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.

St Louis to Green Turtle Bay, Kentucky

In one of our first blog postings describing our trip and the route we were taking, we referenced the western rivers of The Great Loop as the most challenging of the entire trip. Although we have had many challenges with wind, waves, weather, etc, the next 3 days of our trip down the Mississippi to the Ohio River to the Cumberland River was indeed the most challenging.
We departed Alton Marina early Tuesday, September 15th and met other loopers at the Melvin Price Lock just south of Alton. We now have a flotilla of 9 Looper Boats – “Mayalisa”, “Perfect Remedy”, “Meander”, “Rick ‘n Roll”, “Morningside”, “Sterling Lady”, “Riff Raff”, “Pookie II” – as we travel the ~300 miles to Green Turtle Bay Marina on The Cumberland River. The trip will take 4 days with limited resources (fuel, marinas, etc) along the way.
Having visited the arch over the weekend, we were thrilled to see this familiar structure from the waterway as we passed St. Louis. Unfortunately, there are no marinas or facilities in St. Louis for pleasure boaters to stop so we continued our journey to one of the most interesting “marinas” we will ever visit. Hoppies Marine Service is located at mile 158 on the Mississippi – 40+ miles from Alton Marina. Hoppies is a must stop not only because the next fuel stop is Green Turtle – 242 miles away – but is a great resource of information about the river. Hoppies is actually three very rusty 100 foot barges tied to the cliff with cables. Our “flotilla” arrived around 2:30 and took turns getting gas and tying up for the evening. The picture on the right is Hoppies with "Still Busy" tied to a barge on the inside. The barge we were rafted on had a leak and we heard the bilge pump emptying the barge ever hour or so all night. Hoppies is located at Kimmswick, a small village with very quaint shops, restaurants, and bakeries. We walked into town for shopping and arrived back in time for Hoppie and Fern to brief us on what to expect further down the river. This next picture is a "typical" sight on the Mississippi - barges, trains, industry. The picture to the right is an island on the river.

We decided to leave at first light on Wednesday with the intent of traveling 110 miles to our best anchorage out of the river at Little Diversion Channel – a narrow river that empties into the Mississippi. When we arrived at Diversion channel, we rafted in 2 groups – 5 in one and 4 in the other – some stern to stern. The current was not strong, we all settled for appetizers and drinks aboard and an early night. We are very encouraged by our fuel consumption as we are traveling with the flow behind us and have no doubt we can make the trip to Green Turtle for our next fuel stop.
The flotilla pulled anchor early on Thursday prepared for another long day on the River. Late morning, we turned off the Mississippi into the Ohio River. We have traveled over 200 miles on the Mississippi and will miss the current pushing us along as we now travel 50 miles up the Ohio with the current on our bow. We can feel the difference in GPS and water speed. We arrived at our first Ohio River lock mid afternoon and experienced the most difficult lock we have been in so far after ~150 locks. The lockmaster allowed us to lock through only if we don’t tie to the bollards and float in the middle of the chamber – 9 boats with 15 knot winds “floating” in the middle of the lock for almost 1 hour – a very exhausting experience! Here is a picture from our boat of all the boats "floating" in the lock. However, all passed the “bumper boat” test! When we arrived at our 2nd lock of the day, near Metropolis, Illinois, we were advised by the lockmaster to anchor below the lock for the night and we could all lock through in the morning. There were multiple barges and tows waiting in line to lock through and the lock will operate all night. The flotilla was able to find anchorage out of the channel and we all anchored separately after another long day of travel. We are now less than 50 miles to our weekend destination at Green Turtle Bay just north of Paducah.
Once again, the flotilla was up at first light to line up for our lock through - here is a picture of the flotilla as we waited for the lock at sunrise. When asked if we preferred to tie up to bollards or float in the middle we immediately reached a unanimous decision – all based on the previous days experience. We arrived at Green Turtle Bay Marina around 5 PM after fighting a lot of current on both the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers. In spite of the distance of 240 miles and the strong current after we left the Mississippi, we arrived with ample fuel. While at Green Turtle Bay, along with Betsy, Rick, Ron and Marji, we took advantage of the courtesy car and drove 26 miles back to Paducah to visit the Maritime Museum and the National Quilt Museum. Both were worth the trip. Paducah is trying very hard to be an “artsy” little rivertown and we enjoyed it very much.

The last 3 pictures are 1) Leaving the Mississippi into the Ohio Rivers, 2) Leaving the Ohio River into the Cumberland, and 3) arriving in Green Turtle Bay Marina after a long 3 days on the Rivers.
We now really look forward to traveling the short distance into the Tennessee River after spending the weekend at the marina on the Cumberland. In addition to the 9 boat flotilla, we were joined in Green Turtle over the weekend by 6 more looper boats as everyone is pacing to arrive at Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama for the looper rendezvous. Our original plan was to continue up the Cumberland River to Nashville but, because we would like to travel home early October, we plan on leaving Monday and taking our time for a 400 mile trip up the Tennessee River to Chattanooga where we will rent a car and drive home for a few days. When we return, we will backtrack 200 miles down the Tennessee River to Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama for the Looper Rendezvous in late October before traveling down the Tenn-Tom to Mobile.

Ottawa to St Louis - on the Mississippi

After a very enjoyable Labor Day at Heritage Marina near Ottawa, Illinois, we continued our journey down the Illinois River on Tuesday. At this point of the trip, there are not many choices for marinas nor good anchorages and proper planning is essential. Although we considered many anchorages along the way, we traveled over 70 miles because we were able to get a “slip” (tied to the gas dock) at The Illinois Valley Yacht Club for the night and joined fellow loopers “Pookie II”, “Rick and Roll”, and “Meander” for dinner across the railroad tracks at a local bar. The next morning, along with “Meander” we decided to bypass Peoria and continue our journey with the goal of reaching St. Louis for the weekend. The upper Illinois River is the least appealing part of our journey to date – very industrial with many barges – so we are looking forward to the Tennessee River in another few weeks! As stated in earlier posts, due to the Fish Barrier, it costs us $600 to be towed through the barrier created to keep Asian Carp out of Lake Michigan. Not only do Carp eat all vegetation and upset the environment, they also jump out of the water and are actually dangerous to boaters. (We witnessed a boater getting hit on the head by one!) When we arrived at our evening anchorage, we were very surprised to find a carp had landed in the dingy and joined us for a ride. Here is a picture of Jack holding our $600 Carp!

Our scheduled departure of 8 AM was delayed to after 9 due to heavy fog but we were still able to travel another 50+ miles to an anchorage behind Quiver Island at mile 121 (only 121 more miles to the Mississippi River). We joined Ron and Marji for appetizers on “Meander”, had dinner on “Still Busy”, and ran the generator so we could watch “America’s Got Talent” on the TV. Once again, due to heavy fog, our departure on Thursday was delayed until after 9 and but we still traveled to mile 46 (another 70+ mile day) to another anchorage at Buckhorn Island where we rafted with “Meander” for a pot luck dinner and early bedtime.
The lower Illinois River is much more appealing with less industry, fewer commercial barges, and trees and vegetation along the shore. This made for an easier trip on Friday. We arrived at the junction of the Illinois River and Mississippi River (mile 0 of the Illinois and 300 miles – 8 locks - from the Little Calamet River where we departed a week ago) mid-afternoon and were all amazed that we were at this junction of the trip. The “mighty” Mississippi River holds a lot of mystique and we were in awe. We continued for 15 miles to Alton Marina where we had reservations for the weekend. This is one of the nicest marinas we have ever seen – covered slips, new floating docks, swimming pool, hot tubs, and great shower facilities. A great place to stay for a few days and visit St. Louis. The next 3 pictures are our first view of The Mississippi as we departed the Illinois, rock cliffs on the River, and Alton Marina.

On Saturday, we rented a car for the weekend and drove the short distance into St Louis and spent the afternoon at the famous “Gateway to the West Arch” as well as an local art show near downtown. We also met some long time friends, Rick and Nanette Rice, for dinner at one of Jacks favorite restaurants in St Louis. Good food, good wine, great time reminiscing about our many memories together. The first picture is us at the top of the Arch and the next is dinner with the Rick and Nanette. On Sunday, we toured the “Lewis and Clark Museum” and did some much needed reprovisioning as we prepared to leave on Tuesday. Monday is devoted to maintenance day – change oil and filters, washing the boat inside and outside, etc. Once again, we look forward to continuing our trip but have really enjoyed the weekend in Alton and the St Louis area. We are 300 miles or so from Kentucky Lake and will slow down our journey at that point. Our plans are to travel up the Cumberland River for a side trip to Nashville as well as another side trip up the Tennessee River to Knoxville before reaching Mobile in early November.

Little Calumet to Ottawa, Illinois

We flew out of O’Hare on Friday, August 21st, for our return home. Hard to say this was a vacation since we are on a year long vacation but we did look forward to getting off the boat for a few weeks and visiting friends and family, especially our new grandchild. I guess one could say that this trip was a vacation from our vacation? Thanks to Jessica, our house was in perfect shape when we arrived home. On Saturday, we met many of “the crew” at Big Al’s for wings and beer at lunch and spent the remainder of the afternoon on the home dock visiting with friends. We marvelled at he heat and humidity...had not had any all summer !!!On Sunday, we traveled to south Charlotte for dinner at SouthPark Mall to celebrate Pia and Pia’s Mom Aili’s Birthdays. Great to be home for this event! The remainder of the week was spent working around the house, doctor’s appointments, visiting friends, etc, etc.
Jackie and Jackson came to the Lake on Friday for the weekend (the first picture is Jackson in the backyard and the 2nd picture is Jackson and Olivia) Jack's Mom, Sandra, and Ralph joined us on Saturday. Joe, Jen, Olivia, Bella (the dog) and Stella, along with Pia’s family - Mom, Juha, Laura, Nick, Kylie, Anna - visited on Sunday for a Griffin/Lehtela family event. This was our first chance to meet Stella and she is as beautiful as we had imagined. The next picture is Great Grandma Irene with new granddaughter Stella. Stella was born as we crossed Georgian Bay in July and we really looked forward to seeing her. We also look forward to sharing our memories with her of our day in the middle of the Bay when we heard she was finally here and her and Mom were fine. Thanks to Ron, Marji, John and Dottie for making this special day even more special.

Before we flew home on the 21st, we heard a Coast Guard broadcast on the VHF radio concerning a closure on the Illinois River due to an electrical “Carp Safety Zone” that had been established on the River to keep Asian Carp from swimming upstream to Lake Michigan due to the havoc the carp play on the environment. In effect, the Army Corp of Engineers, in order to keep Carp out of Lake Michigan, injects electrical current into the river as a deterrent to Asian Carp seeking cooler water upstream. This “Safety Zone” has been in effect for a few years but has not been as effective as planned so the Corp suddenly decided to increased the volts. Unfortunately, the effect of this increase on fiberglass boats had not been tested so the Coast Guard shut down the waterway until testing could be completed, essentially shutting down the Illinois River south of Chicago to pleasure boaters. We fully expected the situation to be resolved before our return but were surprised to learn that the River was still closed when we flew back on September 1st. However, a compromise was developed. Loopers could be towed through the Carp Safety Zone by a commercial tug at a cost of $600 per boat! Rather than waiting for this ridiculous policy to be changed (or waiting on the US Government agencies to make rational decisions), after gaining “permission” from the USCG, we departed Marine Services Marina on the Little Calumet River on September 4th to meet our tug “Buster White” for out tow beyond the safety zone. We arrived at 10 AM, tied to a coal barge (pictures above of Pia and Jack tied to the coal barger - dirty!) on the river waiting for our tow to arrive, rafted to the tow boat after signing a release that stated we would not sue the tow company if our boat exploded, paid our $600 ransom after disconnecting our battery cables, was towed the .7 mile journey, and were on our way to Joliet in 2 hours. We arrived at the town dock in Joliet (home of the prison that housed Al Capone) mid afternoon and were happy to beyond the fish zone. We joined Ron and Marji on “Meander” for cocktails and appetizers.
On Saturday, we departed Joliet for a 60 mile trip to Ottawa, Illinois for the Labor Day weekend. We joined other Loopers at Heritage Harbor marina, along with local boaters, for a great Labor Day weekend Some of the highlights were: Wii bowling (Pia won $45) and the 2nd annual Ducky Derby duck race along with music and dancing by a local band named The Mavriks. Loopers and local boaters all had a great time.
On Labor Day, we borrowed the courtesy car for a trip to Starved Rock State Park and an afternoon of hiking through the many trails overlooking the Illinois River. Beautiful rock(limestone) formations, and lush vegetation, the waterfalls, unfortunately, this time of year were somewhat dry, still beautiful! We joined 7 other Looper boats on the dock for a pot-luck dinner in the evening , the locals were gone, and we had the marina to ourselves!
We will leave in the AM for our continued trip. We should be in Peoria mid week. We enjoyed our “vacation home” but are happy to be back on the waterway! This final picture is Jack sitting on the bikes as we make our way down river - a leisure bike ride? ( Not much of a workout, but fun just the same !)..The passing boaters were somewhat confused !!!!

Milwaukee to Chicago to Charlotte

As mentioned in the previous post, we enjoyed the festivities in Milwaukee over the weekend. This first picture is the skyline of Milwaukee as we arrived on Friday. Also , in an earlier post, I have recapped our weekend “Irish Festival” festivities while in Milwaukee.

On Monday, August 17th, in HEAVY fog, we departed Milwaukee for a 45 mile trip to Winthrop Harbor on the Illinois/Wisconsin state line. All weather reports indicated that the fog would lift early morning and the sun would appear before noon. Using the GPS chartplotter and radar, we left the marina fully expecting the fog to lift “at any time”. How wrong the weather reports were and what a journey – we followed the radar all day and the most we saw was the nose of the bow! The picture at the right was taken as we departed the Milwaukee marina. It is essential to have great equipment at all times and especially at times like this - our trusty Garmin GPS led us all the way. Through heavy fog the entire trip, we finally arrived in Winthrop Harbor mid afternoon. I don’t think we were ever more relieved to be tied to the dock!
On Wednesday, the weather was perfect and the water was calm for our 40+ mile trip to Chicago, arriving early afternoon to our marina downtown. The next few pictures are of the Chicago skyline on our approach, the skyline with the Navy pier in the foreground, and the marina with sailboats on mooring balls. While in Chicago, we biked through the downtown area parks and river front, ate a Chicago deep pan pizza from Giordano’s, visited Soldier Field (home of the Chicago Bears), and enjoyed fireworks at the Navy Pier. A great visit to a great city!

Our flight to Charlotte is scheduled for Friday afternoon so we left the downtown marina in Chicago late morning Thursday for the short trip to a marina south of Chicago on the Little Calumet River.

These next 3 pictures are from the bow as we are coming out of the Chicago lock, are traveling on the Chicago River through downtown, and of an Amtrak bridge south of Chicago that we had to wait on so we could continue our short trip. We will leave “Still Busy” here for 11 days where she will get a much needed rest along with a wash, detail, and wax in preparation for the remainder of our journey. We have traveled almost 3000 miles since leaving Charleston in April and are now half way through the trip. This journey continues to far exceed our expectations! From Charleston, up the ICW through the Chesapeake, Atlantic Ocean, Hudson River, Lake Champlain, Richelieu/St Lawrence/Rideau/Trent Severn canals in Canada, Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan we have spent over 4 months on the trip and can only hope that the 2nd half of our journey is exciting and successful as the first half. After our trip home, we will once again provide updates to our journey down the inland rivers to the Gulf. Thanks for the comments on the blog and the emails we receive from those that have followed us all along. We enjoy hearing from you as much as you have stated you enjoy following our travels.