We felt lazy today and slept in until 9:00 AM. The room at the Bear Inn was very nice and very quiet. We were treated like special guests by the owners Troy, Tim and Paul and even though they were handling a crowd of boat loving, jumbolia cooking, beer drinking, party hounds they put us up, shuttled us from and to the marina, and fed us too.
We got out onto the Tennessee River at 9:45 AM and started upstream with our gas tanks freshly filled. Knowing we had only 60 miles to cover today, I adjusted the throttle to 18 MPH and left it there most of the day. It was a fun day of interesting things to see that are so different than what we are used to. The rivers water level had been high for most of the Summer season and is now starting a rapid drop back to normal. We observed a lot of activity associated with folks getting there docks and landscaping re-situated for the coming normal conditions. The current is running about 2 MPH and causes a slight drag on us but it's not of much consequence. In case you wonder, we are in fact going south and upstream. This will continue until we go over the divide of the Tenn-Tom Waterway the day after tomorrow.
Here's a session on the bio-diversity we witnessed along the Tennessee River. Be mindful that bio-diversity to me is a simple principle and isn't about micro-organisms and endangered species. See what I mean below:
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| There were horses. |
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| And there were cows. |
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| And there was corn too. |
It was nice that we could see these familiar things right up to the shoreline. On the Mississippi there always seemed to be a great amount a waste land before you run into usable or populated land leaving you with an isolated feeling. The Tennessee feels real homey.
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| A cool cross-sectional view of the underpinnings of these two trees. Evidence of this year's flooding and I'm thinking these two are doomed in the next wind storm. |
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| I half expected to see kids jumping off this rock. The water under our boat was over 40 ft deep. I normally see depths around 30-50 feet in most of the river and can run the Blue Fin anywhere from shore to shore without the worry of hitting bottom. |
The housing along the river belongs to a design category that I am unfamiliar with but is great to look at as we roll by. The shoreline is quite populous and has such a variety of structures it's hard to explain. It's obvious there isn't much in the way of zoning but despite this most places are reasonably well kept up. Some places are outright mansions and you'll find these sitting next to campers parked under metal canopied roofs. In general the better places sit on high ground while the lower grade places are down in the flood area. The exception is the stilt houses and many of them are marvels to behold leaving you to contemplate who built them and what's it like to live in one.
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| A nice place on the Tennessee River with a pool party underway. |
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| A fine example of a stilt house. We saw hundreds like this. |
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Diversity in housing.
A trailer, a canopied trailer, and a stilt house all coexist in harmony. |
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This house is sitting atop the rock overhang.
It looks worse in real life and maybe a quarter of the house is undercut.
Do you suppose if the owner drilled a well he'd hit water? |
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A future stilt house.
The camper is nested comfortably underneath the elevated concrete slab for protection. Could it be the egg that hatches into a new house? |
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And what do we have here? An industrial area?
This is so much my favorite that it warrants another picture.
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It's a cargo container house!
It's perfect for the guy who's handy with metalworking but all thumbs with carpentry.
Two containers are stacked vertically on the left and right and three are across the top making a nice breeze way through the center.
And if you think no one could live here, think again. Two large central air conditioners are perched behind the fenced end of the second level containers and were humming away. |
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| And while we're on the topic of strange real estate. Shouldn't this For Sale sign include the usual slogan, "get em before they're gone"! One more flood and it will be gone. |
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| We made a quick stop at Shiloh National Battleground to take a few pics and a break. Here lie 578 men who died in battle in this one place. There are many others fields like this and this place was too big for us to get around without a car. |
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At Pittsburg Landing
Mary tending to the Blue Fin along the shoreline of Shiloh National Battleground. |
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| These fishermen were sitting across from Shiloh Battleground. Most of the folks around here use an umbrella to make shade from the sun. |
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We arrived at Pickwick Dam around 2:30 PM and waited about an hour to get locked through. We experienced our greatest level change thus far at 66 feet and the big deep dark lock chamber made Mary nervous. Notice the bubbling water on the left side of the wall as the lock chamber was being emptied in preparation for our entry. This is the underwater discharge valve from the lock chamber.
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After we passed through the Pickwick locks we quickly arrived at Pickwick Landing State Park Resort. This a busy but nice place that has everything we need for a comfortable stay over. It isn't like your usual state park and is more like a big private resort. Check it out if you want.
http://www.tn.gov/environment/parks/PickwickLanding/ |
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Another great place with a good view from our balcony.
Mary said I had to be in this picture to balance out her numerous appearances. |
Tomorrow we move on to Fulton, MS. This will rank as one of our more aggressive runs and to add to the excitement there have been scattered afternoon thunderstorms roaming the area. We will leave the Tennessee River and enter the Tombigbee waterway around mid morning and then move on through three locks before we reach Fulton. Because it's the weekend we've already arranged for a motel and pickup service from Midway Marina two miles away.
One last comment. Have you noticed the clouds in the pics I've been posting. I'm not taking the least bit of credit for it. It's just the way it really is.
