Sunday October 23: Chattanooga, TN!!!

From Ditto Landing we continued up the Tennessee through northern Alabama with some of the trees showing colors but many with leaves that are just dried up and brown. There has been a definite lack of water so because of this the colors are not what they might be. But still plenty of them and still fantastic scenery. There are lots of cliffs along the river now as we go higher and east toward the mountains. We spent Friday night at Goose Colony Pond Marina. Very nice folks. It was hidden away about 1/4 mile off of the channel - the last picture is looking back at the channel going to the marina.

Once again our luck held with the locks. A bunch of buzzards were sitting on the handrail awaiting our entrance - not sure if that is good or bad! This is the Nickajack Lock is the last one before Chattanooga. All of these locks are basically the same (except for the height of the lift) and are easy to use. There are floating "bollards" that Steve wraps a line in the center of the boat to so we are tied to the bollard. It then floats up with the lock. Very little turbulence - not like the old locks on the Trent used to be. He always keeps a knife handy in case the bollard would stick so he could cut the rope quickly. This is suggested in the guidebooks for the river - sounded like a wise thing to do!

Yesterday we passed the remnants of a nuclear power plant that never went on line! The twin cooling towers are still there but that's it. Strange. Saw another eagle. Wished he would have turned around. They are still fun to see along the river. Steve made a great lunch today (we typically have been cruising 6 - 7 hours a day so it's always lunch on the run): a hot turkey sandwich!! One of my favorite things. No mashed potatoes but can't have everything :-)

Last night was spent at anchor. It was a very pretty spot and the leaves in our little bay were some of the most spectacular we've seen! It was very quiet and we were the only ones there. Up early this morning to move on. Once we are in Chattanooga, we are back in Tennessee and also back in the Eastern time zone!

More tomorrow about our time in Chattanooga! Go Browns - I have seen the end yet (waiting for Becky to watch the first half and we'll watch the second half "together")