DAY 14

Wednesday September 30, 2009

Woke up and looked out the window to see, well, nothing. Heavy fog, so went back to sleep. It finally cleared enough by about 9 am that we could leave. Drove with the radar on for a while though till it was completely clear. The river is very beautiful along in this area. The limestone cliffs are gorgeous. The water is high and at times we ran against a 6 mph current. Meeting towboats now is somewhat of a challenge. The captains have such southern drawls that we can’t understand more than one word. We call them on the radio to ask them which side they prefer us to pass them on. After they answer we all look at one another completely baffled. Then usually burst out laughing. As long as we can pick out the words “one” or “two”, we know what to do. The rest of what he's said, we have no clue. (didn’t really mean for that rhyme) Now for a little local history. Near Savannah, Tennessee are 14 mounds built along the river. Some are as high as 30 feet. They were built thousands of years ago by mound building peoples. Probably Woodland Indians. On top of one of these mounds in 1830, Cherry Hill Mansion was built as a wedding gift. The
owner was a sympathizer to the North. Ulysses S. Grant was staying here and eating breakfast the morning of April 6, 1862 when he heard the distant artillery fire as Confederate forces unexpectedly attacked his army at nearby Shiloh. This house served as Grant’s headquarters during the fierce two-day battle and served as a hospital treating both Union and Confederate soldiers. We hope to tour where the battle of Shiloh took place in a couple of days. We arrived at Grand Harbor Marina early in the afternoon. A gorgeous marina/condo complex. The man who owns the marina here, also owns a restaurant about 3 miles away. There were 12 of us interested in taking him up on his $8.95 prime rib dinner deal so we all piled in to one of the marina’s courtesy vans and went to Freddy T's. It was a funky place, very tropical. The women’s restroom walls were painted with parrots and birds. I took photos and told Ross I thought we should paint the restrooms at the dental office like this. Not certain I’ve convinced him…….yet.