SATURDAY OCTOBER 3, 2009
We cleaned up the boat, did laundry, watched the Gopher game (they lost) emptied the fridge and took a shuttle to a hotel near the airport in Huntsville, Alabama. Passed many cotton fields ready for harvest. We fly home in the morning. Thanks for following our journey. We'll be back October 23rd for more adventures, and misadventures.
DAY 16
Friday October 2, 2009
Rained during the night, but cleared off early. We left the marina before 9 for our last day of travel. I was on the back swim platform and noticed our American flag was caught up around the pole. As I adjusted it and watched the breeze catch it, I saw it in a new light and thought of all the men buried under the earth at nearby Shiloh. I couldn’t help but think about the state of our country now and the direction it is headed. On a much less somber note, the Tennessee River and Pickwick Lake is soooo beau
tiful. The clear water and all the hardwood trees. The limestone cliffs. My camera and the small photos on the blog don’t do justice to the scenery h
ere. It’s easy to understand why this is such a popular boating area. We came to the Wilson Lock and Dam at the end of Pickwick Lake. I’m telling you, this is one serious lock.
It’s huge. It hold
s over 50 million gallons of water and took only 15 minutes to rise 95 feet. That’s 3.3 million gallons of water per minute. And we were impressed earlier at a lock that moved 1.2 million gallons per minute. The Lock is named after Woodrow Wilson, not after me. ☺ There are two lock chambers. One is a double chamber. You rise up in ther first chamber and then drive in to the next chamber and rise
again.We went in the main chamber with the huge doors. When the lock finished filling, there was a door with a walkway that dropped down beneath the water and we drove out over it. I have tried to show the sequence with the pictures but I'm not sure how it will show in the blog. It was very interesting though. After making it through countless locks without much of a wait at any, we paid for it at the last lock. Two miles from our destination of the first leg of the loop, we had to wait for a tow in the lock. 
We arrived at Joe Wheeler State Park Marina about 4:30. We did it! We finished the first leg of the loop. We will leave the boat here and return on October 25 for the Fall Looper Rendezvous before continuing on our way to the Gulf of Mexico. We celebrated the arrival at our destination with the champagne given to us by Lori and Eric Edling from J-Dock. It was delicious!!!
Rained during the night, but cleared off early. We left the marina before 9 for our last day of travel. I was on the back swim platform and noticed our American flag was caught up around the pole. As I adjusted it and watched the breeze catch it, I saw it in a new light and thought of all the men buried under the earth at nearby Shiloh. I couldn’t help but think about the state of our country now and the direction it is headed. On a much less somber note, the Tennessee River and Pickwick Lake is soooo beau
tiful. The clear water and all the hardwood trees. The limestone cliffs. My camera and the small photos on the blog don’t do justice to the scenery h
ere. It’s easy to understand why this is such a popular boating area. We came to the Wilson Lock and Dam at the end of Pickwick Lake. I’m telling you, this is one serious lock.
It’s huge. It hold
s over 50 million gallons of water and took only 15 minutes to rise 95 feet. That’s 3.3 million gallons of water per minute. And we were impressed earlier at a lock that moved 1.2 million gallons per minute. The Lock is named after Woodrow Wilson, not after me. ☺ There are two lock chambers. One is a double chamber. You rise up in ther first chamber and then drive in to the next chamber and rise
again.We went in the main chamber with the huge doors. When the lock finished filling, there was a door with a walkway that dropped down beneath the water and we drove out over it. I have tried to show the sequence with the pictures but I'm not sure how it will show in the blog. It was very interesting though. After making it through countless locks without much of a wait at any, we paid for it at the last lock. Two miles from our destination of the first leg of the loop, we had to wait for a tow in the lock. 
We arrived at Joe Wheeler State Park Marina about 4:30. We did it! We finished the first leg of the loop. We will leave the boat here and return on October 25 for the Fall Looper Rendezvous before continuing on our way to the Gulf of Mexico. We celebrated the arrival at our destination with the champagne given to us by Lori and Eric Edling from J-Dock. It was delicious!!!
DAY 15
Thursday October 1, 2009
Woke to a bright sunny morning. Popped a few Toaster Scramblers in the toaster for breakfast and then we were off to Shiloh National Military Park about 20 miles away. Roads are narrow and winding so it takes a while to go anywhere. The woods are very dense and beautiful. Many varieties of oak trees. Fall colors must be incredible here. The marina once again let us use their courtesy van, along with an auto tour cd of the park. We were joined by Diane for the day. She is another Looper from the boat Noah Genda. If you ever have the opportunity to visit this park, don’t pass it up. Unlike other battlefields, this one is very concentrated in a small area. We stopped at the visitor center where we watched a 30 minute movie about the battle. It was very informative for those of us not up on all the history of that time. After the movie we drove through the park following the prompts on the cd. This park was formed with the help of civil war veterans who fought there so everything is completely accurate and very detailed. The battle was not named after a town. Which is what w
e all thought. But named after a log church, the Shiloh Meeting House, that the fighting took place around. The church collapsed shortly after the battle because it was so
damaged, but the photo is of a reproduction of the original church. The Union army was camped in an area close to
the Tennessee River where there was a boat landing. They didn’t think they had anything to fear from the Confederates. One of the regiment commanders felt uneasy about things and sent out a patrol of 250 men. Sure enough, at dawn they ran into practically the entire Confederate army on the march! The battle was on. The Union army was outnumbered. The Union patrol was reinforced but those men withdrew to a sunken old wagon trail where they were able to hold off the Confederate army almost all day. They eventually had to surrender, but by holding them off for the day it bought the time needed for the Union army to be reinforced. Most of the soldiers had never been in battle before and they ran to the river landing trying to escape. Unbeknownst to the Confederates, Union reinforcements were arriving by foot and by river. They had won the day, but not the battle. In the morning the exhausted Confederate army was met by wave after wave of fresh Union soldiers. There were heavy losses on both sides when it was over. A combined total of 23,746 men were killed, wounded or missing. Most were buried in trench mass graves 4 feet deep. Years later, the Union soldiers were exhumed from the mass graves and each buried in the National Cemetery by the river. The Rebel soldiers remain in their mass burial trenches. I picked up an assortment of acorns from Shiloh. I’m hoping my gardening guru friend, Deone, can help me grow them. I thought it would be neat to have an offspring from a tree that witnessed this battle. Now that I think about it, if its illegal to remove anything from a National Park and any Rangers are reading this, I’m kidding about taking the acorns!!!!
Woke to a bright sunny morning. Popped a few Toaster Scramblers in the toaster for breakfast and then we were off to Shiloh National Military Park about 20 miles away. Roads are narrow and winding so it takes a while to go anywhere. The woods are very dense and beautiful. Many varieties of oak trees. Fall colors must be incredible here. The marina once again let us use their courtesy van, along with an auto tour cd of the park. We were joined by Diane for the day. She is another Looper from the boat Noah Genda. If you ever have the opportunity to visit this park, don’t pass it up. Unlike other battlefields, this one is very concentrated in a small area. We stopped at the visitor center where we watched a 30 minute movie about the battle. It was very informative for those of us not up on all the history of that time. After the movie we drove through the park following the prompts on the cd. This park was formed with the help of civil war veterans who fought there so everything is completely accurate and very detailed. The battle was not named after a town. Which is what w
e all thought. But named after a log church, the Shiloh Meeting House, that the fighting took place around. The church collapsed shortly after the battle because it was sodamaged, but the photo is of a reproduction of the original church. The Union army was camped in an area close to
the Tennessee River where there was a boat landing. They didn’t think they had anything to fear from the Confederates. One of the regiment commanders felt uneasy about things and sent out a patrol of 250 men. Sure enough, at dawn they ran into practically the entire Confederate army on the march! The battle was on. The Union army was outnumbered. The Union patrol was reinforced but those men withdrew to a sunken old wagon trail where they were able to hold off the Confederate army almost all day. They eventually had to surrender, but by holding them off for the day it bought the time needed for the Union army to be reinforced. Most of the soldiers had never been in battle before and they ran to the river landing trying to escape. Unbeknownst to the Confederates, Union reinforcements were arriving by foot and by river. They had won the day, but not the battle. In the morning the exhausted Confederate army was met by wave after wave of fresh Union soldiers. There were heavy losses on both sides when it was over. A combined total of 23,746 men were killed, wounded or missing. Most were buried in trench mass graves 4 feet deep. Years later, the Union soldiers were exhumed from the mass graves and each buried in the National Cemetery by the river. The Rebel soldiers remain in their mass burial trenches. I picked up an assortment of acorns from Shiloh. I’m hoping my gardening guru friend, Deone, can help me grow them. I thought it would be neat to have an offspring from a tree that witnessed this battle. Now that I think about it, if its illegal to remove anything from a National Park and any Rangers are reading this, I’m kidding about taking the acorns!!!!
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 li
ttle 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.
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 li
ttle 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.
DAY 13
Tuesday September 29, 2009
Sorry it's been a few days since my last entry. No, I have not been slacking!!! Well okay, sort of. Between no internet connection, and faint connection, I haven't been able to make an entry. Anyway, here's what we've been up to as of late.
We left Pebble Isle marina and headed up the Tennessee. But only after eating fresh, out of the oven cinnamon rolls that they serve at the gas dock each morning. Such a friendly, helpful marina. Brad was given a free hat because he told an Ole and Lena joke at dinner the night before and everyone thought it was hysterical. Of course they were all very impressed at his Norwegian accent. I thought some of them were going to fall off their chairs laughing last night. We are going against the current at an average of 3 mph so it slows us down. We made 72 miles today before finding an anchorage. We chose to go a short distance up Indian Creek. It was narrow but deep. About 10’, so we dropped anchor. We heard one car, otherwise just owls and coyotes. It was a moonlit night so we sat out on the bow. We could hear packs of coyotes in the distance. This spot definitely was without any type of coverage. I was able to stand up on the bridge and hold my cell phone in a direction to pick up enough signal that I could send a text message to our friend Tami Heimer as to our location. Just in case........
Sorry it's been a few days since my last entry. No, I have not been slacking!!! Well okay, sort of. Between no internet connection, and faint connection, I haven't been able to make an entry. Anyway, here's what we've been up to as of late.
We left Pebble Isle marina and headed up the Tennessee. But only after eating fresh, out of the oven cinnamon rolls that they serve at the gas dock each morning. Such a friendly, helpful marina. Brad was given a free hat because he told an Ole and Lena joke at dinner the night before and everyone thought it was hysterical. Of course they were all very impressed at his Norwegian accent. I thought some of them were going to fall off their chairs laughing last night. We are going against the current at an average of 3 mph so it slows us down. We made 72 miles today before finding an anchorage. We chose to go a short distance up Indian Creek. It was narrow but deep. About 10’, so we dropped anchor. We heard one car, otherwise just owls and coyotes. It was a moonlit night so we sat out on the bow. We could hear packs of coyotes in the distance. This spot definitely was without any type of coverage. I was able to stand up on the bridge and hold my cell phone in a direction to pick up enough signal that I could send a text message to our friend Tami Heimer as to our location. Just in case........
DAY 12
Monday September 28, 2009
Up early to be ready to be pulled out at 8, which turned out to more like 9. After our incident with the log in the Ohio River we were very relieved to see the props looked good. The mechanic checked them and one of the Starboard blades was 1/16 of an inch off. They don’t feel it is vibrating enough to do any damage to the bearings so the decision was made to put her back in the water without changing the props. Our ride down Lake Kentucky was adventurous. We had 2-3 ft waves and it made for a wild ride. Stopped for the night at Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, Tennessee. Now for your history lesson….. As you pass this part of river, you go over the remains of 33 Union vessels that were ambushed here and lay on the bottom. Most were supply boats for Sherman’s army and their march to the sea. Nathan Bedford Forrest organized the ambush. He was a merchant from Memphis and had no military training. Along with the boats, they destroyed warehouses and two trains. In the end it really had no impact on the outcome of the war as Sherman was the destroying the rail lines behind him and he had already decided that the army would “live off the country”. And he would “make Georgia howl” until they reached the seaborne supplies at Savannah. We have adjusted our itinerary somewhat so we can spend a day touring the battlefield at Shiloh. So, tune in for another history lesson in a couple of days.
Here is the process of pulling the Oddysea out to check the props. The lift drives over the haul-out area and lowers the lift straps on the water. Ross drove the boat in over
the straps and then they lift up her up out of the water and drive the lift onto the hard where the mechanics can inspect the props.
They simply use a straight rod and swing the props around to see if they hit the rod at any point. And by how much.
Up early to be ready to be pulled out at 8, which turned out to more like 9. After our incident with the log in the Ohio River we were very relieved to see the props looked good. The mechanic checked them and one of the Starboard blades was 1/16 of an inch off. They don’t feel it is vibrating enough to do any damage to the bearings so the decision was made to put her back in the water without changing the props. Our ride down Lake Kentucky was adventurous. We had 2-3 ft waves and it made for a wild ride. Stopped for the night at Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, Tennessee. Now for your history lesson….. As you pass this part of river, you go over the remains of 33 Union vessels that were ambushed here and lay on the bottom. Most were supply boats for Sherman’s army and their march to the sea. Nathan Bedford Forrest organized the ambush. He was a merchant from Memphis and had no military training. Along with the boats, they destroyed warehouses and two trains. In the end it really had no impact on the outcome of the war as Sherman was the destroying the rail lines behind him and he had already decided that the army would “live off the country”. And he would “make Georgia howl” until they reached the seaborne supplies at Savannah. We have adjusted our itinerary somewhat so we can spend a day touring the battlefield at Shiloh. So, tune in for another history lesson in a couple of days.
Here is the process of pulling the Oddysea out to check the props. The lift drives over the haul-out area and lowers the lift straps on the water. Ross drove the boat in over
the straps and then they lift up her up out of the water and drive the lift onto the hard where the mechanics can inspect the props.They simply use a straight rod and swing the props around to see if they hit the rod at any point. And by how much.
DAY 11-NO MILES TRAVELED, EXCEPT BY FOOT
Sunday September 27, 2009
Just hung out for the most part. Teri and I walked up town to check out the shops. It was Sunday, so they didn’t open till noon. The weather is gorgeous. 80 degrees and sunny. Could not tune in the Vikings, but we heard they won in an exciting game. Many Loopers in Green Turtle Bay. It appears that if there are any Loopers in a marina, they gather at 5 for appetizers and cocktails on the dock or on shore. It was fun to meet other Loopers. And pick up some good recipes. Most say we have already accomplished the most difficult part of the trip.
Just hung out for the most part. Teri and I walked up town to check out the shops. It was Sunday, so they didn’t open till noon. The weather is gorgeous. 80 degrees and sunny. Could not tune in the Vikings, but we heard they won in an exciting game. Many Loopers in Green Turtle Bay. It appears that if there are any Loopers in a marina, they gather at 5 for appetizers and cocktails on the dock or on shore. It was fun to meet other Loopers. And pick up some good recipes. Most say we have already accomplished the most difficult part of the trip.
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