Bye Bye Chattanooga!

Our last day in Chattanooga we spent doing some more sight seeing and walking. There were numerous activities going on around town. They had the river shut down thru town as there were over 100 crew boats here for races.

Brought back memories of the ’60’s when I crewed for the St. Paul Boat Club.

There were also vendors and displays across the river in the North Park. One display that caught our eye were the “Art Bikes”. A lady who was involved with this out East moved here a few years ago, and started an Art Biker group. They let kids put together ideas of what they want to build, then help them find the parts, and line up people who can weld and work with metal to help.   

Ocean Bike

Reflector Bike

Bed Frame Bike

Guitar Bike

Swing Bike - the swinger fell out!

Rocket Bike

My favorite was the Rocket Bike.  As I was looking at it, the young man who had built it came over and bet me I couldn’t identify all the parts. Well - I got most of them! The rear is a muffler off a VW engine.

The round things in the corners are the cylinders off the engine. On the cylinders are some (hard to see in the photo) helically cut gears out of some machine. But I couldn’t figure out what the pointy things at the front were. They are heavy, and made of stainless steel. He told me what they were.

Should we have another contest??? Give us your guesses!

Next we walked over to the sculpture garden.  It sat on the river bluff, and had numerous pieces.

Close by were some art shops we wondered thru. Chattanooga is certainly a town not to be missed. There are so many things to do and see, it would take weeks. We headed out on Sunday, and went a little further up the Tennessee River to Harrison, TN, and the Island Cove Marina. The leaves are beginning to change, and we wanted to see some more of the river before heading back down. 

When  we got into our slip, Pat exclaimed - “Honey - someone shrunk the boat!”  We felt like a rubber ducky bobbing around between a couple of 100’ house boats! Most all of the marinas here have covered slips. They are cooler, and keep the sun and rain off your boat, but the boat is dark during the day. You have to have the lights on. Oh well- advantages and disadvantages. I washed the boat on Monday, and we met some locals who gave Pat a ride to the store. We ended up going over to their boat, and heard about their Loop trip. Another couple who live here and are Loopers also stopped by to say HI. That AGLCA flag on the boat lets people know who you are. We are amazed at the number of people who offer rides to the store, dinner at their house, or just stop by the chat.

We are always walking the docks looking at boats and their names.  This is one of my favorites - "No Job Bob".

Today we took a 20 mile dinghy ride. The colors are beginning to pop. The scenery here is very diverse. Some flat lands, some hills, and a lot of back waters. We almost got lost coming back. There are about five channels that all converge in one spot. You better know your buoy colors, and what buoys belong to what channel!

We decided to swing thru the neighboring marina on the way back, and found some Red Wing boat houses on steroids! Tomorrow we head back down river. We’ll stop at Goose Pond again for a couple of days, then off the Joe Wheeler for the AGLCA gathering on the 21st. Then its off down the Ten Tom to Mobile Bay and the Gulf!

See You All Later

Captn. Ken

Chattanooga Activities!

Yes it is the Chattanooga Choo Choo.  We went there with Marc and Michele and ate dinner in the Station House!  The wait staff entertains the diners in between waiting on tables.  They are really good singers.  I thought it would be fun to take a ride on the Choo Choo.  Really.....not my size.

The next pictures are from the Aquarium.  They have both fresh water and salt water exhibits plus a butterfly garden.  It is really a fabulous aquarium.

We have done a lot of food firsts since we hit the south including fried green tomatoes, grits and hush puppies.  The other very popular food is catfish.  Looking at this guy, would you eat him???? The catfish - not the eel!

We then went to the tourist areas of Rock City, Ruby Falls and the Incline Railroad, all are up on Lookout Mountain.  All were highly recommended by the Visitor’s Bureau.  The first was the incline railroad used to transport  people up the mountain. 

Next we went to Rock City, hard to describe but very interesting and beautiful.  From the top at Lover’s Leap, you can see Seven States.  Truly unbelievable views!!!!

 

We walked across a swinging bridge, squeezed through Fat Man’s Pass and thoroughly enjoyed all the scenery.

 

 

Our last stop was Ruby Falls.  Ken told you he would describe the pictures he posted a couple days ago.  This was discovered by Leo Lambert and named after his wife Ruby.  It is a waterfall over 1,000 feet underground.  It is still not known what the source of the falls is other than it is rain dependent.

It also has lots of interesting stalactites and stalagmites.  Some of the structures have been identified and named.

Last  but certainly not least was the Carousel.  We rode it!   It has been years since we have ridden a carousel.  

There has been so much activity along the river.  Sitting on the boat watching rowing races, people trying out stand up paddle boards and lots of boats.  Just a wonderful spot.

Enjoy the pictures!  Pat

Delta Queen!

The picture above is the beautiful city of Chattanooga.  We have seen many fascinating sites in Chattanooga and we will try and show you all of them.  First one to talk about is the Delta Queen!  You can see the Queen in the bottom center of the picture.  For those that boat on the Mississippi, you are familiar with the Queens - the American (still on the river), the Mississippi (being scrapped in China) and the Delta.  The Delta also has a sister ship called the Delta King (shown below which is currently in Sacramento, CA being used as a hotel) both built at the same time.  The Delta Queen is being used as a hotel in Chattanooga.  All are hoping to get approval from the federal government to get her back on the river.

She is a beauty and we were so fortunate that when we went on her to look around, a nice young man by the name of Ed, who has made himself an authority on the Queen, gave us a full tour.  He told us it cost $750K to build the Titanic and $1M to build the Queen!

This is the grand staircase of the Queen and the plaque showing her engine builder.

The ship is being well maintained as you can tell from this interior shot.

Here is the Captain in the pilot house.  The pilot house has all the original controls in working order.

Here is the calliope that still works.  And the paddle wheel still turns.

The Delta Queen has recently been purchased by an individual who has placed other large steam powered equipment (trains and large machinery) back into operation. The estimated time frame to get her back cruising is three years.

Ed showed us some of the original carpenter tools that were used to build her, and a ring binder of original photos of the construction. It was fascinating to look at these. We never thought we’d really get to see all of her, but Ed made sure we got to go where we wanted.

Of course - Ken has to see the engine room. Or I guess you would say “rooms”.  Above is one of the two engines. They are actually quite small.

Note the “drive shaft” going out the rear. The shaft does not turn, it pushes and pulls.

This shows the “eccentric” that the engine pushes and pulls to turn the paddle wheel.

There are two boilers. One high pressure (175 lbs. / sq. in.) and one low pressure (75 lbs. / sq. in.)

Each boiler serves one engine. Depending on fuel, speed, and distance run, they will alternate boilers and engines. The boilers occupy two decks. They are approx. 20’ high.

The boilers are fired with low grade crude diesel. When tuning a diesel boiler like this, the engineer looks at the smoke. The two square boxes are “periscopes” which look up each smoke stack so the engineer can see the smoke.

Ed told us the Chief Engineer has taken a few weeks off to be with his family. He is 79 years old.

There is no one else in line to take his place. This is not a ship where just anyone can walk in and “turn the key”.  Hopefully, a new engineer will be trained in soon. 

We plan to have dinner on the Queen prior to leaving Chattanooga.

We could go on for days with pics we took of the Queen, but we haven’t even begun on our other adventures here at Ruby Falls, The Incline, Rock City, the Aquariums, the I-Max, and the Chattanooga Choo-Choo!

Stay Tuned

Pat & Ken

And the Winner is!

What the heck is that picture all about??? You’ll just have to wait for our next post to find out!

I will tell you that Chattanooga is a WONDERFUL City to explore.

A while back we asked a River Trivia question, and asked for responses.

The question was: “How many locks are there from well above Minneapolis to Grafton, IL. “

Appears easy - doesn’t it? Just look at a river chart, and you will see that Lock #1, also called the Ford Lock, is in St. Paul at the Ford Motor Company, and Lock 25 is just above Grafton. So the answer is 25 - Right?? Wrong!

First off, there are the Upper and Lower Saint Anthony Locks at St. Anthony Falls in downtown Mpls. They are named, not numbered.

OK - so there are 27 - Right?? Wrong!

When they actually built the system, they discovered they needed an additional lock at Fountain City, Wisc, just below lock 5. So they added Lock 5A.

OK - that’s easy - there are 28 - right?? Sort of!

When they got a little further down, they discovered they did not need Lock 23, between Lock 22 at mile marker 301.2, and Lock 24 at mile marker 273.4, so they eliminated it. There is no Lock 23.

So there are really 27?? Nope.

Most all of the Lock & Dams were built with auxiliary chambers, which were smaller than the main chambers. However, only one auxiliary chamber was ever made operable and is being used. This is in Rock Island, IL. It is officially called Lock And Dam 15 and 15A - Auxiliary Lock. As this chamber is operable, it is counted as an additional lock.

SOOOOOO - there are 28 locks from above Mpls to Grafton.

We had 4 replies.

We think only one said 28!!

We lost Kelly's’ response, and can’t remember what it was.

SO - if you said 28 Kelly - YOU WIN TOO!

We do know that Jean P. said 28!

Congratulations JEANO!!!!

And - you’re OFFICIAL PRIZE IS:

BRAGGING RIGHTS!!!

We’ll be back with some interesting highlights in Chattanooga!

See you all later!

Captn. Ken

We are back on the river!

We left Goose Pond marina on Sunday, a day later than we thought.  Our Galena, IL friends on “Marcs Ark” called us and said they were coming to join us for the trip to Chattanooga so we waited for them.

Before we left Goose Pond marina in Scottsboro, AL, we went to a Scottish fest.  I guess the town is full of Scottish clans.  Pretty neat!

We anchored out at a lovely spot shown in the picture above.  Here Ken and Marc are enjoying happy hour on Marc’sArk.

Monday  we headed up river to Chattanooga.  We all said it was the prettiest day of cruising we had done.  Mountains, plateaus, winding river, all colors of green and a hint of fall colors.  Absolutely spectacular!  These are some pictures from our wonderful day. 

We are docked right downtown Chattanooga.  Walk up the steps and you are in the city, right at the Aquarium which we will visit today.  We went to the Visitor center to get maps and find out all the attractions of which there are many.  Right across from our boat is the Delta Queen, which used to come up the Mississippi to Red Wing.  It is now a hotel and efforts are still in the works to get it back cruising again.  The city just revitalized their riverfront within the last 5 years and it is spectacular.  We are looking forward to seeing all the sights here in Chattanooga and will have lots more to share in the days ahead.  Weather is gorgeous.