AGLCA Fall Rendezvous Side Trip (Days 144-150)

-

 

We set our sights on the AGLCA Fall Rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park.  To get there we cruised up the beautiful Tennessee River. Initially we went through Pickwick Lake formed by the Pickwick Dam.

The colors of fall continue to offer us very pleasant views along the waterway.
Our first stop on the way up was Florence Alabama.  This town is famous for the Muscle Shoals music industry which had its beginnings right across the river.  The weekend we arrived was the song writers festival.  We were able to enjoy some live music at a bar called Swampers after the band that started the movement here. 
One of the best things about Florence is that old Army Air Defense families live nearby. On the way up to the park Rob and Tammy Jassey came for dinner.
The night was just beautiful and we had a beautiful sunset cruise.
We had an early morning departure to get through the Wilson Lock.
Several boats joined us.  This is one of the largest lifts on the river, 90 feet.
And this guy seemed to be the lock sentry.
At the top we still had a slight glow from the sunrise.
And the crew set off across Lake Wilson.
The early morning sun enhanced the color viewing. 
We had a great time at the Rendezvous.  We met a lot of people, saw a lot of boats and learned a lot about the route ahead of us going to Florida and the Bahamas.
This information will be so valuable to us the days ahead.  Fortunately Mike did get a few drone shots. We were so busy the entire time.
After the Rendezvous we had another early morning departure for the Wheeler Lock.
After scrambling to get out we arrived at the Wilson Lock but needed to drop an anchor for a 2 hour wait to get in the chamber. The good news was we rafted with another boat and met some more new people.
We stopped at Florence again.  We toured a Frank Lloyd Wright home in the afternoon. This time Air Defenders, Dave and Robyn Mann, joined us.  Unfortunately it was raining and we didn’t take any photos, but it was sure great to see these friends again.
Our Journey 

“A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭1‬:‭5‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sandestin Resort Florida (Days 162-210)

-
Image
  Here we are at the Marina Grill at the Baytowne Marina for what we believe will be a 6 week rest. Along the way we were accompanied by numerous dolphins as we are discovering, they love to surf in our wake. I did not get the best video because the Blue Angles surprised us coming out of formation right above the boat.  I grabbed my camera and caught them making their final approach.  They had been out of town and were just returning to Pensacola Naval Air Station. As soon as we arrived at the marina, Mike rinsed the boat with fresh water given several days with it in the salt air. To our delight, the marina had our golf cart waiting for us at the dock. Unfortunately, it was much colder there than we thought it would be. Some Looper friends, Jaleen and Hunter, from Catniss joined us for one night, but left early for an unexpected weather window to cross the Gulf. For Thanksgiving we took the golf cart to the beach and walked along the gulf to the Surf Hut.  It was co...
Read more

Key West/ Boca Chica First Days(Days 238-243)

-
Image
We finally arrived in Key West and will be here for a month.  We are expecting quite a few visitors while we are here. The entrance to the harbor was straight and deep Thanks to the Navy carving out the coral for building the runway. These Tarpon were in our slip to greet us.  They are around 4-5 feet long and continued as regular visitors. We headed over to the beach side bar to check it out. And enjoyed our first spectacular sunset. We walked back to the boat and the sky remained beautiful.  Looks as if our daily decision will be sunset from the beach or the boat? We rode our bicycles into Key West on our first full day here. We went to Divers Direct to learn about the Brownie Air system for diving then we went to lunch at the Wharf.  This is where we saw our first Manatee since being in Florida. The Tarpon were also numerous and quite active feeding on the fishermen’s cleaning remains. We were thrilled and honored to greet our friends Jerry and Denice on Nevadatud...
Read more

Getting Ready to Go

-
Image
  The past couple of weeks have seen a flurry of  activity as we seriously get ready for our big looping journey. By ‘we” I mean Mike.  He really can do it all.  He installed a hardwood floor over the winter, but this week he has put to use an amazing number of skills.  He wired a new back up camera, fixed the hot water heater (this one wasn’t on the to do list but went straight to the top), repaired the salon air conditioner by replacing the main circuit board and a whole host of preventative maintenance that I won’t even attempt to list here. We are taking one last trip to visit Lindsay’s family for Easter leaving our car and trailer/garage with her. We leave in 6 days😳
Read more