10/20/18 Saturday: It was forecasted to be a rainy morning, and yes it was. Larry radioed us at 6:30, and relayed that the lockmaster said we shouldn’t have any problem getting into the lock if we left now. Now? Like by 7:00? Yep. OK! Crank up the coffee and let’s cast off the lines! It was not foggy, but it was soggy outside! I put on my raincoat, a hat, and some leggings so that my jeans wouldn’t get soaked, and went out to do fenders and lines. Island Girl was out on the river by 7:00, and took the lead in our parade to the lock.
This is looking back down river. The water was nice and calm, and no wind so the rain wasn’t pelting in on us. Just a soggy doggy day. It wasn’t forecasted to last beyond about 11:00, so the day wouldn’t be terrible. Once we got out on the river, Kenny came down stairs to stay a little more dry than it was up on the fly bridge.
We saw some beautiful fall colors and big cliffs today.
This is looking back at the boats behind us, which gives an idea of how tall these cliffs were. There were some times of fog on the water, so we did slow down a bit so that all the boats could be within a mile or so of each other.
When we got to the lock, the rain had pretty much stopped, and we didn’t even have to wait to get into the lock! There were a couple of dive boats ahead of us, then our fleet of looper boats. Yes -I said dive boats. There has been some work being done somewhere in this section of the river. In fact, while we were at Wheeler, the river was closed to all vessels between 8-12, and 1-4 each day due to the divers in the water.
We all got into the lock and secured. I manned the bow line, and Kennedy got to man the stern line. It was really fun to share this locking experience with her, and she was fascinated with the process.
Our destination today was Goosepond Marina. It was up a well marked channel, with those small little local kind of buoys. There were plantations of lily pads along both sides of the channel, but we did fine. We pulled up to the fuel dock and filled up our tanks with $2.96/gal diesel. Then tootled over and backed into our slip for tonight. Easy peazy. We hadn’t had much to eat today, so we walked over to the marina office to see if we could use the courtesy car to go to town. Someone else had it, so we walked to the bait & tackle shop and had some really good po-dunk burgers! YUM!
I laughed at this sign. I’m just not used to the kind of tackle and bait they use in this part of the world!
We finally got the loaner car, so we headed out to go to Scottsboro, just for something to do. There were all of these cute pumpkin heads along the drive out to the main road.
We were told that we should go to Unclaimed Baggage in town. It is a huge store, and their inventory is from unclaimed airline baggage. Yep! If the airline cannot reunite lost luggage with it’s owner after three months, it comes here. All the clothes are dry cleaned, all the electronics are tested.
This store was crazy amazing! It’s like a goodwill on steroids. There were some great clothing, shoes, boots, purses, coats, jewelry, cameras, watches, headphones, musical instruments, etc. etc. Kenny found me an awesome pair of hooker/pirate-wench stiletto thigh high boots – even in my size! I should have bought them – they were only $10! Kennedy found a nice pair of normal boots that had never been worn. Kenny got a nice warm coat for $20, which will be good to have in this chilly weather fly-bridge driving we’re having. This place was a hoot. I should have bought myself some BEATS headphones. There were hundreds of them.
On our way back, I caught a quick shot of the Scottsboro Jackson County courthouse.
And then another fun loving pumpkin head. Happy Halloween!!
I didn’t get any more pictures today, but after we got back from town, we gave the car keys back to a looper friend Bert. He needed to run to Walmart and buy a little 12 volt heater. He is doing the loop in a 23 foot Grady White with two 200 horse outboards. I’m telling ya, people do this loop in all kinds of boats! But with this cold weather, he was looking for something just to take the chill off in the mornings. He asked if we’d join him for dinner when he got back. We said ‘of course’! We all walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner and we had a really nice evening. It was a fun day, and Kennedy got a nice feel for what this looper lifestyle is all about. Friends new & old that we meet along the way are just like family. We adventure along the waterways with each other, we find fun kooky things to do in the little towns along the way, and we just have a relaxed, no schedule way of life. What’s not to like about that?! She’s going to fit right in as a nice break from her busy, corporate, not-yet-retired life.