Pickwick Dam, TN to Demopolis, AL

Total Miles Traveled 518

The projected path of Hurricane Nate was very accurate, the major part of the storm passed east of us so we had very little wind and rain.  Anchored near the State Park marina gave us access to the marina and lodge.  We met several boaters and the marina harbormaster was a great guy to talk to. 

We slowly worked our way up the Tennessee River, anchoring a few times before reaching Florence Harbor Marina.

We were very fortunate for our grandchildren to be on Fall break all at the same time, and our son and daughter-in-law make the 6 hour trip by car to meet us at Florence.  Our grandchildren stayed on the boat with us for a week of sightseeing and fun.

It just so happened that Florence had a Family day at the park, located within walking distance from the marina.

  

Plenty of inflatable games for the kids to play on, and a scavenger hunt.  The person that could find  a special plastic coin on the beach would be rewarded a $25 gift certificate at Walmart.  We didn’t find the special coin but had fun trying to find it.

We decided to take our metal detector to the park the next day to see what the kids could find on the beach, they found lots of treasures, but not much in value.

Oh wait….are those old Civil War coins…no they are a couple of plastic coins missed during the scavenger hunt.

We rented a car and drove to Chattanooga Tennessee, our first stop was the Incline Railway at Lookout Mountain.  The Incline Railway, in operation since 1895, is the world’s steepest passenger railway in operation.

Our next adventure was the Tennessee Aquarium located along the Tennessee River at Chattanooga.  The aquarium is actually housed in two separate buildings, a fresh water building, and a saltwater building.  Both buildings are several stories tall, taking an escalator to the top and walking down a gradual ramp to the lower level around all of the exhibits.  This is one of the top rated aquariums in the country with more than 12,000 animals  representing almost 800 species.

After our trip to Chattanooga, we returned to the boat for a little relaxation, and managed to catch a few fish.

We still had the car so we decided to check out the Rattlesnake Saloon, located near Muscle Shoals, AL.  I had heard about this place last year when we visited Muscle Shoals so we thought it might be an interesting place to eat lunch.  When we arrived and parked the car, an old pickup truck drove up with a homemade sign that read “Rattlesnake Saloon Taxi”.  The kids thought this was great; we climbed into the back of the truck that had wooden benches made along each side.  As we traveled along a gravel road we made a sharp turn between two buildings then a steep decline along a rock bluff.  At the bottom of the hill was the Rattlesnake Saloon, located under the rock ledge of the bluff with seating inside or out.

 Yes those are real horses and riders.

On the way back from the Rattlesnake Saloon, we noticed a sign leading to the Coon Dog Cemetery.  We couldn’t resist and took the winding gravel road to another unplanned side trip. 

Well, all good things must come to an end and it was time for our family to return home.  We had a great week and I’m sure it will be one of the main highlights of our cruise this year.

We departed Florence October 23^rd and worked our way back to the entrance of the Tenn-Tom waterway.  Our first anchorage after entering the Tenn-Tom was Goat Island.  We anchored on the back side of the island for one night before entering the 25 mile divide cut and yes, there are goats on the island.  The divide cut is where the Tenn-Tom waterway was cut through the backbone of land to a depth of as much as 175 feet for a distance of nearly 25 miles.

We left our anchorage and entered our first lock.  To this point we have been about 411 feet above sea level; the Jamie Whitten Lock will drop us 84 feet, the fourth largest single lift lock in the United States.  The next 11 locks will lower us to sea level and tidal waters.

We stopped at the Columbus Mississippi Marina, and visited with our friends Charlie and Robin (their boat name is “The Lower Place”) who we crossed with to the Bahamas last year.  They picked us up and took us to their house, then to their church social that evening.  We had a great visit with them and meeting their friends.  They also drove us past the property they used to own which was called The Lower Place.  We are looking forward to seeing them again this winter in Florida.

We have been traveling by ourselves to Columbus, but found several boats leaving the morning of our departure.  We had six boats in our first lock, some fast, some slow, so between locks we settled out with two other boats, “Viridian” and “Sandman”.  We traveled through the locks and anchorages with them to Demopolis. 

I had intended to update our blog each week but have been a little behind since the last update.  I know it’s hard to understand that how can living on a boat be so time consuming  : )   Well it is, you should try it!