Nature walk and dinghy ride!

Enjoying some land time with a nature walk!  Early morning dew on a beautiful golf course.

Today we went for a dinghy ride, 20 miles up river to Muddy Creek and had lunch at the Muddy Creek BBQ.  I feel like a broken record but this is a gorgeous part of the Tennessee River!  Guntersville Lake which is the section we are on is really loaded with Milfoil in parts shown by the green line on the picture below.

Tonight we have been invited to dinner at the home of the Harbor Host Ray and Patsy on the “Patsy Ray”.  They have hosted over 80 loopers in their home for dinner.  They have never completed the Loop themselves but have done many sections multiple times.  There will be 5 couples at their house for dinner tonight!  How wonderful to have a home cooked meal by someone other than me!! 

One of the couples has done the Loop twice and has been living aboard now for 6 years in a boat very similar to ours.  The other couple spends the summers up here and the winters in Marathon in the Florida Keys. 

Tomorrow is laundry day and then we leave for Chattanooga Saturday morning.  We will catch up with y’all when we hit Chattanooga!

Monte Santo and more history!

Here we are at the top of Monte Santo mountain in Huntsville, AL.  Unfortunately it was cloudy so the view wasn’t as incredible as it could have been had it been sunny but as you can see in the picture below, it was still pretty amazing.

We also toured the Burritt Mansion built as a retirement home in 1938 for Dr. William Burritt, a holistic physician.  When he died he left 167 acres to the city of Huntsville as long as they would make a museum.  The museum is his mansion and a collection of 19th century historic rural structures relocated to the site. 

Dr. Burritt's music box

We saw how life was in the 1800’s.   We also learned how to use a drop spindle and a spinning wheel to create yarn out of sheep’s wool.  A few pictures of our day!

Always the inspector.  Look under the house!

Now we are back on the river and our destination is Goose Pond Colony Marina.  One more night at anchor after we leave here and we will arrive in Chattanooga!  Our plan is to stay here for the week for some land time and then head out.  They call this Painted Bluff because of all the colors in the rock.

To once again demonstrate how small the world is.....I was searching the internet for information on Chattanooga when I came across the blog of a couple that had just finished the Loop in April.  I spent some time reviewing their information on their visit to Chattanooga, closed the computer and prepared fenders and lines to go through the Guntersville Lock.  This lock uses floating bollards so I had to loop one of the  lines around the bollard and sit while the lock is filled and we are raised up to the Guntersville Lake pool.  There on the top of the bollard was “Magoo 10/13/10.”  This was the blog I had just been reading moments before.  They had signed the bollard.  I have never met these people but what a small world.  So of course the Captain thought we needed to leave our mark at the lock.

 

Lastly, thanks Brian and Melissa for the tennis balls.  Here is how we put them to use.  They are on the ends of the spare anchor in the engine room so the floors don’t get scratched, and so they don’t puncture the insulation on the gas tank.

We were invited last night to a party at this marina celebrating a couple that just finished the Loop.   Such great people we have met.  We had great conversation about what lies ahead for us and got some great tips.  Southern hospitality is alive and well!       Pat

US Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, AL

As we were coming up the river to Huntsville, AL, we noticed many warning/no trespassing signs on the banks.  Turns out this was the US Army Redstone Facility.  Redstone was built originally by the US Army as a place to build pyrotechnic devices and chemical compounds for WW2.  In 1945, German scientist Werner Von Braun and his 100+ member team surrendered to the US after developing rocket engines for Germany and finally realizing that the Russians would be occupying his test site. 

To give Von Braun a place to develop rocket engines for the US, Redstone was converted to a rocket engine research center.  This is where the rocket engines for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo projects were developed.

Shown above is one of the buildings of the Huntsville Space Center exhibits.  This center also has a Space Camp for young people who are interested in space flight.  We toured this facility yesterday.  

 There are two Saturn V rockets on display here.  One is standing outside and one is displayed inside.  These rockets have a total of 11 engines.

The first stage has 5 J-1 engines with 7,500,000 lbs. of thrust.  It carries 203,000 gallons of kerosene and 331,000 gallons of liquid oxygen for a 2.5 minute burn.

The first stage then falls away and the second stage kicks in:  5 J-2 engines with 1,000,000 lbs. of thrust.  260,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and 83,000 gallons of liquid oxygen for a 6 minute burn.

The third state was a single J-2 engine which could accomplish two individual burns - one to attain earth orbit and a second burn to depart for the moon.  225,000 lbs. of thrust, 63,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and 20,000 gallons of liquid oxygen for a total burn time of 7.77 minutes.

I don’t think I should complain about fueling up the boat anymore!!!!

This is the front of the rocket.  The “pod” with the black squares is the capsule where the astronauts are and the piece that enters space.  The long end on the front is a safety ejection rocket.  If there is a problem in the launch sequence this rocket can be activated, lift the capsule off the remaining engines and send the capsule back to earth.

Here is a shot of Pat in an Apollo capsule getting ready for launch. 

The space center also has an IMax theater.  We saw a film on the repair of the Hubble telescope.  Amazing what technology has afforded us.

We spent most of the day at the space museum  It is a totally incredible place and a stop not to be missed if you are in the area.

Huntsville, AL was founded in the early 1800’s.  The downtown area has an historic district with many original buildings that are very well preserved  We did a tour of this district.

One of the highlights was the Harrison Brothers Hardware Store, opened in 1897.  This building is now owned by the Huntsville Historical Society.  The store is as it was in the late 1800’s.  Many of the shelves are stocked with the original items.  I saw Gates fan belts and Fixall paint which I remember from my father’s work shop.  Pat liked the marbles and the ladders!

We also did a walking tour  of some of the historic houses in town  Again, many date to the 1800’s.  Most are pretty well taken care of with some in need of renovation  Needless to say, there is a LOT of history in Huntsville  Pat heard that Huntsville is also one of the top retirement cities in the US.

Saturday we continue our travels to Chattanooga.  We plan on one night at Goose Pond Marina in Scottsboro, AL and one night at anchor prior to Chattanooga.       Captain Ken

Pat here.....we have started to see mountains.  This is the end of the Cumberland Plateau  What beautiful scenery!!  From what folks tell us it only gets better!

In the second picture, although a little hard to see are buoys or “jugs” set out by the local fishermen.  These were made from styrofoam “noodles” used in swimming.  They are “jug fishing” for catfish!  I always learn something new.  You can either anchor your jugs or let them float.  The two guys that we stopped and talked to while out in the dinghy told me about it and due to their sometimes incomprehensible southern drawl, I had to google it just to fill in the pieces.  The guys were not having much luck with their jugs that day!  Maybe they should have floated their jugs.

Jug fishing!

Heading to Huntsville!

We left Joe Wheeler State Park marina early this morning in cloudy and somewhat foggy weather.  The sun as you can see was trying to shine through the clouds.  It rained while we were at Joe Wheeler but in almost 5 weeks it is the only 2 rainy days we have had.

This is Decatur,  AL.  As you can see it is a very industrial area.  For 5 miles along the river there were industrial scenes such as are in the picture. 

For all my Fairview friends..behind the line of trees on the river lies the town of Fairview, AL.

Once we passed the city  of Decatur and the town of Fairview, the river turned once again into nature’s wonderland.  Beautiful scenery for the next 20 miles until we arrived at our destination - Huntsville, AL.  Our plan is to stay here for several days, rent a car and tour the sights of Huntsville.  Among the sights we will see is the US Space and Rocket center.  Hopefully we will have some wonderful pictures and stories of Huntsville.  On their news channel tonight, they said that Huntsville is a very popular retirement city. 


Good night - Pat

A little fixing time and land time!

We are at Joe Wheeler State Park marina in Rogersville, AL where we will be again at the end of October for the AGLCA Loopers rendezvous. 

The picture above was taken in Wheeler Lake this morning on our way here. 

We have gone through these lakes - Barkley, Kentucky, Pickwick, Wilson and now Wheeler.  They are all like Lake Pepin only bigger and one is just as beautiful as the next!

The pictures are from Shiloh National Military Park that we toured a couple days ago! What an amazing and awesome look back into Civil War history!  The picture at the left is the Shiloh Church, where the battle of Shiloh got its name.  The other picture is the Minnesota battalion monument.  We have to remind ourselves of the significance of the Civil War in the history of America.  At this battle alone 2,300 men were killed and in total 23,000 in the civil war were killed.  

Ken talked yesterday about our anchorage.  It was in Six Mile Creek at MM 266 and was woods on one side and beautiful homes on the other like the one in the picture.  These homes here are amazing!

I titled this post  a little fixing time.  About a week into our Great Loop journey our radio quit transmitting. Occasionally it transmits but we can not rely on it.  So.....we ordered a new one and had it shipped to Joe Wheeler.  Fortunately we have a hand held back up.  It isn’t as simple as unplugging one radio and plugging in the new one as the picture shows.  The holes you see are what once were gauges, the chart plotter, the radio etc.  Captain Ken is hard at work connecting black to blue, red to brown or some color scheme such as that to get us back in solid communication.

This is a beautiful state park with hiking trails and what looks to be good dinghy running.  That will be our plan for the next couple days before we continue our journey to Chatanooga.

The picture at the right is for my sister Jayne and our other RV friends.  This is one of many RV parks on the shores of these beautiful lakes.  Better add this destination to your bucket list.

Just saw that the Vikings lost but the Gophers won!  The Gophers played Miami of OH, Brian’s alma mater so the victory is bitter sweet!

Thank you for the e-mails!  We love hearing from friends and family at home!  Looping along!

Pat

Another day, another lock!

Yesterday we went to see Shiloh on the recommendation of our good friends Jim and Linnea.  What a bunch of history took place there! Jim was right - NOT TO BE MISSED! I’ll let Pat tell you all about it in another post.

The reason I mentioned it was to explain why we had to take some time to relax  at the end of the day. A very large National Park to tour makes you weary.

We met some very nice people at Grand Harbor Marina last night, 

watched another sunset, and took a dock walk. This marina is HUGE! Very nice docks, but it’s a LONG walk to the car.

Not only do they have built ins behind their boats for tables & chairs, but many have golf carts to get around on! The manager said they lose one every couple of years over the edge!

We left there this AM, and are on our way to Joe Wheeler for a night, and then on to Chattanooga.

Above is the Wilson lock at mile marker 268 on the Tennessee River. The main chamber is to the right, and a secondary chamber is to the left. This lock has a 93’ lift. However, they only use the secondary chamber in emergencies. Our wanting to get to Joe Wheeler tonight is NOT an emergency, according to the lock master. There was an up bound tow in the chamber when we got here, and another waiting to go down.

They let us tie off to the wall below the secondary while we wait, so I decided to blog a little.

Lock master just blew the horn - our sign to come on in!

This is what we saw when we entered the lower doors - impressive HUH!! 

The lower two sections of wall are solid concrete and do not move. The “lattice” looking section on the top is the “gate”. Instead of swinging, this gate drops down to let us out.

There is water on the other side of this wall, all the way to the top!

We tie the boat to some floating bollards that are recessed into the sides of the lock wall, (sorry - no pic - we were busy getting the boat squared away) the lock master closes the downstream gate we came in, and starts filling the lock with water. I did not time it, but it takes about 20 minutes to float us to the top. 

Here we are at the end of our ride up, waiting for the gate to drop so we can leave.

Look closely at the gate in front of the boat. Across the top is a walkway with handrails. At the water line is some curved steel which is the top of the gate, and on top of the “lattice work” steel you saw in the previous picture. 

Going down!  They will drop it so the tops of the handrails are about 14’ below the water.

I believe this is called a “wicket gate”. 

Above is a shot of our chart plotter.  You can see the depth of the lock is 111.6 feet.

You can also see the icon of our boat in the lock, and the “bread crumb” trail the plotter left from where we were tied up waiting below the auxiliary chamber, and motored into the lock.

You can also see the time of day at 4:15PM. Too late to make another 20 miles and the Joe Wheeler lock. Better find a place to hole up for the night.

We pulled out the Fred Meyers Tennessee River Cruising Guide and found Six Mile Creek as a recommended anchorage, about seven miles above the lock. Nice little spot for the night!

                                               Good Night Anchor!

                                                   Stay put now!