Back on the water

There's a little more color on that hill than there was when we arrived at Joe Wheeler State Park almost a month ago.

The speakers at the rendesvous gave us lots of information about the next leg of our journey, plus there was lots of food, wine, and good company.  For a couple of meals we sat with the couple who received recognition for having traveled the furthest to do the loop-Mike and Gail from Queensland, Australia.  Thursday evening, after the rendesvous ended and many boats had gone, we enjoyed drinks and good conversation with them aboard their boat, Happy Hour V.

A lifeboat demonstration at the rendesvous-hard to believe this little bundle will grow to accommodate 4 people:

Many boats left early Thursday morning:

We left Friday, but not early, as this was how the day greeted us:

Two locks and a cold (high 40's) ride down the river and we were back in Florence.  There was frost on the pumpkins this morning, so we waited until 11 to take a walk.  It's noon now and we're getting ready to move to the gas dock, then back on the water.  We plan to be on the Tenn-Tom when we stop for the night.

On the Boat Again...

Why is the temperature in Alabama the same as in Michigan?!  We filled the back seats and the cargo area of the rental Mazda 5 and, as happened with all the "necessities" we brought all spring and summer, Mary Frances IV had room to stow it all.  Dreary weather the whole trip, good thing the company (Nevada Barr on cd, as well as our 35 year-old best friendship) was inspiring.

Thursday we drove back to Huntsville to Redstone Arsenal to check out the exchange and commissary.  Mary's father worked on the Saturn 5 moon vehicle project back in the 60's and spent some time here before being transferred to New Orleans.  We always buy more than we plan at the commissary but, once again, Mary Frances IV has room for all of it.  We ate lunch at the Officer and Civilian Club (the army no longer practices the elitism of officers' clubs) and had Schnitzel with sauerkraut and sweet and sour red cabbage that tasted just like the cabbage Mary's Grandma Gracik used to make.  The rental car goes back to Florence today, so no more gallivanting.  We'll be here at least through Wednesday, October 26th for the looper rendesvous.  Other boats are arriving as it begins Sunday:

Our new mascot, Happy Hippo beanie baby.

Mary and John on Passport from Mackinaw City arrived Friday.  We hadn't seen them since Mackinaw City.  We made up for it by having dinner together and visiting until "last call".  Not last call as you're imagining-we're in a dry county.  We talked until the restaurant staff was clearing up to close. It's fun during introductions to be "John and Mary from Mackinaw City" and "John and Mary from Mackinaw City".

We no longer have the "furthest-traveled" Mackinaw City Yacht Club burgee, as John ad Mary have theirs with them, also.

Home, Sweet Home-Can't wait to get back to the boat!

WE INTENDED TO TAKE PICTURES EVERY TIME WE MET WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHILE WE'RE HOME, BUT ARE SIMPLY NOT USED TO TAKING THE CAMERA WITH US!!!  WE REMEMBERED ONCE-WITH MIKE AND KATHY.

John picked up the mail Tuesday-Jo had made her usual weekly trip to the post office on Monday but they had the nerve to be closed for Columbus Day.  We received a delightful book about traveling the rivers from Sarah and Benjamin, but the rest of the mail...   Wednesday Mary took a few items to the consignment shop then met John at Michigan National Guard Headquarters in Lansing to replace her expired military i.d.  John then went home to blow leaves and go on-line to figure out why Mary's Kindle wouldn't power up and Mary went to St. Johns for some girl time to make cards with people she had worked with. She then traveled to Tawas for a loving overnight visit with her parents.  They gave her a cute swimsuit cover-up.

Thursday John had his eye exam and we met Kathy and Mike in Midland for dinner:

Friday we drove back to Midland for flu shots at Dow medical then on to Lansing for Mary's 6 month hip check-up.  Everything's exactly as it should be, although it is a bit disconcerting to see the threads and the point of the stabilizing screw in the x-ray.  We met Jackie and Paul for dinner in Mt. Pleasant (they delivered the beanie baby hippo Janice had bought for Mary back in April) and came home to find an early Christmas gift from Matthew and Christine leaning against the garage door.  A spray bottle of natural spider repellant may not seem very sentimental, but boaters know that anything that may reduce the spider population is welcome!

Saturday we enjoyed the best unexpected bonus of this trip home-because the weather has been so conducive to travel, we arrived at Joe Wheeler State Park earlier than expected and changed Mary's hip appointment and came home a week earlier than planned.  Our Sarah was here from Boston to celebrate her mother's birthday!  She came to our house and we surprised her by celebrating her birthday early, as we will be back on the rivers when it actually occurs:

Sarah took us out to lunch at the new restaurant at the golf course in Shepherd and we immensely enjoyed our time with her.  

Sunday we met Jo for brunch in Shepherd.  She told us she was meeting with her estate planning lawyer, Sarah, the next week.  We had a great visit and discussed many things, but the lawyer comment became relevant when a woman turned when leaving the restaurant to greet Jo.  She then glanced at us and stopped short as we all realized that the Sarah who is Jo's estate lawyer is the same Sarah who was Matthew's girlfriend for a few years back in and right after high school.  Her dad was with her and we caught up on families and we got to meet her husband Eric when he came back into Jenny's Diner to see what was keeping her.

After lunch we delivered birthday and Christmas gifts to our great-nephews Luke, Nick, and Noah-Jo's grandsons. We had hoped to see the youngest great-nephew on the Leatherman side, but gave Camden's Christmas and birthday gifts to Jo to give to his grandma, John's sister Janice.  Mary drove to Bay City to meet her sister, Sue, and exchange hugs with Sue and her daughters, Amber and Sara. Mary had already given Sue and Amber their birthday and Christmas gifts, but sang "Happy Birthday" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as Sara opened her gifts.  They presented Mary with a birthday gift-2 bottles of Michigan wine and some dipping pretzels and dip, also Michigan products.  We are loving meeting people on our trip, but we do miss those back home.

We can go on a color tour in our own yard:

Monday John drove to Midland to buy oil for the boat and, hopefully, a light bulb.  We used our spare back at Joe Wheeler.  Mary went to the eye doctor to have new lenses trimmed and installed.  This will be the third set of lenses in these year-old glasses.  We will not buy anti-glare again.  At least they've all been covered under warranty.  Spoke to others who have the same problem with the lenses scratching or filming and even those who haven't had that issue don't see that the anti-glare makes much difference.  Mary can see the laptop screen better on deck (John doesn't have anti-glare), but that seems to be the only advantage.  We don't use the laptop for navigation, so that sure isn't worth the aggravation.  Not to mention Mary has to wear her "lined" bifocals, as her last pair of glasses is on the boat and we only have an older pair at home.

We'll pick up a few groceries and some vinegar to dump in the toilets tomorrow, then go to bed early tonight as we plan to be back on the road in the mornng.  We borrowed Nevada Barr's 2 books (on cd) set on the Natchez Trace to listen to as we travel.  If you like mysteries and national parks, give her a try.  She actually is a national park ranger.  Oh, yeah, John did manage to reset the Kindle using "help" at Amazon, but he had to "live chat" to get the 3G network working again.

Traveling along the Trace

We have been blessed weather-wise.  Friday we decided to play tennis instead of riding our bikes or walking.  Perhaps we should say we played "AT" tennis.  We didn't keep score, just tried to get the ball back across the net and somewhere close to each other.  It's a good thing all 4 courts were empty, as we played across 3 of them-just started up wherever the last missed ball landed.  We did manage one long volley of 6!  We were glad no one was around to capture award winning "Funniest Home Video" clips.  After 30 minutes of our version of tennis, we decided to toss the Frisbee.  We are much better with the Frisbee than with our tennis rackets.

We went for an hour long dinghy ride back to the entrance of First Creek then down to the boat launch.  Mary made a batch of white chicken chili, John drove to the store, and we decided to leave for home Saturday, to give us time to drive more of the Natchez Trace.

We had a difficult time getting to Meriwether Lewis' grave site.  He died in a small inn near here (depression is nefarious) and was buried in this small pioneer cemetery.  The reason we couldn't drive directly to the site is:

This craft fair is an annual event.  The small building in the picture is a replica of the stand (inn) as it would have appeared when Lewis stayed there.  We saw 4 Tennessee State Troopers directing traffic, 4 National Park Rangers supervising handicap parking, 2 rangers guarding another driveway, and 2 rangers in the vendor area. There was no indication where the grave was, except signs at roads that were blocked.  We drove around once, then stopped to ask a ranger guarding the handicap lot if there was any way we could pay our respects to Lewis.  He was so delighted that there was someone visiting who was actually interested in history that he stepped back and indicated we should drive right in past him and take a short walk to the little cemetery.

This little lady is too used to people.  She stood as we passed her, backed up to take her picture, rolled down the window-the i-pod was playing-took off the lens cover and aimed the camera. She only moved back about 4 steps when the camera clicked.

The Birdsong Hollow bridge, completed in 1994, received the Presidential Award for Design Excellence.  We usually plan a fall color tour-New England, the Blue Ridge Parkway-but we're enjoying this one, even though unplanned!

A small home seen from the Trace.  Mary won the "Zip" game here, although the horses do not appear in this picture.  

We took 3 days to get home. We could have been here Sunday, but John didn't want to arrive at 9:00 pm to a cold house and go down in the crawlspace to turn the water on.  We arrived Monday a little after noon, after stopping in Alma to choose new glasses for John, who has an eye exam scheduled during this sojourn.  John shopped for a few groceries-there's not much food in our house- and picked up the mail from Jo, while Mary took care of things we don't need anymore on the trip and started laundry.  It only took a couple of hours to sort the mail-most of it we didn't need to pay any attention to.  A couple of items made us smile-a birthday gift for Mary from her friend Jo in California and thank you notes from our niece Amber for her birthday and Christmas gifts.  Our lawn service arrived while John was out and he stopped to talk to the woman who was weed whipping the ditch. Something about her seemed familiar-sure enough, Rose was a year book editor for Mary in her early teaching days way back at Sacred Heart.  Rose is retired and now works with her husband in their business.  Mary and Rose had a great catching-up visit and John arranged for leaf pick-up and eaves trough cleaning.  He had planned to do those chores himself, but it's early in the leaf fall and would have to be done again later, so it's a relief to know that Chris will take care of it.

Tuesday we got much-needed haircuts and had a good visit with Orval, who has been cutting our hair for 34 years.  Mary bought a furnace filter and a few more groceries, while John picked up a prescription, bought an ink cartridge for the home printer, and located a new battery for the dive computer.  We can't wait to return to the relaxed pace of boating!

What did YOU leave on the airplane?!

Thursday we went to Scottsboro, Al to the:

It has been featured on the network morning shows, Letterman, CBS Sunday Morning and others. We get that people are likely to leave books, glasses, phones, cosmetics, but how do you leave your wedding dress?!  Or your computer, or I-Pad, or your 4 foot mounted moose antlers?!!!  Or your troll?!!!:

This is Hoggie, a Henson puppet from the film Labyrinth.  How did whoever carried him to the airport not miss him?!

The store is over 40,000 square feet:

If you lived close, it would be fun to visit every Friday, when restocking occurs.  We bought some dvd's.

We were on a road again today that follows the Trail of Tears and recognize that Scottsboro is also known for a more sinister part in our country's history.

Anther day at Joe Wheeler

We rode our bikes 10 1/2 miles today through the park, into the campground, and to the boat launch.  John enjoys the challenge of the hills, Mary can't wait to ride at Pensacola Naval Air station and in the Keys, where the terrain is flat, FLat, FLAT! Mary got on and off her bike alone twice today. Hurray new hip!  John washed the boat, Mary blogged and cleaned up some e-mail.

Mary and friend at Florence (don't you love it, Sara?!)

Last year, during our 7th summer on this boat, Mary realized that she could bring the bow line along the side of the boat to hand to whoever was helping us dock.  Previously, she would have handed a stern line off from the stern, then clambered along the side of the boat to reach the bow line to hand off.  Now she could hand off the stern line and, with only a little scrambling, reach the end of the bow line to hand it off. If the lines were just a little longer, she could have held both at the same time, instead of that little reach. So it only took 6 1/2 years to figure out this amazingly simple solution. Well, our boat has not only a stern cleat and a bow cleat, but also a midship cleat.  You've already figured it out, haven't you? Yup, by using the midship line and the stern line, she can hold both at the same time, even from the swim platform, so she can hand the midship line off if someone is assisting, or step off onto the dock with both lines, if we're on our own.  How could something so simple elude us for so long?!

Is it Puff or Nessie?

In the same vein, we bought a new laptop 2 years ago.  We have been wrapping the cord around the plug for all that time.  Last week John said, "What are these little indentations on the plug?"  They are little prongs that fold out to wrap the cord around.  It only took us 2 years!

A Somber Day-Shiloh and the Trail of Tears

Monday, October 3, 2011,we drove directly to Shiloh National Military park so we wouldn't get sidetracked, as we had on Sunday.

Shiloh National Cemetery:

There were 23,746 casualties of this two day battle.  Ironically the battle is named after a place of peace-Shiloh Meeting House, a log Methodist Church that just happened to be on the field of battle.

The Corinth Contraband Camp is part of this park.  Slaves who escaped and made their way to areas occupied by federal forces were called "contraband of war" until the Emancipation Proclamation took effect. Shiloh Indian Mounds National Historic Landmark is also part of this site.

After Shiloh Battlefield, we drove back to Savannah, Tennessee, and visited the Tennessee River Museum.  Savannah's main street is part of the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail was only established in 1987.  It is not a single road we can follow that benefited from the Works Progress Administration in the 30's.  There is no Civilian Conservation Corps to build roadways, guardrails, and lodges.  Many significant sites are on private land or are under the jurisdiction of state or local government entities.

In 1830 the US Congress passed the Indian Removal Act to force all Indians to move west of the Mississippi to free land for white settlers and create a buffer zone between US territory and the western lands held by England and Spain.  Between 1830 and 1850, about 100,000 American Indians living between Michigan, Louisiana, and Florida moved west after coerced treaties or by force.  "In May, 1838, Federal troops ...began the roundup of the Cherokees into stockades....Families were separated...people given only moments to collect cherished possessions.  White looters followed, ransacking homesteads as the Cherokees were led away."  (National Park Service brochure)  It is estimated that over 4,000 died-almost a fifth of the Cherokee population.   The Trail of Tears is the Cherokee story, but many tribes share this history.

We drove another section of the Natchez Trace, including the ferry landing where Andrew Jackson was charged $75,000.00 to move his army across,  and crossed part of the Tennessee River that we traveled by boat a short time ago.

An easy day at Joe Wheeler State Park

We took an hour-long walk, cleaned the shower and air conditioner sump, washed sheets and towels, sunbathed, reassigned a shelf as our spice cabinet.  It's a beautiful day after a couple of chilly ones.  Not much happening here-a terrific day.

A couple of things not mentioned earlier:

In our first entry in this blog, we only covered half the trip in our overview.  After Mobile Bay, we will cruise on the intracoastal waterway along the Florida panhandle, then across the Gulf of Mexico to the Keys.  We'll spend 1 or 2 months at Boca Chica Key (two keys up from Key West) then start north along the Atlantic Intracoastal.  We'll move into the Hudson River, traverse parts of the New York Canal System, cross Lake Ontario then move into Canadian waters of Lake Huron and back home to Mackinaw City.  We plan to take about a year.

We have seen LOTS of Bass boats since Pickwick Lake.  The trees behind this boat are on a hill across from the lodge (and our boat).  We've been watching the fall colors approach day by day. Most of the boat launches we've seen since leaving the great lakes do not have docks.  Boaters have to get into the water to launch and recover their boats.  At Florence we saw a technique for getting a boat off the trailer that we have never seen before-in spite of having a great view of the boat launch at Mackinaw City from our slip (we have seen many interesting incidents, but that's a story for another day). A man backed his trailer into the water, then got into the boat to drive it off.  It was not cooperating so he rhythmically banged his body against the back of his seat until the boat slipped off.

Our boat in front of the lodge at Joe Wheeler State Park:

Naked man at mile marker 180.  As we were cruising on the Tennessee River, John asked, "Is that a statue up there?"  We were in an area with high, steep banks and Mary looked up to see someone standing at the top, silhouetted against the sky.  "No, John, that's not a statue."  Wearing only binoculars, he scanned the river.  There are many things we expect to see on this trip and we know there will be some surprises (like armadillo roadkill by Clifton, TN-we didn't know they lived this far north), but this was nowhere even in the  periphery of our imaginings.

Great Loop side trips

Great Loop side trips usually mean trips taken by water off the main route.  We are expanding that meaning to suit our purpose.  We need a car to go home in a couple of weeks.  We were going to hang at Joe Wheeler State Park for a week, then rent a car to travel locally for a week, then go home for a week and be back in time for the rendesvous. The weather took a Michigan-like turn (highs in the 60's, lows in the low 40's) so we decided to get a car early and spend time in the car while it's chilly, then spend time at the state park pool and walking and biking here when it warms up in a few days.

"...And the cotton is high..." (And Mary's allergies are out of control)

Saturday, October 1st, we started for Shiloh National Military Park, but the local map indicated a visitor center for the Natchez Trace on the way.  Turns out the Cherokee, Alabama, visitor center is no longer open, but the Tupelo, Mississippi, visitor center is only about 60 miles further and the Tupelo National Battlefield is there and Tupelo, of course, is Elvis Presley's birthplace, so lets drive along the Trace to Tupelo.  Oh, wait, there's a sign directing us to the Coondog Cemetery.  Two of the couples on their boats in Florence had driven to this unique site, so let's give it a try.

It is WAY off the beaten path when approaching from Cherokee, AL, but we are not likely to find another, so we're glad we went.

The Natchez Trace follows an Indian trail (with "traces" of their footprints, thus the French called it a trace) that became a more defined path when Ohio River Valley farmers, including Abraham Lincoln's father Tom, rafted down the Mississippi to the Gulf, sold their goods, including the lumber from their rafts, then made their way back on foot.  The trace became a road followed by pioneers' wagons.  The advent of steamboats heralded the end of the popularity of the trace, since then, as now, people would rather ride than walk.  The current parkway parallels the original trace from Nashville, TN, to Natchez, MS.  Here John walks along a section of the original trace:

These are the graves of 13 unidentified Confederate soldiers along the old trace:

Indian Burial Mounds from about 2,000 years ago:

More scenes along the trace:

A beaver lodge

They never worry about sunscreen:

We crossed the Tennessee Tombigbee waterway.  We'll be down there in our boat in a few weeks:

The Tupelo and Brices Cross Roads battlefields have been pretty much swallowed by modern society.  These skirmishes were mainly to preserve Sherman's supply line as he marched toward Atlanta.

Elvis was born in this house his father built:

They lived here until they packed everything up (in the middle of the night) and headed for Memphis.

Did not make it to Shiloh National Battlefield today but we sure had an interesting drive.  We'll plan that for later in the week.  Arrived back at the boat just in time to watch Flogging Molly on Austin City Limits.  We are the only boat on the transient docks in front of the lodge.  Like the other state park docks we've visited, it's like anchoring out but we're tied to a dock with electricity, water, AND TV.  It will look very different here during the rendesvous, when every dock will be full.

Our only neighbor:

Joe Wheeler State Park

We moved from Florence Thursday, September 29.  While we were fueling, we heard a downbound pleasure craft call Wilson Lock to request lockage.  The lockmaster replied that he was bringing down a tow and the downbound pleasure craft would be next.  Since we were only about a mile from the lock, we called immediately, hoping we could go up after the tow came through, as the lock was filling for the pleasurecraft.  The lockmaster told us to come right up and we could go after the tow. He didn't mention that the tow was too big to go through in one trip and it would be 3 hours before the barges came down, were secured below the lock, the lock would be filled, the tow would come down, reattach to its load, and be on its way.  In this picture, you can see the tug 100 feet above its barges.

Are we complaining?  No Way!  If it wasn't for the commercial traffic there would be no locks and this trip would not be possible.  Besides, we were on our boat on the Tennessee River, the sun was shining, and herons were flying around us.

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, Wilson Lock is the highest single lift lock east of the Rocky Mountains, with a lift between 93 and 100 feet.  We expected it to take a long time, but it fills very quickly (read "turbulence") and didn't take any longer than some of the smaller locks.

 A little under 20 miles and one more lock (Joe Wheeler Lock, with a lift of "only" 57 feet) and we arrived at Joe Wheeler State Park, where the America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association will have the fall rendesvous in 3 weeks.  We look forward to meeting loopers we haven't run across and reuniting with those we've met, plus learning more about the rest of the route.  Marc and Michele from Marc's Ark II caught lines for us.  We went to the lodge restaurant, named Daniella's after Joe Wheeler's wife, for dinner then visited aboard Marc's Ark.

General Joe Wheeler was a planter who answered the call to duty during the War of Northern Aggression.  After the Civil War ended, he returned to this area.  He was called back into service during the Spanish-American War, when the powers-that-be in Washington decided a southern officer was needed to encourage southerners to enlist.  Thus Joe Wheeler served as a general in the Confederate Army as well as in the Army of the United States.