Happy Birthday Angela

Wednesday 5/20/09 It's now 12 days since we left Legacy Harbor. Starting to seem like a dream that we were ever there in the first place except for the memories of great people, good weather and no snow to shovel. We decided to take a day off from travel and enjoy the area and facilities at Grand Harbor. Grand Harbor is another marina that has a crackerjack staff that goes out of their way to make you feel welcome, in addition to being right at the junction of the Tenn-Tom and the Tennessee Rivers. Great for boat watching! The slips bordering the waterway are covered and each has it's own little patio area. Nice for escaping the sun or drizzle. Additionally, Chip Lucas the manager has made 115 trips up or down the Tombigbee and is a wealth of knowledge to draw on when making the trip.

We decided to launch the dinghy and go exploring. This is the first time the dink has been in fresh water since last October. We rode back into an area called Yellow Creek which is bordered by beautiful homes as well as being the home to Aqua Yacht Harbor, a huge full service marina that I've heard about for years. From there we checked out some of the coves in the area before returning to Tourist for afternoon libations. One of the perks at Grand Harbor is cable TV. We were able to watch the finals of both Dancing With the Stars and American Idol. What a treat! Neither Pam or myself has really missed TV but it seems like when you have it it you get glued to it. I must say it's been nice and peaceful without it.

Thursday 5/21/09 Happy Birthday Angela! My baby girl turned __ today! We left Grand Harbor and turned onto the Tennessee River headed South which is confusing because we are actually travelling North. The Tennessee flows out of the mountains beyond Knoxville,Tn. and empties into the Ohio River at Paducah, Ky. which in turn flows to the Mississippi at Cairo, Il. then on to the Gulf of Mexico. However if you look at a map you can see that the Tennessee runs North from Grand Harbor. Confusing! The good news is that we are travelling with the current. Shortly after leaving Grand Harbor we entered the Pickwick Landing Lock and dropped 50'. We cruised past Shiloh Battlefield and the Catfish Hotel Restaurant, both places that we explored back in November. We did trawler speed most of the day since we had the advantage of the current and due to some debris in the water. The scenery along the way was spectacular with high bluffs and not much traffic. Also we found that no longer should we be looking for dolphins, we should now be watching for snakes which we saw two of today! Why is it that I could never get a good picture of a dolphin but had no trouble snapping a shot of a snake? We continued on and anchored behind Densons Island (mm 125.5) in 30' of water after travelling 88.7 miles.