Joe Wheeler State Park to the Tenn-Tom Waterway

We made it back on the water after a very enjoyable few weeks at home. With many friends and family, we celebrated Jack’s 60th Birthday along with our 1st year wedding anniversary. Thanks to everyone that participated in making this a special time of celebration. This first picture is at our house at the party surrounded by good friends. The next picture is at one of our "hangouts" at home - Big Al's with wings and beer.

While home, we were able to spend time with the “Carolina Grandkids” – Jackson, Garrett, Grace, Olivia, and Stella. The next three pictures are Jackson, Garrett & Grace, and Olivia & Stella.

We are also able to keep in touch with the “Canadian Grandkids” – Keegan, Maija, Makenna, Ethan – via frequent webcams. It is hard to believe that it has been only one year since our entire family was together for the wedding and we are amazed at how much all our Grandkids have grown.
We drove back to the boat on Tuesday, October 20th after almost 3 weeks at home. It’s hard to believe how dirty a boat gets by sitting in a slip – even a covered slip – so we spent a couple of days cleaning and reprovisioning before moving “Still Busy” from Bay Hill Marina to Joe Wheeler State Park Marina – a distance of 10 miles down the Tennessee River - for the “Fall Loopers Rendezvous”, a yearly meeting of past, present, and future Loopers gathered to share experiences of the looping experience. With over 250 people in attendance, including 25+ “currently looping” Looper boats, we attended 3 days of sessions on what to expect in the final phase of our journey into the Gulf, around Florida and up the east coast. Based on what we learned at the meeting, we are really looking forward to the next phase of our adventure back in salt water and the challenges of tides and currents.
The rendezvous ended on Wednesday the 28th and we departed at 6:30 AM on Thursday, along with 12 looper boats (including “Dar Sea” and “Meander” that we have traveled with since Canada), in heavy rain. We back tracked through Wheeler and Wilson locks down the Tennessee River 60+ miles to the beginning of the Tenn-Tom waterway. In early October, we traveled this same route up the Tennessee River to Wilson Lake to leave the boat, return home and back to attend the Rendezvous. Wilson lock was once the world’s highest single lift lock but now ranks 6th in the US and is a challenge with 12 boats in heavy rain. We all made the trip safely and arrived at Grand Harbor Marina located at the junction of the Tennessee River and the Tenn-Tom late afternoon.
The Tenn-Tom Waterway is 450 miles and 12 locks, connecting the Tennessee River, via the Black Warrior River, to Mobile, Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico. Weather permitting, we should be in Mobile in 10 days to begin the trip around the “Big Bend” of Florida. As we get deeper into the Tenn-Tom we don’t expect much cell and Internet coverage but will try to keep the blog updated as much as possible. This final picture was taken, just before we left the Tennessee River to enter the Tenn-Tom, of a waterfall in a small anchorage off the river. We were impressed with the waterfall as well as the foliage of the early fall leaves. One of the prettiest sights we have seen since entering the western rivers.
As a final note – when we were home many friends expressed the desire to leave comments on the blog but wasn’t sure of how. For those that wish to leave a comment, the procedure is as follows:
· At the bottom of the posting, click on COMMENT
· Type your comment on the right side of the screen in the box provided
· Below the comment box, type the Word Verification as it appears
· Finally, check “Anonymous” and “Publish Your Comment”
We always enjoy reading your comments and look forward to hearing from all of you.

Tennessee River - Kentucky Lake to Wheller Lake, Alabama

At our last update, we had arrived at Green Turtle Bay Marina on the Cumberland River for the weekend of September 18th, 19th and 20th. As we submit this posting on October 6th, we are back in Charlotte for a planned visit home to celebrate Jack’s 60th Birthday on the 8th and our first anniversary on the 11th. It is great to be home to share these two events with family and friends this weekend. However, we will also miss sharing these events with our “looper” friends and look forward to seeing everyone at the upcoming Looper Rendezvous at the end of the month. When we continue our travels in late October after the rendezvous, we will provide another update to the blog as we travel down the Tenn-Tom to Mobile and the Gulf.

We departed Little Turtle Bay Marina and made a short trip down the Cumberland and turned to port to join the Tennessee River. The Tennessee River begins just north of Knoxville and flows 650+ miles to the Ohio River, flowing southwest through Tennessee into Northeast Alabama before turning north through western Tennessee into the Ohio River just north of Paducah. Our travels will take us up the Tennessee, past the beginning of the Tenn-Tom Waterway, 287 miles to Bay Hill Marina in Athens, Alabama. Because of the strong current created by a lot of rain recently, we once again changed our plans to travel to Chattanooga, deciding to leave the boat in Athens, rent a car for sightseeing in the area, travel to Charlotte, return to attend the rendezvous in Rogersville, Alabama before continuing our journey on the water.

We began our 287 mile trip up the Tennessee River departing Green Turtle Bay Marina on September 21st and made a short trip – less than 20 miles – to a great anchorage at Sugar Bay on Kentucky Lake. "Meander" decided to stay a few days in Sugar Bay as we departed early the next day. We will see Ron and Marji at the Rendezvous. The following 3 pictures were taken on our 2nd anchorage at Clay Bay on Tuesday evening. The first is "Still Busy" on anchor taken from the dingy before the rain storm shown in the 2nd picture followed by the 3rd picture of a beautiful rainbow following the storm. What can't be seen in this photo are the deer eating grass on the side of the water. One of the most beautiful scenes we have seen on the trip! (remember you can click on the picture to enlarge)

It is great to be back into “lak’n” for a change after all the rivers and canals we have experienced recently. Over the next week, we anchored 4 nights, stayed at 2 marinas before arriving at Bay Hill Marina on Wheeler Lake on September 28th where we rented a car for our local and home travels over the next few weeks.

Below is a recap of our journey over the last few weeks in pictures:

This next picture is us anchored at Double Isle, just off the river behind two islands with a barge traveling down the river. Know I know why we look for anchorages out of the waterway!

In Canada, we traveled with John and Dottie aboard "Dar Sea" and last saw them in Lake Michigan just before they left their boat to go home for a few weeks. We have traded many emails and voice mails trying to reconnect and they finally caught up with us on Friday in Clifton, Tn. This first picture is "Dar Sea" passing us at a marina and the 2nd picture is both of us anchored at Diamond Island on the River. In spite of the heavy current, we dropped the dingy and joined John and Dottie for cocktails and snacks and stories of grandkids. It is really great to see them and look forward to traveling with them again. After the Rendezvous, we hope to reconnect with "Meander" and "Dar Sea".

We arrived at Bay Hill Marina on Wheeler Lake on September 28th and, as mentioned earlier, used the rental car to explore the area including a day spent at the NASA Space Center in Huntsville as well as seeing downtown Huntsville. A great day of sightseeing. This next picture was taken at NASA and I couldn't resist posting it on the blog with the title "I Am Glad We Don't Live in a Yellow Submarine". Looks even smaller than "Still Busy".

We secured "Still Busy" and began our drive home on Friday, stopping first in Chattanooga and staying in a Marriott for the first time in a long time using some of the many Marriott points Jack accumulated over the years of business travel. In the afternoon, we visited the famous Chattanooga Aquarium and attended a Blue Grass Festival on Friday night. Before leaving on Saturday, we also visited the "more famous" Chattanooga Choo-Choo before driving to Asheville, NC through the mountains. Once again, we used points to stay at the Marriott downtown Asheville and visited one of the largest single family homes in the US on Sunday - The Biltmore House.