Tennessee into Alabama

Saturday - Tuesday, Oct 4, 5, 6, 7

Just off Pickwick Lake we stopped at Grand Harbor, a big marina which straddles Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama, as mentioned before. There were a lot of Looper boats pulling in on the windy afternoon when we got there. They had to park us at some remote dock near the condos, but we were glad to be tied up and out of the wind. We enjoyed the golf cart that they gave us to use to get around and it felt a little bit like being back at our home in Florida!

 

Our docking spot at Grand Harbor was so far from the main office that
they gave us a golf cart to get around. Just Us with Michelle and Dave
 is behind Serenity

  

While we were at Grand Harbor we were able to take the courtesy car with Bud and Sue, more Loopers on When I'm 64, and tour the Shiloh National military park. We watched a very well done video when we first got there and learned that during the two days of fighting between the Union and the Rebel armies over 23,000 men were either killed, wounded or missing. We were surprised that such a big area was involved and hadn’t realized that many of the men and supplies from the North came by steamboat down the Tennessee River. Regiments from Iowa, Illinois and Ohio played a large part in the battle.

Old house of worship at Shiloh

 

At the landing on the shores of the Tennessee River
 

One evening we went with a group to Freddy T's restaurant which is owned by the same person who owns the marina. This was certainly a change of mood for us because it was decorated in a quirky Key West style with a pirate theme - evidenced by their courtesy van.

Aarrrgh!
 



With new friends every time we go out - not counting the shark! John,
from Last Mango, Connie and Jim from Patriot, Diane, Karen, & Henry
 

After four days at Grand Harbor it was time to move on. We got back on the Tennessee River and made our way to Florence, Alabama.

Captain’s Log October 8, 2014

Departed: Grand Harbor, MI 6:50
Engine hours: 5.4 hrs.
Actual hours: 5 hr. 35 min.
Miles covered: 41.33
Arrived: Florence Harbor, Florence, Alabama 12:15 p.m.
Starboard engine temp at idle is normal now after replacing raw water pump
Wx: 70 degrees or so, overcast

Wednesday & Thursday, September, 8-9, 2014

Florence isn’t really walking distance from the marina, so the second day we were there we were invited to go sight-seeing with Becky and Mark from Mara Beel who had rented a car for the day. We did some errands first and then drove out of town to see the “wall.” This was an amazing wall of stone hand built by one man over the past 30 years to commemorate his great-great grandmother.

A small part of the wall

Builder of the wall, Tom Hendrix, 86, shows us some of the unusual stones,
fossils and even a meteorite that have been added to the wall by visitors

This section of eerie looking rocks represents all of our ancestors
 

Tom's great-great grandmother was one of the native Americans who was forcibly removed from her Alabama home by the US government in the early 1830s and taken to Oklahoma to live on a reservation.  This journey would later be called the Trail of Tears and many of the native people died along the way. 

His ancestor, Te-lah-nay, which means Woman with the Dancing Eyes, was only about 18 at the time and was gifted in the healing arts using local plants. She felt a calling to go back so she left and walked the entire way, following the rising sun - a trip that would take five years.
Tom felt the need to commemorate her in some way and, on the advice from some elders, began to make the wall, using no mortar or cement. This has taken him over 30 years, lifting each stone himself using his truck, shovels and a wheelbarrow. 
As he told us his story we felt moved by his strength and determination. Thousands of people have visited from all over the world and it truly feels like a very spiritual place.

This circle was built to honor all women
 

The next morning it was time to move on to the site of the annual fall looper rendezvous and we continued to go up the Tennessee, through two very high locks, to Joe Wheeler State Park.

Captain’s Log: October 10, 2014

Departed: Florence Harbor, AL 6:55 a.m.
Engine hours: 3.2 hr. – 20.61 statute miles
Actual hours: 4 hr. 20 min.  
Arrived: Joe Wheeler State Park, Rogersville, AL 11:15 p.m.
Departed Florence after fishing tournament got underway at 7 am – 2 locks to transit, no delays  
Wx: Overcast, went through 2 locks, started raining just as we were in sight of park and lodge