" When Pigs Fly"

Our first month has ended. We have made our first transitional trip home, arriving in Lee’s Summit Saturday around 2:00 PM. The remnants of Hurricane Isaac brought both windy days and rain into our boating region, so getting home a few days earlier than originally planned seemed prudent. I’ll return to Huntsville on Friday 9/7/12 with our rental car to do more boat projects. They just never seem to end. Anna will remain in KC and flying back to Huntsville on the 19th.

What a month we have had since leaving Buzzard Rock. We have boated 580 miles and consumed close to 765 gallons of gas, for an average of .7581 miles per gallon. Just short of the anticipated goal of .80 MPG. All of our traveling has been upstream against a 3 MPH current, with the exception of the return trip from Chattanooga back to Huntsville, a distance of about 140 miles.

As we departed Chattanooga we knew that we would be just a half a step ahead of Isaac the whole way back to Huntsville, but we hoped for the best, planned for the worst, and dropped our dock lines. Our first night out was spent  on the hook in a peaceful secondary channel; a full moon only a two days away. Our second night we stayed at Goose Pond tied safely to the dock. The next morning it looked like Isaac may have caught up with us and we were going to get tagged. With only a 40% chance of rain, and less that 40 miles to go we decided to leave. As we left the dock the sky was filled with very unhappy clouds and a persistent wind that we  plagued  us all the way to Guntersville Lock.

It was hard to understand the wind, the river wound around like a serpent, our compass continually spinning to all four quadrants, yet the wind was always on our beam. I guess this is another boating phenomenon that never has an answer. As we entered Guntersville Lock the wind was pushing us fast into the lock, I had the engines in reverse just trying to hold us even to tie up. Then as we exited the lock and entered Wheeler Lake the wind stopped, the humidity climbed to 100% and the temperature climbed from the low 70’s to the mid 80’s all in less than 15 minutes. On the bright side we were then making way at 1.2 miles per gallon. Anna had the helm and I got to relax with a Land Shark and look forward to the Tenn-Tom.

This past month we have stayed in 11 marinas, some we wish never to see again, but most were comfortable with friendly people. At some we stayed more than one night, waiting on a weather window or just wanting to see the sights.

We both found the battlefields of Shiloh and Chattanooga the most interesting. Both battlefields were amazing with their terrain and their immensity. It’s difficult to understand how each General could conduct his battle fronts with only signal flags and couriers. The huge number of dead generated from these two battles is sobering with over 36,000 Americans killed and each battle just lasting 2-3 days.

Chattanooga, with its night life and river front provided the most fun us two old fogies have had in a long time. We spent three days in Chattanooga. We toured the aquarium, learned about tornados at the IMAX, barged into Beer Fest, went to a movie, ate great lunches and dinners, and just enjoyed being together.

The history in Huntsville, AL where the state’s first constitution was written was interesting, and those beautiful antebellum homes are a true testament to the commitment to preserve history for future generations. Also in Huntsville we found the first Sonic since Kentucky. This made us both happy, good ice and half priced malts! Life is good.

We’ve been through 7 locks and mastered 6 of them. Pickwick, our first lock, was such a debacle we’ll have to score this one, Pickwick - 1 / Boaters – 0. We have now forgotten this one bad experience, only discussing the ones we have mastered. We have also boated through three states this past month KY, TN and AL. In each of these three states we have managed some form of boat repair; some minor and others a little more spectacular. What’s the old line? The difference between Yachting and Boating, boating is fixing your boat in exotic places. Exotic has yet to be seen. But it’s all worth it.

The Tennessee River has been captivating.  Most days we rarely saw another boat, let alone a gas dock. Some sections sported beautiful homes while others were more natural.  Often the water, the trees and the sky blended to create a new perspective that made it difficult to tell which way the river turned, or if it just stopped out there in the reflection.   

Our next turn will be south, down the Tenn-Tom. So this will be the last post until we start back boating again, both refreshed and raring to go. Only then I’ll be officially another year older.

See you on the water.