October 16, 2019 – Around the Great Loop on the Answer

Week Eighteen: Chattanooga to Florence Harbor

On Thursday, the heat still continued but we wanted to take in some local sites before the hottest part of the day so the six of us walked to the shuttle at the visitors center and planned to take a few different shuttles around town knowing that we could hop on and off. The first ride was to the Chattanooga Choo Choo so that the others could see the train. In that section of town, there were a number of interesting shops – a whiskey distillery, an award winning chocolate shop, and a few local craft stores. We went into the old train waiting room and the benches that are there now are basically the same as the ones I sat on waiting for the trains in Grand Central when I traveled on Metro-North for so many years.

As I have mentioned before, Peter is very interested in history, particularly the Civil War and we are traveling in many areas where he can take advantage of actual sites where battles were fought. There are also many parks, locks, lakes, etc. that are named for famous commanders, generals, etc. One site right outside Chattanooga is Lookout Mountain. Since it was close to the Chattanooga Choo Choo, Peter inquired about the best way to get there. One of the employees advised that he needed to walk over two blocks and then walk for about ten minutes to the Incline Railway. After taking the railway, it was another two blocks to their museum, near the battlefield. Since he was the only one interested in visiting this site, he split from us and we decided to take the shuttle back to the visitors center where we would take another shuttle to the north shore of Chattanooga to tour another part of town and then stop to pick up some groceries before heading back to the boats. The north shore had a number of quaint shops, lots of local color, and was a pleasant walk.

Peter came back a few hours later. While the instructions to Lookout Mountain were basically accurate, the time frame was not. Instead of 10 minutes, it was about a four mile walk. He walked to the railway, took the ride on the Incline and looked around the museum. The museum was not so great and then he found out that the battlefield was not close to the museum so he decided to come back. He located a local bus that took him back to the shuttle that would take him downtown. After this disappointment, he is really looking forward to renting a car when we get to Iuka, MS so that he can visit Shiloh.

Chattanooga was an enjoyable side trip but were disappointed that there was no place to stay for the Wine Over Water and music festival. They started setting up the event on Thursday and also the Nina and Pinta exhibit that would also have been interesting to see. Instead, we left on Friday and headed back to Hales Bar since we could not locate another place to stay that would help with our time frame. Our goal now was to retrace our steps back west along the Tennessee River until we arrived at Aqua Harbor that would put us in close proximity to the Whitten Lock, the first of the locks that would take us south to Mobile Bay.

We made a few adjustments on the way back and did not stop at Riverwalk and traveled longer to go to Joe Wheeler State Park. This is where the AGLCA Fall Rendezvous will be held next week. Initially Peter had wanted to attend but reservations closed in July and since we were uncertain as to the repair status of our boat back then, we decided that we would not be able to make sure that it would fit as our plans were constantly changing. As it turned out, because of the lock delays, people had canceled so there were some openings but at this point, we planned to continue to travel south with our buddy boats.

Once again, Bahama Voyager, to the rescue. As we traveled along the Tennessee River, we came across a boat that was stuck. Bahama Voyager, who is generally in the lead, stopped to help and pulled him off the sand bar.

Except for all the traveling we did this week, the only day for sightseeing was Thursday. We did have dinner out a few times and met up with another looper couple who crossed their wake when we stayed at Goose Pond, their home port. Kodey had another haircut and bath since it was still very hot and when we got to Florence, I used the courtesy car to take him to PetSmart to have his nails cut, his pads/paws clipped and shaved, and his ears cleaned – things he does not like me to do.

We only had two locks and a short tip to Florence but it took forever. The first lock, Wheeler, advised that they were locking a tow through and we needed to wait about an hour and a half. The next lock was the Wilson Lock (remember last week’s photo?) and we were advised by the lockmaster that if we arrived before the tow, he would put us through. Well, that didn’t happen. Although we arrived before the tow, the lockmaster asked us to tie up and wait since he had an east bound tow coming through first. We waited but then we received another radio call advising that they would be closing the lock for 4-4 1/2 hours since they had divers coming to do some work in the lock. What we thought would be a short day, evolved into lots of waiting time. We tied on the lock wall and turned the engines off figuring to wait the allotted time. After close to 3 hours, the lock master called and told us to be ready in 5 minutes to lock through with the tow that we locked through Wheeler. You never saw four boats scramble (another boat was locking through with us also) so fast to get ready. We finally went into the lock, this time we would not be rafting with Bahama Voyager as our bow thruster has continued to work.

On the agenda for next week, is the repair of the RAM cylinder for the steering. Since we now had the rebuild kit (it arrived on Thursday), Peter made an appointment with the mechanic at Aqua Yacht Harbor to repair the hydraulic cylinder and bleed the system to tighten up the steering.