Gemini Loop: Back to Grand Harbor and Heading South

We have completed our side trip to Chattanooga and Knoxville. It was a 400 mile cruise through some beautiful mountains and scenery (and 400 miles back). We are now back at Grand Harbor and will head south down the Tenn-Tom.

When we stopped in Florence, AL, before it was the October "First Friday" and they were celebrating Halloween. This time, we arrived on the "First Friday" of November. They were having a huge pep rally for the local college, The University of Northern Alabama. Their colors are purple and yellow and their mascot is a lion (actually two lions - a male and a female).

I'm getting ahead of myself here. I have to get us to Florence, don't I? We left Goose Pond with a fairly long day and two locks ahead of us. At the second lock, we waited for a little while so that a couple of other pleasure boats could lock through with us. When the water level was down, the lockmaster told us there was problem with the doors. We had visions of spending hours in the lock and were already planning the cocktail party. After a short time, we were told that they would open the one door that would open and we should go out carefully. Good news!

The two boats we waited on in the lock turned out to be Erika Lin and Sweet Pea, both of them looper boats we had met before. Before we reached Florence, we heard from Last Dance. We last saw them at Green Turtle Marina and they were coming to Florence from the other direction. We all made plans to go into Florence for the "First Friday" festivities and dinner. In the meantime, we had Ryder groomed and did our grocery shopping.

That night, there was a large and enthusiastic crowd downtown. Bands were playing and vendors were selling all kinds of things. We had a great time milling about and then met back up for dinner at a great Italian restaurant. The two mascots for the football team arrived while we were eating. I didn't take photos of them, because I didn't want to upset them!

Yesterday (Saturday) we made the trip from Florence to Grand Harbor. It was a beautiful day but there was a haze that dulled the colors of the leaves. We arrived in time to hook up cable and watch the end of the Georgia game. The big game of the day, of course, was the Alabama/LSU game. We were happy to get that as well - our satellite TV doesn't get local channels, so we're hit and miss on football games.

Today we start making our way toward Mobile Bay. We are hoping to catch up with The Cooper in a day or so. We will keep you posted as internet allows... apparently we are about to really be in the boonies!

Overcast and rainy when we left Goose Pond.

A Coast Guard buoy tender.

The water was actually a little choppy.

The colors were dull.

Sunshine makes a big difference.

Loved this old car. That's the Homecoming Queen next to it.

This lady made cool things out of gourds.

An owl hat

This pup looks like Bella

This little pup is actually in the window of its apartment, which faces the main street.

The restaurant was rocking! They put us up on the balcony.

Going around the table from the right: Bob and Lynda from Erika Lin, Jill and Glenn from Last Dance, Jim and Dale from Sweet Pea and, of course, the crew of Gemini.