restaurant, and they took us over to Joe Wheeler State Park to meet some of the loopers who were there for the rendezvous. When we got to Joe Wheeler we were able to meet back up with Dave and Joyce Johnson aboard Joysea. We had first met Dave and Joyce at Sylvan Beach on the Erie Canal. Joyce had a medical issue while in Canada and had to leave the boat, and we met Dave again in Leland, MI and ran with him down to Grandhaven. It was good to see them reunited on Joysea and ready to move on. We talked about our schedules and determined that we were both open to running down the Tenn-Tom together later in the week. We walked past the rest of the transient slips and saw several boats that we had seen at one time or another in various locations. We spotted our good friends Lace and Dick Lacey aboard Confetti, but they were anchored out in the creek and we didn't have their phone number with us to call them to dingy over to the transient dock. Roy took us on a scenic ride back to the boat after a short stop in Rogersville for the ladies to grab some necessary items.

Dinner on Roy El'

Jane's decorated cake

The weekend started early when Roy and Elvie took us to a hamburger joint called Geez Burger for lunch. The hamburgers were some of the best we have had on the trip. Since Roy and Elvie's cell phone had just died, we did a side trip to Athens so they could visit a phone store. Jane found a second-hand store next door and took off to see what bargains she could find (and she ALWAYS finds bargains!). We returned to Bavarian Cream and had dinner and watched one of Todd's weirder movies. Saturday was our last day in Bay Hill and we got out to do some walking for exercise. Unfortunately, Capt. Larry overdid it and his knees were revolting. Roy and Elvie had two couples from their home state of North Carolina arriving, so a pot luck was in store for dinner. While Roy and Elvie went to Huntsville to pick up one couple, Capt. Larry and Jane started their cooking and went over to Roy El' to watch some of the LSU vs. Auburn game. LSU was victorious and we ended up with chicken and sausage jambalaya, homemade herbed-cheese bread, and a decorated chocolate cake thanks to Jane. We all got together aboard Roy El' and had a great evening. We ended the evening saying goodbye to  everyone and returned to the boat to turn in.

Happy hour with the Howards and Johnsons

Trading stories

Quite the ladies' man, Dave!

Docktails with a view

With the Symes

We left Bayview Marina and headed for Florence, AL again. We were delayed at the Joe Wheeler Lock for about 45 minutes, and again at the Wilson Lock for about another hour. This delayed our getting into Florence until mid-afternoon. We kicked back and listened to the Saints loose to Tampa Bay and then had dinner on the boat. The next afternoon Joysea showed up followed by Greg and Donna Howard on Lady in Red whom we met in Bayview Marina. We had happy hour on the marina dock and enjoyed sharing lies and libations, and then everyone came aboard Bavarian Cream for dinner. Capt. Larry tried a new recipe for Brunswick stew which everyone enjoyed. We took Dave and Joyce to Helen Keller's birthplace the next day and did a quick run to the grocery and liquor stores. Happy hour was aboard Lady in Red and then we all took the courtesy car to a nearby Italian restaurant for dinner where we were joined by the marina manager, Eva, and her daughter.

Dinner in downtown Florence

As we were entering the restaurant we ran into the Canadian couple, Alan and Susann Syme, from the boat Kaos that we had met at the spring rendezvous last year in Myrtle Beach. Talk about a small world! It was a delightful evening.

We left Florence the following day with Joysea and Lady in Red and made our way to Grand Harbor Marina in Counce, TN and the start of the Tennessee-Tom Bigbee (Tenn-Tom) waterway. The Tenn-Tom and the Black Warrior and Mobile Rivers will eventually take us to Mobile where we will complete our loop. Lady in Red continued a short distance to another marina that had repair services to get a minor engine problem fixed. Joysea hosted happy hour and we were joined by two other looper boats. We celebrated the end of our travels on the Tennessee River and look forward to the final segment of our journey.

What are these things??

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

Football, Muscle Shoals Music, Helen Keller and Dead Coon Dogs- Tennessee River Part II

Looper happy hour on the dock

After our water hose incident, we were met by Fred and Julaine Eddy of Boreas. We all decided to have lunch together at the marina restaurant. They were waiting for the arrival of Brandy IV later that day, and the two boats would then head to Joe Wheeler State Park and on up the Tennessee. We stayed at the restaurant and watched Alabama beat Arkansas which made the partisan crowd really happy. We returned to the boat and listened to some other football games on the satellite radio. Around suppertime we went back to the restaurant to see if we could watch LSU play West Virginia. LSU ranks high on many Alabamian teams to watch (probably because we sent them Nick Saban!) and we were able to get a TV turned to the game. We ordered a pizza and some beers and settled in to watch the game. At half-time a musician started to set up next to the big screened TV, and started playing at the start of the third quarter. A lot of famous musicians have recorded in the Muscle Shoals studios because of the wealth of studio musicians that exist in the area. We were treated to some really fine guitar playing and interesting original compositions. We listened to the music and watched the game until LSU was victorious, then said goodnight to everyone and headed back to the boat.

The next morning we got up and took the marina's courtesy car to a Cracker Barrel restaurant for breakfast, then for a run to Wal-Mart. We returned just in time to catch the Saints football game on the restaurant's big screen TV. Larry Valentine wandered by and we shared some beers, talked football, and watched the Saints win (not very glamorously though!). We were invited to Lauren Grace for happy hour and the celebration of some Valentine friend's 47th wedding anniversary. We returned to the boat, had supper, and listened to some more football before finally turning in.

Ivy Green, Helen Keller's birthplace

At Ivy Green

Helen Keller memorabilia

More memorabilia

Dresses worn by Helen Keller

Water pump where Helen acquired language

The next day we awoke to a fairly steady rain. We needed to do some laundry and the marina's machine was acting up, so we took the courtesy van and found a laundromat (or as Jane says a washeteria!). We arrived back at the marina as the weather was starting to clear. We had lunch and decided that it was going to be a nice afternoon. We needed some items for some chili that we wanted to make for the Monday night football game, and took the van out again. This time however, instead of going into Florence, we crossed the river into Muscle Shoals. As we looked for a grocery store we saw a sign pointing to Ivy Green, the birthplace of Helen Keller. We called the museum and found it was open and we could probably squeeze a tour in before we had to return the car. The grounds have been very well preserved and the memorabilia and furnishings were impressive. While we were both familiar with the Helen Keller story, neither of us had any idea that the lady was so accomplished. She wrote 14 books which were translated into 50 languages, graduated cum laude from Radcliffe (the first deaf and blind person to do so), led a distinguished campaign that championed the eradication of preventable blindness, and was a very vocal advocate for the needs of people that shared her handicaps. Reviewing her accomplishments, it's difficult to envision her as handicapped in any way. Her life was the inspiration for the Lions International service project for the blind. We left Ivy Green and found a grocery store and returned to the boat to make our chili. Yes, it was delicious!

This way to the Coon Dog Cemetery

Troop's grave started it all in 1937

The only one of its kind!

Coon dog graves

A homemade marker

A fancy marker

We now go from the sublime to the singular, bordering on the bizarre. We learned from the Valentines about the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard, located just outside Tuscumbia, AL. Established in 1937 when Key Underwood buried his coon dog Troop here, the cemetery accepts only authentic coon dogs that must pass certain criteria in order to be buried there. With over 185 coon dog burials from all over the world, the site is interesting to say the least. Grave markers range from homemade wood and metal markers to engraved, polished granite headstones. Many of the markers lists the coon dog's accomplishments such as how many raccoons they treed during their lifetime, or how many awards they won in competitions. What we also found interesting was that every grave was adorned with a flower arrangement and many sported American flags. There is no question that the grounds are routinely maintained. The cemetery is located in the rural hills of north Alabama, an absolutely beautiful and scenic area.

We say goodbye to the Valentines

Jambalaya Larry

We spent what we thought was going to be our last day in Florence doing some boat chores. Jane was treated to an all girls lunch with the marina manager then ran some errands with her, returning to the boat around mid-afternoon. Theresa Valentine was flying out to attend a meeting and dropped by to say goodbye. We invited Larry over for dinner since he would be spending the evening by himself. We were cooking a jambalaya and Jane called the marina manager over to give her one of her paintings. When we mentioned that we were leaving in the morning she told us that she was sure that she had us down through tomorrow. We were pretty sure this wasn't right, but she was insistent so we thought, what the heck, we'll stay another day that's free! Larry Valentine came over for dinner and we had some after dinner drinks on the cockpit of Bavarian Cream for a couple of hours. Capt. Larry had baked a fresh loaf of bread to go with the jambalaya. He gave the remaining half loaf to the crew on the sailboat from Sweden that was berthed next to us (not all sail boaters are assholes!) as part of his baked-bread diplomacy. It was a real hit with them as everyone kept telling him how good it was all evening and the next morning. We turned in on a cool fall evening that would make for good sleeping.

A freshwater "croc" caught by the marina staff