Chattanooga Side Trip

One of the side trips that many past Loopers recommended we take was the 374 mile round trip from Joe Wheeler State Park to Chattanooga, TN. We decided to take the time to do this, so instead of continuing on south, we headed east, upstream of the Tennessee River to Chattanooga. We were not disappointed!

The Tennessee River is probably one of the most beautiful rivers we have traveled on. With its many miles of hills and valleys on each side, its limited commercial traffic and almost no floating debris to navigate around, it was truly pleasure boating.

Just one of the many sheer cliffs along the river.

The closer we approach Chattanooga, the more rugged the terrain becomes.

One of the few mansions that dot the ridge lines above the river.

As we round the bend in the river, 

famous Lookout Mountain comes into view.

Though this picture is slightly out of sequence, it is still a great picture of ITHAKA while underway. It was taken by one of the marina personnel who happened to be visiting the Shiloh battlefield as we cruised by after leaving the Grand Harbor marina.

Once in Chattanooga, a little nap was in order before seeing all the sites!😃

We rented a car for a few days to travel around and see the many sites. Here we are on top of Lookout Mountain and the Civil War battle that took place here.

The view from the top was spectacular

One of the many monuments commemorating the "Battle Above the Clouds"

Entrance to the Lookout Point.

Approximately eight miles to the southeast of Lookout Mountain, across the state line into Georgia, is the Chickamauga battlefield. The two locations, Lookout Mountain and Chickamauga are all part of the same battle that took place during September thru November of 1863. Chickamauga was the last major victory for the Confederate forces, but though they won this battle, they were not able to keep the Union forces from taking control of Chattanooga. More than 140,000 Confederate and Union troops met on these two battlegrounds, with 34,000 men killed or wounded.

The Chickamauga battlefield was the first site to be turned into a National Military Park (NMP) in 1890.

Today it is one of the best maintained and most well defined Civil War sites in the country.

Every infantry, artillery, and calvary unit has an identifying marker or monument showing where they were positioned on the battlefield.

Our last sightseeing trip was to the wonderful Tennessee Aquarium. Located in two separate buildings, one housing fresh water fish and animals and the other housing saltwater fish and animals.

This picture is of a rare species of Sea Horse.

There is also a section that includes the forest and its streams.

A giant Alligator snapping turtle.

This one is for you Mark. A Russian Sturgeon!

A purple McCaw

One of the many sharks in the saltwater exhibit.

Beautiful Jellyfish.

Rogersville, AL and the 2014 AGLCA Fall Rendezvous.

The AGLCA (America's Great Loop Cruisers Association) Fall Rendezvous is a gathering of most of the Loopers that are on the loop in any given year as well as people who are dreaming and planning of one day doing it, as well as those loopers that have completed it and are now known as Gold Loopers.

This is our friend, mentor, and trainer, Captain Chris Caldwell and me before one of the seminars on various aspects of the Loop. Sara and I trained on their boat for five days and after buying ITHAKA, we hired Captain Chris and his wife, Captain Alyse, to train us on our boat. Great teachers and great friends!!

The Marina at Joe Wheer State Park was completely filled. 47 Looper boats were present and over 200 past, present, and future loopers were in attendance during this four day event.

One of the scariest things to happen at the rendezvous happened the evening of the first day.  Less than an hour after one of the Looper boats pulled into the Marina, the Captain of the boat fell over with a massive heart attack while climbing aboard his boat. Sara and I were having dinner with friends about four boats away when we heard a thud and a woman screaming for help. To make a long story short, many loopers responded, several doctors were among the other loopers, as well as nurses and a First Responder. One of the loopers had an AED device (defibrillator) on his boat and between the AED and CPR being performed, the Captain's heart was restarted before the ambulance arrived. The man underwent open heart surgery that night and is reportedly going to make a full recovery. HE WAS EXTREMELY LUCK. If that had happened just a couple of hours earlier, he would not have survived.

One afternoon we were able to dog sit with BERT, the Labradoodle of our friends Chris and Alyse. What a great dog!

Pebble Isle Marina, New Johnsonville, TN to Joe Wheeler State Park, Rogersville, AL

After leaving Green Turtle Bay, we headed down Kentucky Lake and on into the Tennessee River towards the site of the Fall Loopers Rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park, Rogersville, AL. It would take us four travel days to reach Joe Wheeler State Park.

One of our stops was Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, TN. This was a sign of things to come as the number of Looper boats is increasing as we draw closer to Joe Wheeler. Six of us stopped Here for the night.

The marina restaurant was normally closed on Monday nights, but because they had so many loopers tied up at their marina, they were kind enough to call in their staff and open the restaurant just for us.

The next morning dawned cool and foggy as we headed out. This was one of the boats that traveled on the same day, though not a Looper boat. It's a 100' yacht named NO VACANCY It is headed to Florida for the winter.

One of the many interesting homes along the Tennessee River.

The Pickwick Lock.

NO VACANCY tied up at the lock.

The next lock we had to transit through was the famous Wilson Lock. This is the largest lock in the U.S., with a change in elevation of 95'. We, along with several other boats had to tie up for three hours to wait our turn.

Just so happened the place I had to tie up to was right next to a Yellow Jacket wasp nest inside one of the bollards. I quietly closed the window on the fly bridge to not disturb them.

Finally, after three hours, we are inside the lock.

It was a fast, rough ride UP the 95'. Apparently the lock master was in a hurry  to get us through and opened the underwater valves all the way. Note the white, bubbling, turbulent water. One of the engineers in the group figured the flow rate as 5,000,000 gallons per minute coming into the lock!

Sara has us tied off on the floating bollards and we are standing by for the ride up.

Paris Landing State Park Marina

Voyeur at another wedding!!!

We had dinner at the state park lodge and just outside the dining room window...