Joe Wheeler - 10/21/10

Today we cleaned the boat and tried
to stow all the stuff be thought we needed from home. Looks like I am going to have to move the boot stripe up again.

Lots of loopers are starting to show up. We spent a good portion of tonight with a couple from New Matamoras that had bought a Carver in Lake Erie and began their loop from there. We will be joining them plus another couple they have traveled with for dinner tomorrow night.

When we were working on the boat today we noticed one of our passengers trying to imitate a pole dance that my sister had performed when we were loading the dingy before we started the adventure. I thought the Cravens had more rhythm than that and that it would pass down to their children. This guy has been pretty quiet up to now but it looks like he is coming out of his shell.

I have included several pictures of the marina here so you can get an idea of how big it really is. There must be several hundred boats here plus all the transits that show up. The lodge and restaurant is great and the food is fantastic so we probably won't be eating on the boat very often.

Tomorrow we will be making a run into town to find a laundry and pick up a few things at the grocery store and go to Lowes. We have decided to order new blinds for the boat and hopefully get them delivered to meet us in Mobile next month. Our friend from New Mat has to return his rental car so since we have our vehicle here we can help him get back to the marina.

Just for the record ... life is very good and this trip is fantastic. The folks you meet are probably the best part of the adventure however the trip ain't bad either. If you are reading this and have a boat ... better start planning your adventure.

Joe Wheeler - Rogersville, AL - 10/20/10

We're Back .....



Something just seems strange.... we drove 10 hours today just over 600 miles on 2 tanks of fuel. It took us 23 days and just under 700 gallons of fuel by boat to get to the same place. Boy are we having fun!



Tomorrow we will spend the day cleaning all the spider crap off the boat and spiff it up a bit so it will be presentable for the looper crawl and any guests that happen by. The rendezvous actually starts Sunday and the days will be full of information on things to come on the loop trip. We brought our vehicle back with us so we could bring the few items we forgot and some how we ended up with the back seats down in the SUV and it was crammed (sp) full! Some how it all got on the boat but the boot stripe is again under water.



We should be able to get some photos tomorrow of things around here so we can keep everyone amused. Until then ...over and out.

Rogersville, AL - 10/11/10

We left Florence Marina this morning at 8:45 after calling the Wilson lock and was told to be there in 1/2 hour and we could get

through. Anyone who has ever gone thru both Wilson & Wheeler locks know that a 2 or 3 hour wait at each is not unusual.

Wilson Lock is one of the biggest lifts at 93 feet. You can see from the pictures inside the lock the massive cave you enter. The left photo is looking up from the floating pin.

You can see the gates on top of the concrete sill and the strange thing is that the upstream gate goes down and you just drive over it. The sonar indicated it was 12 feet under the boat when we went over. It only took 15 minutes to go up the 93 feet but the turbulance was something else. A Nordic tug that we shared the lock with had bow and stern thrusters and still couldn't stay off the wall. After the Wilson, the Wheeler lock was a piece of cake and someone on the boat was happy both were behind us.

We are now at Joe Wheeler State Park where we have a slip rented for the month. We are leaving for WV tomorrow via a stopover in Tennessee and will return on 10/21 to attend the Great Looper Rendezvous. After the meeting we are taking a side trip up the TN to Chattanooga then back to Joe Wheeler the first week of November before starting further south.

I have had to go to the lodge to get wifi so I don't have the cordinates for this stop handy. Cell phone coverage and air cards are very scarce here.

Statistics - 10/10/10

For those wondering how we are doing with the numbers, here goes:

1. We have been away from WV for 23 days - 18 in marinas, 2 on the hook and 3 stay over days in a marina (2 @ Green Turtle & 1 @ Grand Harbor)
2. Traveled 1,056 statute miles (14% of the total trip)
3. Used 668 gallons of fuel = 1.6 MPG with an average cost of $3.23 per gallon
4. Marina dock fees to date - $674 (avg $0.94 per ft/ per night)

We pushed pretty hard to get off the Ohio River in 11 days (740.5 miles) which consumed more fuel than normal which brought our average down to 1.2 MPG. This should improve even more when we finish the upstream portion of the Tenn. River in Chattanooga and start down hill. The Tn River has had some parts with very strong current especially several miles before Pickwick Dam. Our normal cruise speed of 8.5 MPH was dropped to just over 7 MPH at the same RPM.

Florence Harbor, Florence, AL - 10/10/10

We left Grand Harbor Marina this morning about 9 a.m. and to Florence Harbor Marina arriving at 2:15 this afternoon. The ride was pretty uneventful until we passed the park right before the marina. This area is known as Muscle Shoals and it is pretty important to stay between the channel markers because there is rocks and mud outside them. Florence Harbor is very well designed and the daughter of the designer now runs the place. She caught our lines at the fuel dock/pump out and while this was going on she managed to receive and park 3 other boats. Our spot tonight is right beside the office so we can leave tomorrow for Joe Wheeler State Park where we have a long term rental for 30 days so we will have a spot to land after going upriver to Chattanooga for a week.

We will be going home for a week or so after we get to Joe Wheeler so the blog will be taking a rest until we get back on 10/21.

Our position tonight is N 34 47.204 W 87 40.419.

Grand HarborMarina - 10/9/10 (second Day)

As you can tell from the title we just couldn't leave this place today. This is absolutely one of the nicest places we have stayed so far. Staying a second day gave us the opportunity to do our laundry and tour the Shiloh National Park & Battlefield. Watching the movie at the visitors center about the battle and the young lives lost was very sobering. During our trip out the first mate had to get a shopping fix so we visited a couple stores looking for stuff to decorate the boat. I think we are running out of wall space pretty quickly.

Tomorrow we plan to leave early for the 40 plus miles to Florence, AL which will make the 6th state we have been into on this trip. This is where our friend Fred Myers lives and he has told us not to miss a visit to the Helen Keller birthplace. I can really understand how after making this adventure, some folks just keep on going again. The scenery along the way is nothing short of awesome. The few pictures we are able to post cannot do justice. Then of course as we have said before, the people you meet both on the rivers and in the marinas are fantastic. It doesn't matter if you are sharing a slip with a 80 footer (as we are here) or a 16 footer, everyone is equal as a boater. The guy next to us was on the dock to catch our ropes when we pulled in and in the course of meeting him, found out he just bought the boat in the Chesapeake last summer, went up thru the Great Lakes and is now on his way to California via the Panama Canal. Just another boater!

Speaking of posting, the wifi in the marina has to be rented by the week for almost $25 so we are relying on our Verizon air card for service and the transfer rate is very slooow.

After our day on "terra firma" we stopped for a burger on the way back to the marina and was treated to the awesome sunset show in the last picture.

Grand Harbor Marina, Iuka, MS - 10/8/10

We left Clifton Marina this morning at 9:00 a.m along with two other boats from Pickwick Marina that we had traveled with the last 2 days. It was about 50 miles up Kentucky Lake to Pickwick Dam. Kentucky Lake is very nice but Pickwick Lake takes it to another level.

The lock is a 55 foot lift and a little different from those we have seen so far. There is a concrete sill under the up river gates that looks to be at least 30 foot high which we will go over when the lift is complete.

As we traveled down the lake we saw a bald eagle perched in a dead tree and a nice house that Ricki wants me to make an offer on. We got to Grand Harbor around 4 p.m. and after getting settled, decided to get a courtesy vehicle and go to the recomended Freddie T's for dinner. On our walk to the parking lot we stopped and chatted awhile with Fred Myers and Joan at his slip. Fred is the author of several travel guides for the Cumberland, Tennessee and Ten-Tom waterways. He will also be a presenter at the rendezvous later this month. We like this place so much we may spend another day here.

For those of us who normally play on the Ohio River, We have seen tows pushing 25 barges on these lakes. Talk about intimidating!

Remember, to see a larger picture in the blog you can just click on the image. If you want to comment on our posts, just click on the word comment at the bottom of each post. We enjoy hearing what you think.

Our position tonight is: N 34 59.462 W 88 12.954