5/28/17 to 7/26/17 – Side Trip Tennessee River -- Grand Harbor, Counce TN (corner of MS, AL & TN on Pickwick Lake) Knoxville, TN

5/28/17.  This is from Ken and the log book.  I stayed home and Kenton and Lynx (son and grandson) came along to help move the boat through this “working” leg.  I think that there were some funny stories with the two new deck crew but so far not included in the book.  It wasn’t as fun as usual, and since this is a side trip to the Loop and it’s harder to get away from home, these guys were nice enough to go along and help. 

Left Ohio at 7:12 and arrived at 1:32 or 2:32 Ohio time.  488 miles to Grand Harbor Marina.  Took car back to Corinth with Courtesy Van.  35 minutes each way.  Stopped at Freddy T’s for dinner.  Lynx and Kenton along.  Candy at home Boo Hoo.  Quick lessons on lines and docking to tomorrow. Wilson Lock only open from 4pm to 6am due to repairs.  Interesting.

5/29/17.  Up early and left dock at Grand Harbor at 7am.  Decided to skip Florence and head to Wilson Lock and wait for what will happen.  Arrived at 11:32am at Wilson Lock and waited til 5:35 pm to enter.  Left at 6:30 to Wheeler Lock at 7:45 and out at 8:30pm.  Getting dark, went to Wheeler State Park #12 for night at 8:45pm.  No food, but maybe ok since next morning breakfast was horrible. Long Day!  Ham & turkey sandwiches again.

But we got the 2 bastard locks out of way.

5/30/17.  Left Wheeler State Park at 9:16am for Ditto Landing.  Had to wait on opening of Decatur Railroad Bridge.  Arrived at 3pm.  Good trip, but bad storm just south of us that never came our way.

5/31/17.  Left Ditto Landing at 7:15 arrive Guntersville Lock at 9am, he opened right away and were out at 9:30am.  Arrive at Guntersville, fuel and slip D414 at 10:45am. 

6/21/17 -  Side Trip Tennessee River – Guntersville, AL to Chattanooga, TN

We arrived from Ohio around 3pm in our car.  We toured Guntersville by car and walked the downtown a bit.  This is a very charming town but not accessible by dinghy dock or close to the marina.  We at at the Rock House which was very good.  It had been raining off and on but started pouring when we were back at the boat and continued all night.  Tropical Storm Cindy passed over us this night.

We had breakfast at the Guntersville Lake Lodge, a huge and beautiful lodge set high up on a bluff overlooking the Tenn. River.  The rain kept the view to a minimum but you could still see that the area is just breathtaking. 

We went back to the boat and headed out with occasional pieces of Miss Cindy hitting us along the way.  The day turned sunny later on but we knew the storm was hitting badly at home.

We arrived at Goose Pond Marina in the early afternoon and we took their courtesy car to drive back to Guntersville to pick up our car.  We drove around Scottsboro, AL and saw a nice downtown in the midst of some major redevelopment…..but no restaurants.  We stopped at one that was recommended but had beer and headed back for a very nice dinner at the Docks at the Marina. 

It was raining off and on the first hour but the skies cleared up and arrived at Nickjack Lock at 10:30am.  They opened for us right away and we were out in 15 minutes….Great !  We kept on moving and arrived at the Bluff slips managed by Erwin Marine in downtown Chattanooga by early afternoon.

 We started exploring Chattanooga with their shuttle service to the south side and across the river to the North Shore.  Ken took an Uber back to pick up our car at Goose Pond so we had that to take around. We visited Rock City which, though very touristy, had very interesting rock formations and a killer view.  We had a very nice lunch with that spectacular view of 7 states.

We looked at visiting Ruby Falls but the lines were way too long.  We visited both the Ocean and Rivers Aquariums which were both interesting and beautiful. 

We were joined on the bluff docks by a group of 7-8 boats traveling together from Fort Loundon Marina.  They were all very friendly and several invited us to visit them at the marina on the way to Knoxville.  We did a lot, again, of eating at some various restaurants, listened to numerous country musicians and got a nice feel for the city.  We moved the boat to the Condo slips to leave it until we return after refueling at their docks.  We cleaned, packed and headed home around 2pm which made for a very long day.

7/20/17 to 7/27/17 – Chattannoga, TN to Knoxville, TN

We arrived in Chattannooga about 1:00am, unloaded a bit and went to bed.  It is blazing hot here.  In the morning, we decided to spend the day here and take off tomorrow morning.  I went to the grocery, we went to the North Shore for breakfast at Milk and Honey, Ken took the car back and then we moved the boat to the Bluff docks for better access to everything.  We used our tickets to IMAX and saw a movie about the rain forests in 3D….amazing.  We snacked, went back for a nap and then had our anniversary dinner at Bluewater Grill with a take-home dessert sampler !

In the morning, we headed to the Chickamonga Lock and got right in and out.  We are unsure how far we will get today and it is going to be really hot.  There is a 30 stretch between the last marina and Watts Barr Lock so once you head that way, you are committed and if you don’t make it through the lock, you have to anchor out…..and there do not appear to be many spots off the the river to keep out of the way.  But, it was a fast trip through the lock.  There at 1:15, in at 1:25 and out at 1:45—can’t get much better than that.  They only had one pin on the RDB in the whole lock but since we were the only boat, it worked just fine. 

We got into Terrace View Marina around 3:00pm and headed to the bar/restaurant to cool off.  This was a long, hot day with two locks and 78 miles traveled.  This marina was purchased a year ago by a family with 7 kids and the whole family was working.  Ken met several members when he was checking in and the Dad came to the table and talked for a bit.  They really seem to be working hard to give good customer service and we sure hope they can make a go of it.   After we cooled down and got a snack, we went back to the boat for a nap (the AC had been able to cool it down), then went back to the restaurant for dinner later along with some music.  We also watched a beautiful sunset over the mountains off the patio.

In the morning, we headed out for the 52 mile/1 lock journey to Fort Loudon Marina.  This whole section had many beautiful homes, some grand historic homes and some just big and new, along the banks. 

We were trying to stay out of a storm going to the north of us.  This river runs such tight curves that we were able to hang in one of the southern bends until the storm passed.  Ken spoke to the Ft. Loudon Lockmaster and he said it would be about 55 minutes until he could take us in.  We slowed down enough that we didn’t have much of a wait at the lock.  About ½ mile after the lock is Fort Loudon Marina where we were stopping for the night. We got fuel and were docked by 2:00pm.  We walked up to the outside bar at Calhoun’s to cool off again, except it was still outside but the temperature seemed much better today….maybe a little less humidity.  We had dinner inside at Calhouns and Ken got a ride back by the owner, Ed, and got to tell him a little of our tales.  I walked for the exercise but caught up and chatted with them at the gate.  We had some storms during the night and after hearing all the clopping around up top, ran up to help bring in everything from the rain and shut things up. 

We headed to Knoxville in the morning.  The weather had cooled off just a bit and it was nice and cloudy for most of the trip !  Again, a huge number of large houses along the river.  The mountains make a wonderful backdrop.  All of this river has been very pretty and gives all of these houses great views.  There are a lot of bluffs and everything is very green.  We haven’t had much debris in the water either.

We arrived in Knoxville at the Volunteer Landing Marina.  It’s just below downtown along a nice walking/river park.  We checked into a slip and will discuss with the manager tomorrow if we can get a longer term slip.  After cooling down for a bit, we headed out to find the trolleys and figure out how to get around town.  There are three lines all covering a different bit of town.  There’s lots of food and action on Gay and Market Streets.  We went into the first “ice cream” store and ended up with frozen ice and custard—mixed.  Then we happened upon a local pharmacy (Phoenix Pharmacy) in a beautiful building.  We went in and talked shop to the son and father who owned it.  They put a very nice, original looking soda fountain out front and we will certainly go back for some real ice cream.  We got the “inside scoop” on how the one son went to ice cream school.  They make almost everything on premises including the ice cream. 

We had dinner on Market Square.  We also took all three trollies around to see where they could take us…..getting a lay of the land for later! Later we took a walk along the Volunteer Landing Park which runs along the river from the Neyland Stadium (UT’s football stadium) to the marina.  It’s a very lovely park with water spouts and swinging benches and, of course, the river and bridges.  We also figured out the other way to cross the highway from the river to downtown via an overhead walkway. 

In the morning, we went to The French Market Creperie !  It was a great breakfast because we split one savory and one sweet crepe….perfect.  Ken went back to the marina to discuss slips with the harbor master and I headed north to check out the arts district.  The Emporium Center for Arts & Culture is in this area and has an open lobby area and studios that are open when the artists are there.  It was a nice anchor for this district but I didn’t see much else in this area.  I headed down to the Art Market Gallery on Gay St. that was opening at 11:00.  It was manned by two nice gentlemen that had been involved in art in Knoxville for many years.  It was a nice co-op gallery with a good selection of local items. I did, however, leave without a purchase. I think I forgot to mention that the market square has a selection of public art that changes each year.  The same group that does ours in Vandalia has done this exhibit in the past.  It makes quite an impact in this area. 

When I got back to the boat, it was decision time. There were several slips available so we walked the docks and my pic had to do with view and steps to the gate !  Ken made his decision on steps to the gate and how much debris was getting into the slips.  We each have our priorities!  It is a long walk just to get to the street which then is quite a walk to downtown. We’ve figured out the trolley shortcut but still…….. And the overwhelming factor on this trip is how hot it’s been.  It really makes any adventure more taxing though it’s a good excuse to not clean the flybridge or outside of the boat. We got all newly situated and now have a nice view out the back to the river and a park on the southern bank.  We had dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steak House which is right above the marina.

The next morning we went to breakfast at OliBea in Old Town and walked around the area.  I had heard about Pretentious Glass and Pretentious Beer Company so we checked them out though it was too early to check out the beer.  We walked through the Farmers Market…..just too hot to hang out and enjoy.  We checked out some of the historic properties and will hit them on a future visit.

We spent the day cleaning up the boat, Ken took an Uber to get the rental car, went back downtown for ice cream at the Phoenix Pharmacy (next time we’ll split a sundae !) and dinner at Café 4.

In the morning, we loaded up and headed for home.