#11 Sept. 11 - 16

We left our little anchorage of the 10th and headed up river. Here we are approaching Wilson lock. It is the THIRD largest lift lock in the world.  I know you are getting a little bored with these lock pictures but if you could experience it  --  you would be as awe struck as we are.  These locks and dams are an engineering phenomenon.

That is a 21 ft pleasure craft about to exit as we are going in!!!

Each one of those lines represents 5 foot. Count them.  We were lifted 93 feet!  The holdback of this lock creates Wilson Lake. As the Kentucky dam creates Kentucky Lake, Pickwick Dam creates Pickwick Lake.

Pretty impressive overwhelming sensation inside one of these behemoths, especially when you are alone.  Notice the water roiling behind us as the water rushes in.

This is not a swing gate to let us out.  The picture where I suggested counting the lines? Well, this is that wall and it just slides down into the water, walkway railings and all.  A horn signals us when it is safe to exit.

Again, the view leaving these locks is a totally different look. I think this dam is over 7000 feet from bank to bank.

6 miles up the river/Lake Wilson we encounter Wheeler lock and Dam. We only got a ride up of 57 feet. You can see a highway bridge that was built right over the dam.

Wheeler Lock and dam from 3 miles away. Now are you beginning to see the enormous fete of building these structures. They have created navigable commercial waterways from the interior to the Gulf. If these dams were not here, these great rivers would be only 4 to 10 foot deep!

Here is what our chart plotter showed us.  The dark black line is a "flooded submerged bridge"! and the area is also a "flooded timber" area.  The original riverbed is within the darker lines on the chart.

The next few days, after stopping at Joe Wheeler State Park Marina for fuel and to check on our reservation for leaving the boat for a couple weeks while we fly home;   we just picked nice little anchorages and then ended up in Decatur, Alabama at Riverwalk Marina. Spent two days there just scubbing the water line and washing the boat and other chores.  Carlton and Becky Moore, Gold Loopers (Gold Loopers are those who have completted the loop) came around and befriended us.  Offered to take us to anywhere we wanted to go.  Very gracious and kind and interesting folks.  Another couple to put on our special friendly list.  

16th.  Only went 17 miles today. Found this little river inlet at the town of Triana and tied to the dock at their boat dock ramps. I walked up into town to the library to use internet and get this blog out.  Hate to let too many days go by.
Huntsville is only 20 miles up river where we will meet our friends Pam and Bruce Fritz on the 21st. So we have a few days to just play "Lazy River".  Maybe we'll just hang out here another day.  It is so peaceful!

#10 Sept 5 - Sept 10th

These next few days we anchored in little inlets or behind islands along the river. Here are some scenes we observed along the way.

An abandoned Dock. This dock was busy and accessible before they damned the river.

Cypress trees spreading their roots deep in the ground t o secure their spot when things get a little dicey in the spring and during floods.

This particular anchorage Densons Island MM125 gave us a little trouble the next morning. The River channel is on the left and the anchorage behind the island on the right; but, it was 40 foot deep. we wanted a little shallower due to  current etc. So we positioned ourselves at the end of the island. Next morning we discovered we had hooked a huge dead tree and NOT the bottom. Half an hour of wrestling we escaped. The chain was wrapped around this tree better than Bill could have done if he wanted to drag it home. Of course, I didn't get a picture!

Oh Wow!! Pickwick Lock and Dam! MM206.7 Holding back the Tennessee River some 63 feet; we are a mile away.

 

The chamber is 1000 feet long and we are moored to its side in the middle.  Pretty intimidating!
We will pass through Wilson Dam in the next few days and it has a lift of 93 ft!!!!

We continued up the River to the entrance to Yellow Creek at Tennessee River MileMarker 215 and turned right into the Tenn-Tom waterway which was Tenn-Tom MM450. We went at far as MM457 to an inlet for anchor on the 8th Monday.

Our plan for the 9th and 10th is to tour all the historical sites at Corinth, Shiloh where the first most strategic battles of the Civil War took place. Grand Harbor Marina lent us their car.  

Ice Cream anyone?

We visited Corinth, the site of the Siege and Battle involving "the Crossroads"; rail lines East and West from Memphis to Charleston on the Atlantic and North South from the Ohio River to Mobile Alabama. These rail roads were vital backbone of the Confederate States for supplies and moving troops. The Union forces set out to take control and cut off their supplies.

While we were at the actual crossroads a train went by . . . .

and not two minutes later one went by on the other track.

In 1861 there were two lines of rails each way.  In those days they did not have side or switch tracks.
Battles at Corinth handed occuation back and forth until the Union succeeded/

A bonus at the Corinth Museum was a Coca-Cola museum. One of only 70 independently owned and operated bottling facilities licensed by Coca-Cola. Although they don't bottle anymore, they do service many vending methods.

On the 10th we borrowed the Marina Van again and traveled to Shiloh. I can't begin to explain how impressive the displays and the Battlefield affected us.  It was very interesting and at the same time, very depressing. As many as 200,000 men from different convictions fought violent, bloody battles. At that time there were 34 United States. 11 of those States wanted secession from the Union. Regiments from Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan were heavily involved in the Union advances.

This monument was erected by the State of Michigan. I think you should be able to enlarge it to read the plaque.

Thought my brother Mark would enjoy this picture.  He is very involved in keeping the music and history of Fife and Drum Corps alive and teaching an appreciation of Military Music.

"Catfish Hotel"
We ended our day of History with a supper of Catfish (our second, and it was better than the first) before doing a little shopping and heading back to the Marina.

We will return to the Tennessee River tomorrow and travel upstream to eventually meet up with friends in Huntsville, and then to Joe Wheeler State Park where we will leave the boat and fly home for a few weeks.

#9 Sept 1 through 4

Another beautiful day. and very warm.  Labor day and everyone is out on the river; tubing, skiing, boarding, anchored soaking up the sun; speeding up and down, Sometimes it appears they are anchored right in the fairway. Our first stop this day was the Riverside Restaurant for their famous Catfish!! We tied to their courtesy dock and enjoyed our first!
Not bad, we will order it again.
We traveled about 50 miles today.  We like to plan just 40. moving along at about 8 mph. We can have a leisurely start and be settled at Marina or anchorage by middle of afternoon. Care must be taken to stay between the buoys; the river twists and turns and although the waters reach far and wide and appears to be a lake - it is not! The areas beyond the buoys are basically flooded bottom land fraught with stumps, trees and other such stuff. Only the locals have been seen traversing across the waters and their boats are very flat bottom, shallow draft craft.

On the way we passed this barge building establishment. When we passed on our way to Nashville we saw them working on the one behind . The barge in the foreground had been rolled out of the big blue paint shed and is ready for launch and delivery.  Sure would like to see that behemoth hit the water!

Clarksville City Dock for the night.  Strange, nobody, no boaters around.  Bill walked up and got us a Fried Chicken Dinner.  Even though right on the river it was pretty peaceful.  Bill mentioned that there were tows going by all night and created a little swell. I didn't  feel or hear a thing.

All along the river there are establishments for loading the barges. This particular one is picking the gravel or sand from the barge and putting it in the hopper where it is conveyed to various piles on shore. One has to wonder if another set of barges come along and they load those piles in them??

Our anchorage for the evening on the 2nd was up Hickman Creek.  And yes, that is Bill preparing to grill pork chops for supper.  My little screen invention has worked great.  We can sit on the back deck and watch the sunset and watch the little critters trying to get in!

This is our anchorage on the 3rd after a very peaceful run down the river.  I think we had cheese, crackers and beer for supper this night!  Ha!

By and large, this is the view from the Pilot House as we cruise this river.  We will be in Green Turtle Marina this evening; near Barkley Lock and Dam on Barkley Lake.
When we arrived there were three other Loopers here.  One, started in May from Lake Mary Florida!!! Get that? Florida. They are heading home and will complete their Loop pretty soon.  They have twin 300 outboards on their sport fish boat; travel at speeds of 30mph and up!!! Guess we can't buddy boat  with them. The second couple from Ontario,Canada is heading up the Cumberland to Nashville and will leave their boat  till next season. The third couple are from Washington State. Trailered their boat to Peoria 2 years ago, completed their Loop this year and are going around again to catch the Bahamas and all the other places they missed.
There is such a varied mix of folks doing their thing!  What fun to meet them and there is not one we haven't enjoyed.

Our next venture will be to leave here and take the Barkley Cut from the Cumberland River to the Tennessee River. heading South to Pickwick Lock and Dam. We will be in an area where they say we can go to the top of a hill and see the States of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. Also the countryside is where many Civil War Battles were fought and won or lost, depending on which side you were on. We hope to spend a few days exploring the History of the area that played a great part in our countries growth. History is soooo much more fun this way!

#8 Nashville

August 30th We started the day with a taxi to the Visitors center then did the "Hop on/off Trolley" tour. Well worth the price of admission to see the whole city and get more history than we could on our own.

Nope you are not in Greece! This replica of the Parthenon was built for the 100th anniversary of Statehood of Tennessee.  I missed the reason "why" it was built!

Architecturally unique train station built in the early 1900's

This is the 'marina' downtown Nashville. Glad we opted for the Rock Harbor Marina outside town.  Not secure and wakes of passing tows and boats cause excessive movement.

Never saw anything like this!  Here is a Bachelorette party having a ball! Oh yes, they are drinking! I don't think they are really pedalling to move the thing.  There were several of these running around the town. Also, many other Bachlorette parties strolling around town. Each group had some identity. Hats, shirts, scarves, or T-shirts.

of the three Honky Tonks we visited, this fellow was the best. We were there in afternoon, and chose this place since it was less crowded.  Really, most of the places are kind of dumpy!  That's what Bill thought, I suggested that at night when there is standing room only in these establishments -- nobody notices!

Corner of Broadway and 5th. A vision of contrast. Broadway is preserved as the Honky Tonk Avenue. All around there are sleek modern buildings 

ALL my heros!

The Grand Ole Opry! What a great show! This is just before the doors opened to let the throngs in front of us get in to their seats.  In fact, it was a sell-out and Bill and I had to buy single seats  apart.  In the same section anyway. It was a great day!

Torrential rains hit Nashville area while we were in the show. So much so that flash flood warnings were issued before the show was over! Fortunately, it subsided to sprinkles while we traveled back to the boat. During the night it rained heavily again.  This means the River will be running strong and that in itself is not so bad, but the inlets that we may want to anchor in will be much worse and possibly lots of flotsam. So we are hanging out here today and spend a little time with some other Loopers here at the Marina.We will get a lot of information from them also.
Our plan is to head back down the Cumberland to the Barkley Cut that connects the Cumberland River to the Tennessee River. And then -- explore some more!

#7 August 27th - 30th

August 27th after topping off our fuel and saying Goodbye to our friends we headed out to explore the Cumberland River on our way to Nashville. The first night we traveled up the Little River to an anchorage off the Lake Barkley State Park. It was 2 and a half miles off the Main river. Very quiet and secluded behind an Island. We swam to get cool but found the water to be extremely warm.  Hardly worth the effort!  No pictures.
August 29th we traveled up the river to Clarksville TN's new marina pictured above.  An amazing fact about all these marinas we have visited.  Virtually ALL of the structures and docks are built to float. As much as 30 feet when the river decides to rise to such levels.  Yes, even the Marina office at the extreme left of the picture floats.

Exceptional campground maintained by the Corps of Engineers along this portion of river. 

Extends about a mile.  Playgrounds, picnic areas, spacious campsites. They are filling up for the Labor Day Weekend.

Notice the tree caught by the bouy?  We see a lot of this on these rivers. Must keep a vigilant eye.

Most of the time this is what we see. Yes, sometimes it gets little boring but not for long. There are many water birds, a few wrecked boats along the shore, fishermen, and twists and turns. Speaking of twists and turns, it is amazing how the river turns, then switches back practically the way it came.  For example, although Rock Harbor Marina is only 8 miles from Nashville by car -- it is 16 miles  by River. 

This is the only ferry still working on the . Cumberland.

At the moment we are docked at Rock Harbor Marina about 8 miles from Nashville. This marina is built in an old stone quarry and like all the others, it floats.  Even the Blue Moon Restaurant where we made it just in time for Happy Hour.
The buildings are built on  barges. It is quite a fete!

Aug. 30th    This particular blog, I''m afraid is a little boring since I was very lax in taking pictures.  But we are all cleaned up and ready to DO Nashville.  We are going to take a taxi into town around 11 for some sightseeing and then we have tickets for the Grand Ole Opry this evening.  Of course, we hope to get a little "honkey tonkin" in as well. Maybe we will see the next big group that will make it big in the Country Music world.

#6 8/22 - 8/23, 24, 25th

Finally the Ohio River.  Actually wider than the Mississippi, Much cleaner, not a lot of debris floating at us. And the banks are green with little dead and driftwood on her banks.  The current is now against us but we are cruising at a comfortable 7 miles an hour without a tremendous increase in fuel consumption. Actually, we are enjoying the Ohio much more than the Mississippi or the Illinois.  It is much more serene and I did mention she is MUCH cleaner.  There are no less tows to contend with though.  There are many; and hundreds of barges parked along the banks waiting to be hooked up and head down the River.

This is the infamous Lock 53 where there is sometimes 3 1/2 days wait for the tows to be locked through.  They have two chambers but one is down and being repaired.  We anchored just 3 miles south of the lock last night in Metropolis, Illinois. (the home of Superman)  We called the lock and much to our surprise the Lockmaster told us to be at the lock at 8 am and he would see that we were locked up by 10.  

As we rose in the lock we could see over the wall at the dam. This particular dam is called a 'wicket dam'. panels made of wood that are raised and lowered as needed to control the water flow.  When the river is high (which would be almost over the wall that you see) they lower those wickets and tows and boats just cruise right over them.The depths when these wickets are down are probably never more than 18 ft.

We only cruised on the Ohio about 50 miles to the Cumberland River. The Cumberland was almost as serene as the Ohio but much smaller and we only met one tow.  It was the most boring 33 miles of the entire trip so far. Bill says it was like watching paint dry.  Well, when we approached this dam we woke up.  It was HUGE! The boat entering the lock on the right side of the picture is our friends in their 45 ft Cruiser.  This lock raises us 57 ft to the level of Lake Barkley. Lake Barkley was formed by the Tennessee Valley Authority many years ago when they built this dam and the Kentucky Lake Dam and flooded two valleys in Kentucky and Tennessee. It created the "Land Between the Lakes" which has become a recreational mecca for folks many miles around.   At the time of its inception there was a lot of controversy because it misplaced, towns, communities, farms and people. 

One mile after the lock we turned into Green Turtle Marina.  It is the largest marina I have ever seen. 500 slips, some covered. There are Condos, 2 swimming pools, a full service spa and fitness center. Playgrounds, Recreation areas, golf cart rentals, restroom suites, Laundry, Fax & copying services, Courtesy Van and very helpful and pleasant staff.

We could not believe how many sailboats were here. And big ones too.  Found out that since Lake Barkley, although big in area is rather shallow out of the channel of the Cumberland River. So, they go a few miles south to the Barkley Cut, 2 1/2 miles long, into the Tennessee River and Kentucky Lake which is evidently deeper.

I am standing up by one of the pools overlooking the Yacht Club. We three couples ate her the night we arrived. Took our own drinks as this county is DRY!!! and they sold us the set-ups and Dinner was great.

Here we are, Darrf V, Time-Out and Simpatico

Rolfe and Harriet Wall, Connie, Arline, Bill and Ray Cutro
We were all a little weary from our journey and the previous days of negotiating tows and locks. We won't be encountering those obstacles for another 100 miles or so. So we just relaxed, enjoyed a good meal and the comaraderie. Really nice folks, and its fun to travel together.


Aug 24th Bill and I Gave Simpatico a good bath. Scrubbed from top to bottom. The water line was black and greasy and brown stained from the muddy Mississippi. The boat actually had a "mustache" on  her bow.  Were worried it would notcome off easily.  But I used this great product "Awesome" from the Dollar Store.  Yep, the Dollar Store!  I have not found it anywhere else.  Its an all natural product and is gentle on paint, wood etc. And it is CHEAP!
Next  on the agenda was to change the Engine oil and filter. We have traveled more than 237 hours and want to make sure all is healthy in the Power department.

I guess I haven't really addressed how we like our new boat!  It is perfect! I am used to the alcohol/electric stove and Bill has not one thing that he finds wrong with this little vessel. She continues to amaze us; how efficient in fuel consumption (always a power boaters worry),  ease of handling, comfortable sleeping, air conditioning. Speaking of air conditioning --- the last week has been in the 90's!! Wow, I guess we ARE heading South!

25th of August - -  Today, we met our friends at 9 am at the Gazebo. Rolfe got the keys to the Courtesy Van and Off to Metropolis we went. And here is what we saw!

the "Museum"

Oops! Gotta sell some more stuff so I can fix the truck!

Wow! do we look good???

After Metropolis we headed back to Paducah to stroll downtown, peruse many antique shops and had lunch at Barbeque on the River. Then off to do some much needed Grocery shopping. We hit Sam's club first, then Walmart, then the Liquor Store. I know, a dry County, right?  Well, this particular one is 'right on the edge'.  :) Don't dare run out of rum!