Good-bye Tennessee River!

This morning we left Florence, Alabama for our final leg on the TN river.  It was a beautiful morning!  The early morning fog burned off and it turned into a sunny, calm day.  Our temperature reached the freezing mark this morning and both yesterday and today there was a little frost on the docks.

While in Florence, we saw some of the sites!  The highlight for Ken was the Frank Lloyd Wright house.  I will let him talk about that.

We also visited the home of Helen Keller and saw the famous water pump where she spoke her first word ....WATER!  I for sure now have to watch “The Miracle Worker”.  An amazing women that overcame deafness and blindness to graduate cum laude and spend her life helping those like her.

The next stop was the home of WC Handy, father of the Blues.  The most interesting thing in this house was the organ chimes in the picture below, built in 1901.  It really played like an organ!

The bridge at the left is part of the Natchez Trace.  This is the route that goes from Nashville, TN all the way to New Orleans.  It began as an Indian trail sometime before 1733.  Today it is part of the National Park system.  It goes for 450 miles through beautiful countryside!







We are so  glad we decided to take the side trip up the TN river.  We have enjoyed every mile.  Tomorrow morning we begin unchartered waters again, turning off the TN river and heading down the Tennessee Tombigbee (TennTom) waterway.  450 miles down river we will enter Mobile Bay!  In preparation for the trip down the TennTom, I put some markers on the helm.   You always need to be sure the green markers are on the correct side of the boat when navigating the channel.  It changes, sometimes green is on the right instead of the left.  The same with the red nun buoys.  Suffice it to say, it has made us stop and pause more then once.  They have fancy markers that you can set on the helm and turn putting the markers on the correct side.  We haven’t been able to find one so I created one!  I know it is pink not red but you get the idea!

Time to change laundry and enjoy this beautiful day!

Pat