Not Lost, Just Going the Wrong Way

We stayed at Clifton Marina on Thursday night after stocking up at the local store. Sonja, who runs the marina was exceptionally nice and very helpful. She let me use the barbecue grill for some hamburgers which were great. When we got up to leave the next morning it was a little foggy but I thought it was doable so we left. As you can see from the pictures, maybe we should have stayed another 1/2 hour - but we did fine. I had the radar on and stood on the bow with binoculars which really just make the fog thicker, but I looked good.

When we got close to the next lock there was a tow coming so we had to wait off to the side for him to get around the corner which was fine because there was another boat behind us that we needed to wait for at the lock anyhow. At this point we are on the Tennessee river headed up stream. The Tenn Tom is the waterway that will take us to Mobile so we turned right and went down about a mile to Grand Harbor Marina. Grand Harbor is probably the best marina we will be in until we reach the Gulf. There were other Loopers there and we met three people from Ohio so it was very nice.

The real highlight of the stay was our trip to Shiloh National Park where the battle of Shiloh in the Civil War was fought. The park is very large and most of the tour is done by car. I won't give you a history lesson because I don't teach well, but over 23,000 soldiers were killed in two days of fighting with muskets, bayonets and cannons which really makes you think.

We stayed at Grand Harbor three nights and then we moved on towards the Great Loop Rendezvous in Rogersville, AL. If we were not going to the party then we would have continued South on the Tenn-Tom but Joe Wheeler State Park is on the Tennessee River so we had to back track up the Tenn-Tom and head upstream on the Tennessee which means we are really going the wrong way but we are not lost Wayne.

We stopped at Florence, AL Marina on Monday night and will be here for thee nights before continuing to Joe Wheeler. There are not many Loopers here right now so the courtesy car is available and we are taking advantage of it to go to - you guessed it a WalMart. The Rendezvous starts on October 23 so we are well ahead of schedule. We will stay at Joe Wheeler from the 14th through the 26th and then come back down the Tennessee to the Tenn-Tom so we can continue South.

Statistics:

Total Nights Since Start: 73

Nights at Marina: 69

Nights Free: 4

Miles Traveled: 1,729

Engine Hours: 192

Gallons of Fuel Purchased: 1,317

Average MPH: 9.02

Average Miles Per Gallon: 1.31

% of Expenses:

Fuel: 35%

Marinas: 21%

Food including groceries and eating out: 27%

Other: 17%

Clifton Marina

Fog leaving

Leaving Clifton

I said the fog wasn't very thick

I guess I should have look further

The tow we waited for

Ginny on station

Grand Harbor Marina

The next few pictures are of Shiloh

Wild turkeys

Florence Marina

I think this boat could use some weeding - but it has a Dish.

Civilization at last