Knoxville, TN--Our Northernmost 2011 Cruising Destination

Before departing for Knoxville, we rented a car and rushed to Columbus, Ohio.  Daughter, Colleen, who has had ongoing complications from a c-section in May required another emergency surgery at the Ohio State University Medical Center. This was the third one!!!  Our little Colleen has been through hell.  As we write this, she is improving and things are looking up.  Fortunately, baby Ella Grace, 9 lbs, 22 inches at birth is doing great.

Vicki feeding Ella, grandmiracle No 4, while visiting Colleen in hospital

Dad (Brian) and Ella visiting mom (Colleen) in the hospital

A more recent pic of Ella and PapPap

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One of our stops on the way to Knoxville was at the Ft Loudoun Marina in Lenoir City, TN.  The marina just happened to be on the way home for one of Norm's army buddies.  Bob Rowan and his wife Julie, who Norm has not seen in 15 years, visited.  It's a small world, isn't it?

Bob and Julie Rowan visit us while docked at Ft Loudoun Marina (not to be confused with the Ft Loudoun Yacht Club)  We had a fantastic time getting caught up and promising to get together again, much sooner this time.

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 So, We're now in Knoxville. Actually, about 2 weeks ago, we arrived at the Ft Loudoun Yacht Club--our most northern destination this summer. Here's our latest cruise route. Just click on the link below:

Chattanooga to Knoxville, TN

We have not been here much though.  We docked here on Sunday, July 24 and departed by rental car to Wilmington, DE for our annual medical checkups and to visit friends there.  We got passing medical grades and the doc's don't want to see us for another year.  While that is always good news, our real excitement was in reconnecting with old friends.  Vicki set up a nice lunch with a couple of her Chase Bank associates and a separate dinner with the ones that could not get away for lunch. We got caught up on the lives of our "still working" friends and the many changes going on in banking, and especially in the credit card sector.  Also, our neighbor friends hosted a wonderful dinner while we were there.  All-in-all, a fantastic visit in Wilmington, DE.  Sorry, we forgot to take pictures.
We stopped in Asheville, NC on the drive back to Knoxville.  They were having a downtown festival at the time.  So, of course, we had to partake.  We enjoyed Asheville very much but decided it's too far from anything to even consider living there.

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Two days after returning to Tide Hiker, we were off again.  This time on a flight to Milwaukee, WI see two of our daughters and their families; and, to attend Vicki's family reunion.

Daughters Katie and Chris celebrated Norm's and Vicki's  birthdays by treating them to an awesome lobster dinner at the Golden Mast Restaurant on Okauchee Lake.  Grandmiracle No 3, Joyce, was with a babysitter.  We're told her table manners are not up to par yet.

Jake, grandmiracle No. 1 perusing the menu

Evan, grandmiracle No 2 with a fork at the ready

The Wisconsin State Fair was going on at the time of our visit.  So, it was a fantastic time to take the grandmiracles to the Fair.

Joyce, grandmiracle No 3 with PapPap on the merry-go-round

Evan, at mid-mountain and Jake at the summit

Evan and Jake, just foolin around

Vicki also had an opportunity to visit with her friend Cindy at the Fair

One of the many "fried" foods at the fair.  One could also have fried beer, fried cheese curds, etc.--a cardiologist's dream come true.

The Cal Cooper family at the Cooper reunion in Dodgevillee to, WI.  Here is niece Rachel, Norm, Vicki's mom Avie, Vicki and nephew Alex.  The next day we drove over to Richland Center, WI to visit with Vicki's uncle Bill and aunt Donna.  Not to be outdone by the Coopers, Bill and Donna arranged a fantastic Thompson family reunion. 

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While in Milwaukee, we attended the annual Miller Brewing Human Resources Reunion.  We were most appreciative that they scheduled the reunion around our travel schedule so we could make it this year.  The reunion is always held at Miller Stadium, home of the Milwaukee Brewers.  Here, Vicki is hugging the hot dog, her favorite team mascot.  They also have a sausage, a kielbasa and a brat.  But, the hot dog ranks highest.

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We're once again back at the Ft Loudoun Yacht Club.  And, another treat arrived the next day.  Friends Rick and Lynnie Tierney drove down from Raleigh, NC to spend a few days with us.  So, we ate, drank, and were merry for 4 days.  We spent a day at the pool here and also drove into Chattanooga for dinner and a Shakespeare play. 

Rick and Lynnie wanted to see Chattanooga, so a day trip was necessary.  Here's Vicki, Rick and Lynnie at the Riverfront

We then needed an afternoon at the pool at the Ft Loudoun Yacht Club.

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We will be resting for a few days to get ready for a few days of hiking the Smoky Mountains next week with friends Mike and Peg Wilson.  More on that later. 

Hope everyone reading this is well and having an awesome summer.  And, we'll try to be more prompt with future blog updates.

Chattanooga Choo Choo and more..............

A visit to Chattanooga would not be complete without seeing the Chattanooga Choo Choo.  The Choo Choo is more than a train.  It's a museum of trains that are being used as a hotel and restaurant.  Yes, you too can sleep and eat in the historic Choo Choo.

These are the hotel and restaurant grounds.  See the dining and sleeping cars in the distance?

Engineer Norm at the controls of the Chattanooga Choo Choo

Here's Vicki at the Hunter Museum of American Art.  This horse is not made of driftwood.  It's metal.  Cool!!!

The 10-mile long Tennessee River trail includes this "Glass Bridge".  Norm was a bit uneasy crossing it having some fear of heights.  Funny, he's also a pilot and flying never bothered him.

The Fourth of July Fireworks will be shot off from a park just on the other side of the river.  We're told that Tide Hiker has a great viewing spot.  However, we were invited to join some new friends at that park where the Chattanooga Symphony will also be playing.  Do you think the "1812 Overture" is in our future?

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.