To Chattanooga Nov 7 - 14

Another example of the rock formations on the Tennessee is this bluff several miles south of Chattanooga.

We stayed at a floating city dock right on the Chattanooga waterfront. We had enough time the first day to go through the Tennessee Aquarium. This is a modern first class aquarium. It has many walk through exhibits and the largest fresh water aquarium tank in the US.

Along with the fish tanks were displays of other animals that live on the water. The alligator exhibit had these little ones.

There was a variety of beautiful ducks.

The next day we took the free downtown electric shuttle bus out to the Chattanooga Choo Choo. This is name for the the 1908 Southern RR Terminal Station that has been converted into a hotel and entertainment facility. The railroad station had its last passenger train in 1970.

The inside of the terminal has a domed ceiling. Built of steel and concrete and buttressed by huge brick arches, the dome rested on four steel supports 75 feet apart. Inside this waiting area passengers waited for the 50 different trains at the peak of train travel.

Inside one of the old railway freight buildings was an HO scale model railroad covering 174 feet long 33 feet wide. It depicted Chattanooga and the surrounding Cumberland mountain area. It includes over 3,000 feet of track, 320 structures, 150 switches, 120 locomotives of all types, 1,000 freight cars and 80 passenger cars.

The Chattanooga Choo Choo was a Southern Railway passenger train that ran from Cincinnati through Chattanooga which first began in 1880. This wood burning steam locomotive was similar to the type used in 1880.

The electric bus took us back downtown. The city has a variety of unusual benches set up around the downtown. This one had ceramic insets set up with an animal scene.

We took a walk up the hill to the Hunter Art Museum. It is a modern building adjoining a 1904 Victorian mansion owned by the first Coca-Cola bottler in the nation. Art is displayed in both buildings.

There is a walking bridge over to the museum. It has glass floors so you can look down and see the cars on the street about 100 feet below. Its a weird feeling.

Some of the tourist locations required that we take a city bus out several miles. We caught the bus for Route 15 and the driver dropped us off at the International Towing and Recovery Museum.

Inside were examples of tow trucks .

Then we boarded the Route 15 bus an hour later and took it to the Incline Railway stop. This car pictured makes the climb up the side of Lookout Mountain. It climbs a grade of up to a 70% incline.

As the car reaches the top the slope is steep enough that you have to look out the top of the car to see the valley below.

This is the Point Park at the top of Lookout Mountain. During the Civil War the Confederates held this ground overlooking the Union troops that were trapped in Chattanooga. As part of the campaign by U.S. Grant to relieve the siege of Chattanooga, he ordered an attack on Lookout Mountain. In the famous "Battle Above the Clouds", Union units captured the Confederate positions below the summit forcing the Confederates to withdraw. This NY Regiment monument at the top commemorates this successful assault.

The view that the Confederates had of Chattanooga from Lookout Mountain. The Tennessee River curves around a peninsula (on the left) called Moccasin Point.

The rock formations on top of Lookout Mountain are distinctive. There are Civil War photos of troops arrayed around many of the formations near the top.

The Delta Queen steernwheeler no longer travels the rivers but is anchored to the bank and serves as a hotel. Chatanooga has a "Duck" tour of the downtown and waterfront. It shows in the foreground.

We left the city dock after three nights to head upriver. Unfortunately, as we reached the Chickamauga Lock we were told by the lockmaster that the lock was closed due to high water. So we turned around and headed back to the city dock for 2-1/2 more days.

Down the Tenn River to Muscle Shoals Nov 1-6

We came down the Tennessee River and stayed at the Clifton Marina at Clifton, TN. A couple days earlier I had determined that the boat house batteries were failing and would not supply enough current to supply the load overnight (mainly the refrigerator and anchor light.) So I located a marina on our route that could get replacement AGM batteries and I had them order the 4 batteries I needed. So we were locked into staying at marinas until we reached Muscle Shoals. We did borrow a courtesy car at Clifton to see the city. One highlight was this old ferry crossing location that Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forest used to move his troops back and forth across the Tennessee River during the Civil War. On one operation in 1863 he moved across on a ferry and then had it sunk to allow his troops to come back later and use it for movement back across.










At some point in the Civil War the Federal troops occupied the town. They used this Presbyterian Church to stable horses. They knocked out some of the bricks at the front door to widen the opening. Evidence of the damage is still visible.













More of the layered limestone formations along the Tennessee.









Shiloh, Tennessee was one of the bloodier battles of the Civil War. A near defeat of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Union Army was turned into a Federal victory with the help of reinforcements and gunboats brought down the Tennessee River. When the Confederate surprise attack started on April 6, 1862 Grant was eating breakfast in this house, the Cherry Mansion, in Savannah, Tennessee. This house is about 9 miles up river from Pittsburg landing which was a steamboat landing used by the Federals to land troops and supplies. Leaving breakfast quickly Grant took a steamboat to the battlefield and help lead a defense and eventual victory.




This is Pittsburg Landing the Civil War era steamboat landing. Grant stepped ashore here to lead his troops. The Confederates overran the Union troops to within a few hundred yards of this spot. On the second day April 7, Union counterattacks drove the Confederates from the field of battle.










Right in downtown Florence, Alabama is the location of the Wilson Lock and Dam. The old lock completed in 1918 is on the left. The current lock when built in the 1950's was the worlds highest single lift lock. At 93' of lift, it is now the sixth highest.














After reaching the J's Landing Marina at Muscle Shoals and getting our new house batteries, we rented a car for two days to see the cities in the area. We headed East to Decatur, AL and passed the home of General Joseph Wheeler. A famous Calvary General of the Civil War, he also lived to lead US Troops against the Spanish in the Spanish American War in Cuba in 1898. The other sign tells of his daughter Anne's service in the Red Cross in the Spanish-American War and WWI.

We toured some of the Civil War sites in old Decatur. Then we drove up to Huntsville, Alabama where we toured the historic train station and this hardware store that is over 100 years old although now just a museum and gift shop.

The Twickenham Historic District is a wonderful area of Federal and Greek Revival homes. Many in the area close to downtown were pre-Civil War.

The significance of this house is that is was the birthplace of famous Civil War Calvary General John Hunt Morgan.

This McDowell home was owned by a Union sympathizer during the Civil War. Apparently, he passed on intelligence to the Union and often flew the Union flag.

Our first stop the next day was at Hellen Keller's birthplace in Tuscumbia, AL. This was her parents' house and where she lost her sight and hearing after and early childhood illness.

If you saw the movie or play "The Miracle Worker" you will be familiar with the scene at the water pump where Anne Sullivan, puts Helen's hand in the pump water to get her to understand the word water. This was her first word association and clicked something that led to her future successes as a world renown author and

lecturer. Of interest to Lion's Club members would be the display they had erected. The Lion's Club took on the plight of the sightless as their fundraising project.

Another highlight we visited in Muscle Shoals was the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. We learned that several Muscle Shoals recording studies developed a sound that created top hits starting in the 60's and reaching a peak in the 70's and 80's.

This display claimed that Rocket 88 was the first Rock & Roll hit.

Moving over to Florence, AL we visited the Pope's Tavern. This Inn was on a main road north and south created by Andrew Jackson to move supplies between Nashville and New Orleans.

Another landmark in Florence was the birthplace of W.C. Handy. Handy is credited with being the Father of the Blues.

Handy composed the St. Louis Blues on this piano.

I couldn't leave the area without a little more Civil War, so we drove 45 minutes west to Corinth, Mississippi to an excellent Interpretive and Visitor Center for the Shiloh Battle and the battles and occupations of Corinth.

Downriver to the Tennessee Oct 9 to 31

One of the more unusual sights we saw was what appeared to be an airplane on top of their hillside building.













Given the high banks on the river many homeowners had to come up with unique solutions to getting their boats down in the water. This home owner has a "train track" for their pontoon boat.











We reached the Rock Harbor marina and prepared to leave the boat to travel back to Tarboro. We were gone for nearly three weeks as we traveled to be with our son and family

Upon return we spent a day getting ready to go again. Members of the Yacht Club that meets at the Rock Harbor marina invited us to their Chili Cookoff. I went over and enjoyed the chili and conversation with them.





The town of Clarksville, TN was only a day downriver from Nashville. The town provides a free dock on their waterfront and the city employee responsible for taking reservations was kind enough to drive us out to a grocery store during her lunch hour.









The town of Clarksville has an excellent guide for a walking tour of town. One highlight is this old building with 1870's signs painted big enough to be seen by river boat crews on the river.










There were several murals painted on downtown buildings















This old movie theater is reported to be the shooting location for the music video of
Sheryl Crow's hit "All I Wanna Do".












On January 22, 1999 a pre-dawn F3 tornado hit the middle of downtown Clarksville, destroying much of downtown. This church was destroyed but was rebulit with the original steeple tower framework.











One building spared by the tornado was the Customs House Museum. Originally, built as a Post Office it has had many uses and now serves as an area museum.

The County Courthouse was destroyed but rebuilt as a reproduction of the original structure.

The First Baptist Church in town was huge and took a whole city block. There was an original sanctuary that housed an Hispanic Mission and another building (pictured) that is home to an Asian mission. My guess from the lettering on their sign is that it is Chinese but I'm not sure.

One famous citizen of Clarksville was Wilma Rudolph. At the 1960 Olymicas in Rome, she was the first woman to win three gold medals in one competition. The statue near the waterfront is dedicated to her and her accomplishments.

After leaving Clarksville on October 28, we continued downriver reaching the Land Between the Lakes and the crossover to the Tennessese River on October 29. We headed south and stopped for a day at the Pebble Isle Marina. Nearby was the location of a 19th Century town of Old Johnsonville. The town was at the terminus of a rail line during the Civil War and was turned into a supply location by Union Troops. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was able to set up canons on the opposite bank of the Tennessee River and with his usual audacity was able to destroy over $6 million of supplies at this depot.

The I-40 bridge. The highway that starts in Wilmington, NC and goes to Barstow, California.

This is the first tow we saw that had its own dinghy! (Note the small tug lashed to the side of the big tow boat.)

We saw some fall color above the rock layers on shore.

Our boat house batteries were at the end of life so we had to stay at marinas so we could use shorepower to keep the batteries charged. The signage for this marina, the Mermaid Marina, is one of the more unusual signs we saw.

Unfortunately, the Mermaid Marina was about as run down as this boat advertising the marina.