Fall Leaves and Friends

Our journey right now is back-tracking on the Tennessee River to the Pickwick Dam area. From there, we will turn south on the Tenn-Tom (Tennessee-Tom Bigbee) to Mobile Bay. Even though we are passing through the same areas, there are still some things to tell…

First of all, the leaves have truly been incredible in some places. Sadly, my camera is not up to the task in many cases. The best photos are the ones where the sun is shining directly on the trees, or from behind them. Second, we have rejoined some old friends and met some new ones along the way. The night before we left Chattanooga, we decided to call and check in with Sweetgrass. Jenny had gone back to Charleston to await the birth of her twin granddaughters, and Jerry had pressed on with volunteer crew until their actual arrival. We knew that Jerry was presenting at the Looper Rendezvous the weekend of October 24, and that Jenny would rejoin the boat there. We weren’t sure which direction they were headed afterward, so we called to see. As it turned out, they were on their way to Chattanooga. They were planning to spend the next night within a few miles of where we planned to be! We decided to anchor at Cedar Mountain with them. There were three boats traveling with Sweetgrass. Two of them decided to go further to a marina. Adagio came into the cove with them. What do you do when three looper boats get together? You have cocktails! 

Jenny and Jerry were rafted to us. Adagio went a little further into the cove and dinghied over. It was good to see the Reves, and we enjoyed meeting Ron and Jan. We asked them lots of questions about the looper event and they picked our brains about Chattanooga and Knoxville. We hope to run into them again somewhere in Florida. At some point, Ron asked if we knew that the next lock going down was going to be closed the following day. He had read about it in a notice to mariners – we had not! The lock was to close at 8am. Steve got on the radio and called the lock to verify times, and we were told that if we got there by 7am we could lock through. Ron saved us a day of frustration! The next morning, we called to tell them we were coming. The lockmaster told us to hurry – he had electricians already there. At that particular time, we were still rafted to Sweetgrass and there was thick fog all around us. We couldn’t see 30ft! We do have radar, of course, but we were going faster than usual and it was not comfortable at all! As the sun rose, the fog started to burn off. The rest of the day was sunny but a little hazy.

That afternoon we pulled into Goose Pond. We were docked right across from Nauti Nell. We have met Mike and Twyla along the way before. In the looper world, there are Harbor Hosts. These are people who have agreed to be available for loopers when they come through. Steve and I are Harbor Hosts for Savannah. Ray and Patsy are the Harbor Hosts for Scottsboro, AL, the nearest town to Goose Pond. They came by the marina and offered to take us a local restaurant. At the appointed time, Ray and Patsy showed up with Ron and Jan from Jolly Tolly. Ron and Jan just completed their loop and Goose Pond is their home port. The eight of us went to the restaurant and had a great time. They put us in a back room by ourselves – I guess they’ve heard about loopers.  

We spent an uneventful night at Ditto Landing. Today (Thursday) we plan to go to Joe Wheeler State Park again. The weather is threatening, so we are staying inside. Rain is OK, but we are hoping that the wind won’t be too bad. On the Weather Channel this morning we saw a piece about the tornadoes that hit Alabama and Tennessee in April. We have seen some of the evidence along the river – damage to houses and lots of downed trees. Let’s hope this front doesn’t bring anything like that!

Leaving Chattanooga

There were hundreds of coots where we anchored.

Even more coots!

Here comes Sweetgrass!

Early morning with fog on the water

We did find the lock!

L-R: Mike, Twyla, Jan, Ray and Patsy, Ron, Beth and Steve

Tornado damage