Arrived at our first Tennessee Destination: Chattanooga

We promised earlier to post some more pics/videos of the "Grand Canyon of the Tennessee River."  Connectivity was bad then.  It's much better here so we will include those pics here now.  First, here is our cruise map for our final leg to Chattanooga, TN from Guntersville, AL (our last map posting location):

Guntersville to Chattanooga

Here's those videos and pics we promised:

As you can see, there's lots of culture to be learned here on the Tide Hiker blog.  Acutally, the river scenes are breathtaking, no matter what they're called. 

Cruising up the Grand Canyon of the Tennessee River

More of the Grand Canyon of the Tennessee River

We've actually been in Chattanooga for three days now and have been exploring the city and surrounds.  So far, we like what we see.  Just steps from our downtown riverfront dock is a 10 mile walking, biking, roller-blading trail along the beautiful Tennessee River.  We're liking that!!  Movies, restaurants, shopping, fitness center and attractions (including the famous Tennessee Aquarium) are also just a few steps from Tide Hiker. We're liking that!!  The riverfront here has been transformed over recent years.  It is home to music festivals, art museums and sculpture gardens.  We're liking that too!!

These water fall steps are enjoyed by the public as place to cool off.  Acutally, they are part of a memorial to the "Trail of Tears" american indian forced relocation back in the 1800's.

Tide Hiker is right in the center of this downtown riverfront bluff dock.  Those are condo's up on the bluff. The Tennessee Aquarium is the upper right building with the trianglular roof line.

Hunter Museum of American Art

No More Locks, Please!

We cruised from 6:00 this morning to 3:30 this afternoon and made it to Nickajack Marina, locally known as Hales Bar Marina and pronounced as Hells Bar Marina.  One lock today which we're sooo thankful that the tow and barge on our tail and the lockmaster decided to let us lock through ahead of the tow.  Otherwise, it would have been a couple hour wait in the strongest current we've seen yet.  We've been cruising over 8 mph, but were at 4.9 mph as we were passing the tow just below the lock.  It was truly a case of the racing turtles.  Fortunately, we put the pedal to the metal and beat him to the lock by.....well, seconds.  But the tow had to break down his barges to go through the lock.  So, the lockmaster and the tow captain agreed to let us go first.  Awesome!!!!

We've had threatening skies for what seems like a week.  Sometimes they turn into vicious storms, like the one at Guntersville.  Sometimes they don't amount to anything except "I'm watching you, Tide Hiker."  Today was no exception.  We have very limited connectivity here, so will add the pictures later.  BTW, we crossed into Tennessee today; and, tomorrow we change back to Eastern Time Zone.  Imagine that!

Lynnie Tierney asked me a while ago how the locks have been.  I told her " a piece of cake" and most of them have been easy.  Must have jinxed it-- we've had three that got the heart pounding.  The first was the one where we tied too loosely to the bollard and I fell into the lazarette.  The next was the tallest lock on the TennTom - the Whitten Lock.  It has depressed panels along the wall that a fender could easily get caught it and there's no way to position the fenders to avoid all those panels.  We ended up repositioning fenders along the way up the way -- a bit of a panic.  The other challenging lock was probably our fault again -- we tied very tightly to the bollard so there wasn't enough room for the boat to float away from the wall.  We thought the forward fender was going to tear right off the boat and both of us pushing off couldn't budge the boat from being mashed up against the wall for much of the vertical trip.  No more locks for awhile - thank goodness!

We're practically within spittin' distance of Chattanooga, our first destination.  Only 35 miles upriver, 4 hours tomorrow if the weather cooperates.  Can't wait!

Stormy in Guntersville AL

We tooled around Guntersville today in the courtesy car and saw many trees down from yesterday's storm.  Winds were reported at 60 mph.  Had a great lunch at The Rock House and Vicki got a nice pedicure at the nails place in downtown Guntersville.  Then, off to Walmart.  We hadn't accounted for the small cab in the truck we were driving, so most of the groceries resided in the truck bed as we raced to the boat to avoid yet another storm.

Sitting Pretty in Guntersville, AL.......

Here's our cruise map from Columbus, MS (the last time we posted a map) to our current location, Guntersville, AL.  Just click on the following link.  Sometimes you will have to wait for the entire course line to load up and sometimes you will have to use the + and - keys to zoom in or out.  Let us know if you have any problems.

Columbus MS to Guntersville AL

We departed Ditto Landing early this morning to outrun the 40% chance of forecasted  thunderstorms this afternoon.  Again, we didn't.  It was our intent to make it to Scottsboro, AL, a 45 mile run with only one lock.  But the clouds started thickening much earlier than expected.  After 24 miles, we pulled into the Guntersville Marina in Guntersville, AL. One bright spot along the way today was the Painted Bluff.  Here's a shot of it:

Painted Bluff--Tennessee River

There were several nice anchorages in the area and one free dock in downtown Guntersville; but again, it was 93 degrees and steamy.  So, we were coveting the electric hookups for the AC.   Once again, we were greeted by 3 very nice folks.  They helped us tie up and hook up the electrical connection, and offered their courtesy car if we wanted to explore the area.  Looking around the marina, we could see some of the metal roofs over the covered slips missing or twisted.  You guessed it--results of this spring's vicious string of tornadoes.  Another marina just up the river had all of their transient slips just blow away.  They, therefore, are only open for permanent slip-holders.  Another marina we passed on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway was hit especially hard and the owner was killed.  It's not been a good spring for the Tennessee Valley.

After getting settled in, we borrowed the courtesy car and went off to Huntsville, AL and the Rocket and Space Museum.  Friends have told us that the museum is only so-so if we have already visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  So, the purpose of our trip was to view the new IMAX movie on the Hubble Space Telescope --awe inspiring!  All right, all right, the real purpose of our trip was to have lunch at the Blue Plate Cafe in Huntsville.  This restaurant was recommended to us by Jenny, the dockmaster when we told her we were looking for homemade southern cooking.  AND, we were not disappointed.  We had two of the three Tuesday "Blue Plate Specials".  Vicki had the cube steak, macaroni and cheese, fresh peas, cornbread and peach cobbler.  Norm had the pot roast, brussels sprouts (soaked in ham hocks and bacon), hash brown casserole, cornbread and peach cobbler.  $7.95 each!!!  Needless to say, no dinner out tonight after splurging like that.

The storms have hit here and we are writing this as sheets of horizontal rain drape the boat, the marina and surrounding area.  Loud clasps of thunder are echoing off the surrounding hills and streaks of lightening are flashing the darkened landscape. The tin roof on the covered slips in front of us is beginning to peel away; still not secured from the spring tornado's.  By the way, we made it back to the marina in the car, just when the drizzling started.  Again, Vicki averted another storm-related meltdown.

Roof peeling off in storm

We expect that we will be here another day and explore Guntersville tomorrow.  Another gloomy, stormy day predicted.  Not good boating weather.

Northern Alabama is Beautiful

Our last blog displayed a couple video's of Tide Hiker locking up in an 83-ft Lock.  Here are some more in the very next 93-foot Wilson Lock.  Some different views show spectacular construction.  Hope you enjoy the ride:

Gates Closing in the Wilson 93-foot Lock

A Video walk up the wall of the 93-foot Wilson Lock

Check it out...112 feet INSIDE THE LOCK!!!

Last night we were at Bay Hill Marina in who-knows-where Alabama.  It's west of Decatur - that's what we know.  While the people were very nice we thought the marina was a bit of a scruffy place with a few randomly placed cletes.  We tied to the uprights supporting the roof.  Probably not a good place for a 65,000 lb. boat in storms-- fortunately the weather was clear.  We spent the afternoon at the pool, reading in the shade in 101 degree heat index and taking the occasional dip in the very refreshing pool for relief.  Our dock was near the public ramp.

We thought this was an unusual boat tow vehicle.

Today's cruise (in zero % probability of storms, much to Vicki's relief) was to Ditto Landing Marina just south of Huntsville AL.  The US Army's Redstone Arsenal and the Marshall Space Center is nearby.  We can hear the explosions every once in a while and feel the vibrations. Very nice marina with great docks. No courtesy car here, so we rested and caught up on in-boat stuff out of the 97 degrees outside. 

What an incredibly beautiful place is northern Alabama.  We are in eyesight of the low mountains in the area.  Trees and hills are everywhere.  Our cruise on the wide river is gorgeous.

Outrunning the Storm.........

We spent today's 5 hours of travel watching the Weather Underground radar showing storms steadily sinking south from Nashville toward our route in Northern Alabama.  Scary!  Fortunately, the storm dissipated most of its energy by the time it hit us about 5 minutes before docking in Florence, Alabama.  Vicki is a real fraidy-cat about encountering a storm while underway, so the day was quite stressful for her.

Florence is quite a nice little town.  Home of University of Northern Alabama, the campus is beautiful. The mascots are lions Leo and Una who reside on campus in a deluxe enclosure -- beautiful cats. 

What an incredible cruising ground this is!  After the last lock on the Tenn-Tom, we cruised out into gorgeous Bay Springs Lake which reminded us both of Canada. Clear water and dense tall trees growing all the way down to the waterline.  Pickwick Lake at the intersection of the Tenn-Tom and the Tennessee River is equally as beautiful and reminds us of the Wisconsin Dells area. 

Most marinas have courtesy cars enabling us to see some of the sights of Mississippi and Alabama.  We drove to Tupelo one day and stopped at a hardware store looking for a fan.  This hardware store just happened to be where Elvis Presley got his first guitar.  The story is that his mom brought him there to buy a bicycle for his birthday, but Elvis decided he wanted a gun instead.  His mom was reluctant to buy a gun, so they compromised on a guitar.  Great story!

Wednesday we caught up with Todd and Brenda at Aqua Yacht Harbor Marina in Pickwick Lake.  It was wonderful to see them again - always a fun time. We stuffed ourselves with excellent fried catfish filets at Hagy's Catfish Hotel on the Tennessee River.  This place was originally discovered by Norm's sister Joyce in 2001 when they did the Great Circle route.  Norm remembered the Catfish Hotel (and Bobby's fish Camp) as having the best-ever catfish, and he wasn't wrong.

We locked up the tallest lock on the Tenn-Tom--83Feet. Since Mobile Bay, we've been locked up over 400 ft. This was the last lock on the Tenn-Tom which created Pickwick Lake, a beautiful body of water that reminded us of Canada's lakes.  Here are some video's of the locking.

Yesterday, we visited the civil war interpretive center in Corinth MS which has fabulous displays about the battle of Shiloh which was fought over control of the railroad crossing in Corinth.  The center was built 2 years ago and is the best civil war museum we've seen.  We plan to stop at the Shiloh Battleground Park on the way back south.

Today was our first day on the Tennessee River.  What a magnificent body of water - really wide for a number of miles.  About four miles into our journey, we detoured into Todd and Brenda's #1 anchorage, Waterfall Cove, where they were anchored.  Todd gave us a freshly caught batch of bass filets and snapped some photos of Tide Hiker in front of the waterfall.  And, we deliverd oil and ice to him.  Then we were off to outrun the storms; which you read earlier, we didn't.

Vicki, Brenda and Todd at Hagy's Catfish Hotel Restaurant.

Life's 2 Short at Anchor at Waterfall Cove.  See how he get's snuggled up to the beach and ties to a tree.  Life's 2 Short is very protected.  Todd and Brenda have a wonderful view of the waterfall that is behind us.

Todd, just after dropping off some fresh-caught bass and picking up some oil and ice.

Ahhhhh, air conditioning....

The goal of this journey at this point is to "hot dog" it to a marina where we can hook up to electricity and run our AC.  These 95-97-degree afternoons with high chance of thunderstorms have turned us into real "weenies". We feel like shedding down to our skivvies but we're not even "Hebrew Nationals" from NY.  "Frank"ly, we're OK with the heat and storms in the afternoon, because we can run fast, like the "sausage guys" at Milwaukee Brewers Games.

Here's our course since we last reported it:

Gulf Shores, AL to Columbus, MS

Vicki has not fallen into any holds since the last time, even though we have gone through 3-4 more locks.  Hence, her physical status is good.  Dr Naughton does periodic "medical" exams and reports good progress.  Only a few skin hematomas.  We arrived in Columbus, MS yesterday after going in and out of Alabama and Mississippi a few times.  We transited two locks yesterday and both were waiting for us with the gates open when we arrived.  No wait.  Maybe it's good to be late in the season.  So, the day went really fast.

Today, we used the Marina's courtesy car and  did some shopping.  We needed more 95-degree light weight, sweat wicking, sun blocking clothes.