Chatanooga Choo-choo

The trip through "the grand canyon of Tenessee" did not disappoint!Beautiful scenery and the weather held for us...chilly but sunny. We all "oohed and awed" our way down the river, snapping pictures along the way. Chatanooga is an amazing city and is going through a real estate boom!While the rest of the country is floundering, Tenessee is booming thanks to the "half-backs" the term for northerners who moved to Florida, and are now moving half way back because of hurricaines and high insurance costs in Florida.Chatanooga has redeveloped its waterfront with wonderful attractions, restaurants, new housing etc. The area is mountainous and known as "the boulder of the east" as white water rafting, hang gliding and all water sprots are available...who knew? The Brinkerhoffs were great guests and are back north, and our friends Shirley and John Sechrist also just left after spending 4 wonderul days with us. Last night we attended a "Looper" Halloween party here in Scottsboro Alabama...I made the costumes and thanks to a suggestion from Shirley, I went as a Christmas tree, and Tom was a mighty oak...can you even imagine the jokes pouring out of Tom...many of them concerned "nuts". We now head down the Tenn-Tom waterway within the next few days...trying to beat a lock closure on Nov 14th. We are learning that "the best plan is no plan"

"Down Home Cookin"

The rendezvous has ended and it was sad to see all the boats go off in different directions, however we plan to "hook-up" with our friends at points south.Today, our friends, Karen and Jim Brinckerhoff , from Barrington, arrive for our next river leg to Chatanooga. This is a 3 day trip loaded with beautiful scenery. We'll go through what they call "the grand canyon of the east".
Yesterday Tom and I borrowed a car and went shopping for food in the little town of Rogersville Alabama.We arrived right in the middle of the homecoming Parade, so of course we had to stay for that! Lots of floats, the homecoming court, marching bands etc. The schools get out early for the parade and the whole town was there! After the parade one of the locals urged us to have lunch at "Fat Cats"...Looked a little shakey from the outside but inside it was immaculate and interesting.The buffet was 1 fish (fried catfish)or meat portion, three veg (fried okra, black eyed peas) dessert and a beverage for $5.00. On the walls was a painted mural done by a local artist of various Rogersville buisnesses...the one that caught my eye was "the Alabama Dove release" available for weddings, funerals or special occassions. The grocery store had a whole section of every kind of bean or pea imagineable...the canned foods are even different..you can buy southern smothered potatoes in a can.There's a whole line of southern foods I knew nothing about!How many points on weight watchers do you think they'd add up to?The small towns are really nice and the people welcoming and genuine...how great that we have the time to get to know this area of the country.

"Once a realtor....

Yesterday at the "rendezvous" we had the first "trawler Crawl" which is an open house on your boat. Tom and I decided to have "Cloud Nine" on the first day of the crawl so we could get it over with and enjoy the rest of the boats without worrying about ours!So we cleaned, polished,de-cluttered and "staged"...yes, "staged"...we set the aft deck table, put out fowers, had good music on...all the things we do as realtors.We also took interior pictures so you could see the finished result of our interior re-hab. It's so much fun to go aboard all these boats because they're all so different from each other and each owner takes such pride in their boat!

Hi all...for some reason this site will not let me put on pictures...we're working on the problem so keep checking. Just a brief note on locking through Wilson Lock.Wilson is the 2nd highest lift in the United States at 93 feet....we locked through in two stages while being rafted to our friends boat. When we looked back the drop down was a "fer piece". We are currently at the Great Loop Cruisers Association rendezvous where were having seminars on topics like "cruising Florida's gulf coast" Cruising in the Bahamas" "Diesel Maintenance (Tom's all over that one). There's also one on "Cruising with Pets"...about 70 boats here and over 200 people. Were at Joe Wheeler State park in Rogersville Alabama and it is absolutely gorgeous. To see all these boats in one spot is really spectacular. The marina is on a wide creek surronded by trees providing a beautiful backdrop for all these boats. People are doing the loop in every size and kind of vessel imaginable. There are alot of sailboats this year (they take their mast down for part of the trip). The age range of the majority of "Loopers" is 50-75 on average. There are several younger couples (30-40) who we all call "the children". But we are all the same on the water!

Locking Through Wilson Lock

Hi all..thanks for your patience in awaitng a new entry. We are committed to keeping this blog current but sometimes the internet does not allow us. It is October 14th and we are awaiting entry in to Wilson Lock at Florence Alabama. On the other side of the lock is the rendezvous that we will be attending for the "America's great loop cruisers association" but getting through the lock will be an all day experience. The lock door was hit by a tow boat about a month ago and the lock tender will only take pleasure craft every third lock through..the huge commercial tows take precedence. There are over 100 boats attending the rendezvous so we have to queque up and await our turn...sounds easy but piloting around the huge lock doors is not easy. By the way, my hero , Tom is doing an amazing job captaining the boat. Below is an entry from a few days ago. The pics at right are of the snail squadron having a dock side pot luck, fog on the river at morning and various other pics, including the answer to everyone's question "where does Kodi go?"

Gorgeous day with sunny skies and winds out of the east at about 10-15k. We traveled with Julie and Gary (Room with a view) and Jeanne and Mike (Jeanne Marie). “ Room with a View” is a 36’ Grand Banks classic and “Jeanne Marie” is a 36’ Monk Classic. Both boats cruise about 7-8k, so we slowed down a bit and stayed with them. Julie named us the “Snail” squadron so from now on we are “Snail 3”. I love going slower..you see so much more and yesterday was the prettiest sight seeing day yet! This beautiful waterway is amazing with just the right mix of gorgeous homes and natural scenery. There are embayments (coves) everywhere if one had the time you could do serious “gunkholing”,(esploring small places) and never be bored. We also passed “Pilot Point” a 200’ hill that ship captains have used as a landmark for years. It’s also the place where a famous and unusual Civil war battle was fought in which the artillery defeated a navy! This is he only time in military history this has happened. For more on this battle look up Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. We stopped at Pebble Isle Marina..a very protected harbor. Tom and I went to Church and upon returning we saw three foxes being fed by people on an ATV! The Fox came right up to the ATV and frolicked in the grass. We ate dinner at the Marina restaurant and came out to find a full moon and a pack of coyotes HOWLING across the dark water! Tomorrow we’re off down river (actually up river as a tow boat captain reminded us today..we’re going south but the Tennessee river travels North.

A picture's worth a thousand words!

Treading Water

Treading Water
We’ve been here at Green Turtle Bay for four days. This is a huge marina/resort and a big meeting place for Loopers. There are about 15 looper boats here at the moment…many preparing for the trip to the Looper rendezvous, on the Tenessee River, at Wheeler State Park in Rogersville Alabama on October 16th. Green turtle Bay is an amazing place, another real surprise. It’s on Lake Cumberland which is part of the Kentucky Lakes chain.There are over 1,000 miles of shoreline on Lake Barkley alone. You can boat to any port in the world from this area, and even better you have thousands of miles of beautiful INLAND waterways to explore. This is part of both the Cumberland river and the Tenessee river with many smaller rivers as tributaries. If you went down the Cumberland for a week, you’d float past, Nashville, Tenn and into 2 huge lakes beyond…one is the home of the mansions of the country-Western stars from Nashville. It was our intent to travel down the Cumberland, but generator problems will keep us here at Green Turtle so we probably won’t have the time to make this side trip. Not a bad place to be stuck. GTB has everything! A huge marina, two restaurants, pool, tennis, ships store, beautiful grounds, condos, houses etc. There are houseboats here that are 120’ long by 22’wide. The big ones all cost between $1,000,000-$3,000,000! One of them is owned by the parents of a University of Kentucky basketball player, and on the top deck is a regulation height basketball hoop. The little town of Grand Rivers is cute and only a mile walk. We’ve been riding our collapsible bikes and are really happy with them. We continue to meet great people. Spent last night on board “champagne LuLu” with Linda and Roy from Sacramento and Patty and Robert from Montana. We will move on tomorrow (we think)

Slogging it Out!!!

This picture is of the Russian boat in one of the locks on the Mississippi. We keep seeing them on the rivers.
Now I understand the term “log Jam”! We left our cozy anchorage, made the turn from the Mississippi onto the Ohio and BAM! We were met by a fast moving deluge of “stuff”. There were actual trees racing down the river with some plastic bits bobbing along in the mix. Some boaters saw refrigerators and pieces of furniture. The current on the Ohio was 3 knots and our boat was going at a speed of 11.5 but our actual speed over ground was only 8.5k. We threaded through some narrow areas where you could have walked across on the logs..going so slowly with me as the lookout telling Tom “turn left, now right….It was like being a mine sweeper! We finally got past Paducah Ky and turned on to the peaceful Cumberland river…it was like Mayberry after New York City…We got to Barkley lock went through the lock and came out in to pitch black on big Lake Barkley…there were NO lighted channel markers so we were talked in to the marina by people on land…scarey and exhausting!!!! We tied up and went to bed (after taking poor little Kodi for a much needed walk. Miles travelled about 99 in 12.5 hours!