10/25/2013 – Stayed at Pebble Isle Marina last night. Another real nice marina.  $52.13 (.95 per foot plus tax).  We filled up there also, $3.87 per gallon.  Petty good price.  We got in pretty late but we did have a chance to walk around.  We ran into a woman as we walked the docks.  She told us she loved it there, has lived there for the past 14 years and she was originally from Detroit.  She told us the weather we were having was unseasonably cool.  Then she started talking to us about the summer.  “It’s hot here”, she said.  “We just don’t sit on the porches drinkin lemonade and ice tea here, ya know.  You get your business done early in the morning, cause you’ll melt if you don’t.  And there’s snakes here, so many snakes they is comin out of your a_ _.  I’m taking rattlers and water moccasins.”  Holy Smokes!  What a way to make people want to stay in Tennessee.  Hotter in hell and crawlin with snakes.  Sounds like some place I want to live.  Cross another state off my list 🙂

The guy who was running the gas dock came over (he was real nice and didn’t scare us with talk of unbearable heat and snakes), he asked us when we were leaving cause they were going to have hot cinnamon buns in the morning, he said they’d have them ready by 7:45 if we could wait that long before we left.  Hot cinnamon buns….who can turn that down?  Of course we were going to stay for that!

When we woke in the morning it was 30° and there was frost on our boat and on the docks plus the fog was pretty thick.

Frost on the boat

We figured we better hunker down until the fog lifted besides, there were those hot cinnamon buns to eat!  Yum!   They were delish and FREE!  What a deal, plus free coffee too.  By the time we finished savoring those cinnamon buns and drinking the coffee the fog had lifted enough that we could shove off.

Smokie is getting quite brave,

Smokie Chillin

he waited a little while after the girls were started before he ran down stairs.  5 minutes after we left, he is up looking out the window of the pilot house door.  Brave Kitty!  It has only taken him 26 days.  Hopefully he adjusts to the car rides quicker.  Meowing for 14 hours could drive a person nuts 🙂

In my last post I talked about 1^st and 2^nd class anchoring, actually the term is 1^st class landing.  I was wondering what they were.  Well it helps if you read the charts :).  What a 1st class landing means is there is a  guaranteed depth of 9 feet at the shore.  I guess that is so the tows can shove their barges into the bank if they need some place hang out while they wait for something.

We haven’t seen hardly any tows since we got on the Tennessee but we did see this one today

Smoking tow

We couldn’t figure out what it was but it looks like it is smoking!

We passed by some interesting things today.  Mermaid Marina.  We didn’t stop as their water depth wasn’t deep enough for us, but cool sign 🙂

Mermaid Marina

A tug on shore, I think someone may have lost their job for not moving it before the water dropped.

Tug on Shore

Another form for hunting house on the river, I think they forgot the camo.

Hunting Shack

The shores have changed again.  The rocks on the shore are in a more layered look.  There are quite a few spots where it looks like the slabs have broken and slid like below.

Rocks

This was a long haul today, we have another one tomorrow, to our final desitnation of Aqua Yacht Harbor.  Tonight we stayed at Clifton Marina.

Clifton Marina

The marina had a narrow entrance but we got in ok.  It was a pretty small marina though but nice people.  After we had dinner, there were a few people in the ships store (this is where they had their restaurant), so we went in there to chat with people.  Remember the story I told you about this boat, Kumbaya

Kumbaya

A guy that had just come down from Aqua was telling us about this boat called Kumbaya.  The guy missed the entrance to Aqua and ended up on the rocks.  He punched a hole in his boat.  The police came and made them (remember, this was an older gentleman and his sister in law of the same age) get off the boat as it was taking on water and it wasn’t safe for them.  They had the dam release some water to raise the river a few inches so the BoatUS Tow boat could pull them off the rocks and take the boat to Aqua.  We were like, “you have got to be kidding me!”  A really big black cloud is following that boat and those people.  We will have to see the boat when we get to Aqua.  We feel so bad for those people, nothing but bad luck.  It will be interesting to see if they pack it in or keep going.

10/26/2013 – there was frost, fog and 31° again last night.  We left Clifton Marina about 9 after fog lifted.  Many interesting things today to see.  We saw some cows today.  They looked like they were outlined in black and they were white in the middle.  Very unusual coloring.  We have also noticed the rocks don’t seem to run parallel to the river and yes my camera is straight!  Weird huh?  I wonder how that happened.

crooked rocks

We saw this on a bank.  Nothing above it like if fell from it.  The sides appear to be metal but it is about 150 feet below the top of the embankment.

What happened?

We have also been seeing Hank (a heron) following us down south from Sunnyside.  He always sat on the end of Pier 1 at night.  Ya know, I have never heard him make any noise.  Now I have.  Man!  He is loud and doesn’t have a very nice voice.  Really loud and screechy.  Not very becoming Hank!

The tow sightings have dropped considerably now that we are on the Tennessee.  We did see another tow today and it was carrying a very small tug.  I guess it was cheaper to have it taken down as cargo rather than driving it down on its own bottom.

We saw a small house that had the shore wash out from under it or else it’s stilts broke off, either way, not very safe.

Hanging House

House with erosion close up

Plus this other house that had shore fall out from under it.  Pretty scary.  The way the tress and stuff are falling down the banks I don’t think I buy a house that was so close to the embankment good view or not.

House with erosion

We also say this ½ car in someone’s back yard.  The inside was all nicely done.  Maybe he was using it for a trailer

Half a car

I started seeing these type of bird houses too, anyone know what kind of bird use them?

Bird Houses

We finally arrived at the Pickwick Dam at 3:00.  It was a 55 foot lift.  Incredible!   Once we pulled out into the lake I was amazed at how beautiful it was.  And the houses!  Man, I have a bunch of pictures of the incredible houses on this lake.  Not too shabby but nothing I can afford :).  Here are some of them

House

house

Then we got to Aqua Yacht Harbor

Aqua Yacht Harbor

($9/foot/month winter dockage).  We tied to the transient dock for the night.  Nice place.  We’ll have to wait till tomorrow to check it out.

10/27/13 – They put us in slip 61 on G dock.  Fully covered.  60 foot slip.  Cable is $45 per month.  Internet is $20 per month.  We got cable, and after going without internet for a day, we got the internet too :).  They are letting us use the courtesy van tomorrow so we can get some groceries.  We walked the docks today and found the Kumbaya in the service area.  We found out that it’s hull is like a catamaran hull under the water.  So the bow only has 4 inches of the hull pushing the water.

Kumbaya hull

Both of his props were gone.  We couldn’t see a hole so maybe he just buggered up his props.

10/28/2013 – We were walking down the transient dock to pick up our courtesy car this morning when we met a couple that were just taking off to finish their 2nd Loop adventure.  They told us the thought the worst part of the loop was the Tenn-Tom.  They call it the “trench”.  They said it was so bad because of the locks and it was boring.  Nothing to see.  I guess we won’t mind after traveling down the Mississippi 🙂

We found a great Grocery store, Kroger.  They have some pretty good deals but be sure to get their card at the service desk first.  We met with the service people and they are going to be checking into getting the hoist installed before we leave.

Well, we are here at Aqua for the next few months.  My brother, Tim, is bringing our van down from Minnesota in about 3 1/2 weeks so we can drive back with him for the birth of the 1st Grandson, Victor, and then we’ll staying for Thanksgiving.  Then we’ll head back here and hang around for a few weeks then head back to Minnesota for Christmas.  There probably won’t be too many updates in the mean time so don’t worry about us.  We’ll pick up the adventure when we leave for, hopefully, Orange Beach, Alabama toward the end of December.  So stay tuned and you all have a great Thanksgiving and a safe and healthy Holiday Season. TTFN 🙂