AMERICA

Mike & Pam
  • Wilson Lock Setup
  • 90 feet later

On our way back from Joe Wheeler we had the opportunity to spend a couple days in Florence/Muscle Shoals AL. The history in this area is spectacular. We never realized that Muscle Shoals is an iconic part of American Music where many amazing songs were created and recorded. Aretha Franklin, Clarence Carter, Wilson Pickett, Candi Staton, Etta James, The Staple Singers, the Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd to name a few. The Allman Brothers literally started and ended their career in Muscle Shoals. Take a look at this trailer for the Muscle Shoals documentary. If you get a chance, see the documentary on You Tube. Amazing!

What a vibe in Muscle Shoals.

Pam’s cemetery fascination made the Coon Dog Cemetery a must stop. This is the resting place of many heralded coon hunting dogs. Many of the best lay right here….Yep it’s true..

We are growing in our appreciation of the Civil War’s history as we travel along the Tennessee River. Many of these river towns have descriptions of the atrocious conditions that our forefathers struggled through as they defined our country. The famous battle at Shiloh provides many tributes and insights regarding this monumental time in American History.

RENDEZVOUS

Mike & Pam

The America Great Loop Cruiser Association (AGLCA) sponsors a fall Rendezvous every year in Alabama. The event is filled with great Loop info for those planning to do the Loop and those currently underway. This event is the first time we really needed to be somewhere and we arrived in plenty of time. The week was choc full of events/activity and was a fun place to meet other people while taking in more great cruising info.

  • Intros about ourselves
  • Pam workin’ the fields, Pure AL Cotton
  • Pam’s favorite root tree

Mike missed part of the 5 day Rendezvous because he flew back to Chicago for a quick 48hrs trip to handle a new business opportunity. The timing worked out perfectly because he also had a chance to take Samantha and Tyler our for dinner in Chicago on their birthdays, Samantha Oct 17th and Tyler Oct 16. Pam was in her glory staying back with plenty to keep her busy including hosting an open house boat tour of Sea C Rider and passing a Coast Guard boat audit.

  • Y’all come back now, hear?
  • Oct 16th birthday dinner
  • Samantha and Tyler’s B-Day
  • We are officially safe !?
  • Food Ttuck night
  • Route planning

ANCHORAGES…Out of the Mist

Mike & Pam

(Complete with video shorts)

After a welcomed opportunity to get the necessary chores done of provisioning, laundry, exercise, and socializing in Green Turtle Bay, we moved on from the quaint town with the best spinach quiche ever to some time alone on the lakes. No more rivers with current, wing dams, and debris, just quiet, splendorous, silky smooth Kentucky Lake and all of her hidden bays and coves for evening shelter. We escaped into Pisgah Bay during a quiet rain, watched some football, communed with the fisherman, kayaked, and took a dingy ride to the flooded quarry which has to be a local teenage favorite for rock jumping (complete with awesome rope swings), graffiti commemorating momentous events like Homecoming, 1st true loves, and graduations.

  • abandoned dock – looks like a movie setting?!
    RDB M78.5
  • What? It’s raining?!?
  • Pam would certainly have been doing exactly this in HS!
  • Rope SWING!!
  • Now you see her, then you don’t!

On to Panther Bay – anchoring in the mist with Salty Paws and The Blessing (whose blog I have followed since I met them a year ago at the Fall Rendezvous). We hiked up to the top of a hill overlooking our boat and came upon a very old cemetery belonging to Sam Wofford.

  • Cool old cemetery just appears out of nowhere

We continued south on the Tennessee River to Denson’s Island, anchoring and cocktailing with The Blessing until we discovered the need to move our anchor further from the shore?!…in the dark. Anchoring in these parts is so peaceful and waking in the morning to the mist rolling off the waters and the colonies of bugs that moved aboard during the night is fabulous! 😉

  • Gold Loopers Jay & Barb come for a visit
  • Left Sea C withOUT using anchor app (no WiFi) ?!?
  • The mayfly life cycle is completely fascinating!
    BTW: no matter how much you clean your boat – waste of time!?
  • Our Panther Bay exploration trail via dingy and hike

TURTLES EVERYWHERE

Mike & Pam

Phew! After turning onto the Ohio River our paced changed dramatically. The Mississippi current was so swift that we traveled at 10 to 14 knots which is 3 to 5 knots faster than normal cruise speed at same RPMs. We even hit Sea C’s all time speed record of 21.5 knots (approx 25 mph…a brief carbon blow out) . Once we hit the Ohio River we started traveling up stream against the current and our cruise dropped to 6 to 8 knots as we seemed to crawl to Paducah, KY public wall. The outside temperature was a toasty 96 degrees with no wind and direct sun so it took its toll.

Paducah is an interesting town with a rich history including severe flooding. This town has seen many o’ floods and as a result, have built themselves a mighty cement wall. In order to make this monstrosity a tourist attraction it is adorned with amazing murals depicting the history along with bronze plaques describing the images in detail. Paducah had that quaint, southern feel with an artsy flare. By this time we have met quite a few wonderful people such as Mountain Wave and Nepidea who we dined with last night.

  • Flood retaining wall / Town history story board
  • Major rail activity
  • Historic downtown
  • Find Sea C?

We left the next day for the Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky with 3 other boats that included a three hour lock wait at the Kentucky Lock. Sounds like a long wait but it is very relaxing anchoring in front of the lock and enjoying the summer-like weather and a nice lunch.

We arrived at Green Turtle Bay Resort and Marina by 3:30 – with enough time to take a walk and enjoy some free chips and salsa at happy hour at the Thirsty Turtle. We spent 3 days relaxing, exercising, doing laundry, biking to town, provisioning and meeting many new people. There were over 28 looper boats in the marina and the only disturbing part about this was hearing how many people were laid up for several days waiting for parts or being pulled due to damage incurred on the crazy rivers.

It was super nice to slow down and smell the roses. It’s such a beautiful area around these parts and after feeling like we were moving at a fast pace and dealing with dangerous flood conditions/debris it was a welcome respite to get to know the people on the boats that you’ve been following, anchoring near or locking through with.

  • Fenders took a beating through the locks- Yay Magic Sponge!
Massive Dump Truck Loadin’ up

THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI

Mike & Pam

Grafton IL, mile marker 0, touted as the Key West of the Midwest. Great town that comes alive on the weekends, open air restaurants and bars with all types of live music. Our original plan was to stay one night but it turned into a four-night stay.  Not so much because of the chill Jimmy Buffet atmosphere but more because our big ol’ batteries died.   After some intense trouble shooting, we discovered that the battery charger circuit breaker was not working thus the batteries were not being charged.  The indicator light on the CB panel showed it was working properly but the reality was that no power was being supplied.  We’ll spare the gory details but we did swap out the bad circuit breaker and we are all good.  At the same time, we decided to bring in 2 new 8D cell (130lb each) batteries to replace the 4.5yr old ones on board….. and since were on a roll why not a new generator battery!  The new 300lb+ of battery cells should serve us well especially since we have many overnight anchorages on the horizon. 

  • 25 passenger Courtesy ‘suicide’ Van to Walmart – Drive at your own risk
  • Great to visit with niece Haley!
  • The largest flag on the Mississippi unveiled for the first time on Sat. Great patriotic ceremony in Grafton.

Heading down the Mississippi, we spent one night in Alton, another on the Kaskaskia Lock and Dam wall and a third at Boston Bar Island anchoring.   All days were 90 plus degrees, high humidity, and direct sun which really drained our body batteries.  A highlight of the trip was seeing the beautiful St Louis Arch. Thank you to our ‘buddy boat’, Pegasus, for taking our boat picture while dodging upriver tows. The Cardinals clinched the division against the Cubs the night before, bummer,

 The Mississippi is wider than the Illinois, contains a higher population of commercial barges, and has strong swirling currents that will throw large boats off course in an instant.   River water levels are up right now which means that boats must be on constant watch for floating full-size trees that will rearrange your propeller or punch a hole through the hull.    The mighty, muddy, magnificent Mississippi River. Just ahead: a left at the Ohio River for some upstream travel!