October 4

October 4

I omitted two items from the Day 2 post.  First, October 3rd is my brother Emory's birthday, and was my Daddy's as well,   and second, we had our first contact with a Looper boat -  Miss My Money.  He was docked at Blue Springs Marina on his way to Knoxville and saw us  cruise past.  They will be at the Rendezvous at Joe Wheeler as part of their second Great Loop.  Later in the day we made contact with two other Loopers, Anchor Down and Follow That Dream.   We love making connections with this incredible community.

Now to October 4th.  This is my dear Friend Jane's birthday.  We missed celebrating it with her, but I mailed her a funny card just before we left.  That is astonishing since I never remember to mail cards when I am in town.  Maybe this Loop thing will spur me to develop better habits.

Our first gas stop was at Shady Grove Harbor just north of Chattanooga.  No, we weren't out of gas, Emory, just getting a feel for how long a tank will last. The owners were so helpful and friendly and of course talked about The Loop.  This was my first time to throw out the ropes at a dock.  Thank goodness the owner was there and ready to catch!

At 12:30 we locked through the Chicamauga Dam into Nickajack Lake.  I had a bit of a meltdown in the lock when I had trouble hooking onto the bollard.  The rope just wouldn't go where I wanted it to go.  My second set of tears already, and I had wondered why people mentioned tears when they finished their loop.  Danny was wonderfully supportive.  Yep, you read that right.

I had looked forward to seeing Chattanooga from the water, but must admit I was a little disappointed.  It was pretty, I guess, but not the bustling place I expected.  Maybe because it was a week day in the fall, but still . . .  The scenery leaving town was impressive.  Lookout Mountain on our left, Moccasin Bend on our right.  We blew the horn for some school boys high on the cliff, and saw some gorgeous houses.  A little further west, there were some great lake houses, places we would all like to spend the week-end.

There was still lots of green stuff on the water but we managed to find a spot to anchor just north of Hales Bar, which was at one time a hydroelectric dam, but has been dismantled.  We got in the water, but I stayed on the ladder - the water was cold!  Danny never thinks the water is too cold.

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Day 2 - Need more exciting titles

Danny was up to see the sunrise, I was not!  We did get an early start and headed downriver on another gorgeous day!  There has been very little boat traffic, It's an away weekend for the Tennesseee Vols so the Vol Navy stayed at home to watch the game.  (No comment)

Our first social visit of the loop was with our wonderful OSM friend Jeff Coker.  His lake house is just off the channel, so we stopped by to visit with with him and his "girls," Roxie and Kiki.  We hated to miss Carla, but she was teaching  a spinning class.

We locked through Watts Bar Dam and headed down the Chicamauga River.  The impact of an 8 mph  travel speed began to sink in as we drove on and on and on!  When we brought the boat back from Chattanooga, we were cruising at a much higher speed.  I couldn't understand why Danny was planning so many travel days to Joe Wheeler when we made it from Chattanooga to Knoxville in a day and a half.  NOW I understand.  The scenery was pretty, but not pretty enough to keep time from dragging a bit.  There was so much green "slime" as we called it, that we had trouble finding a place to anchor for the night.  Places that were shallow enough for us to anchor had slime.  We ended up violating Danny's rule and cruising until 7:00, and even then anchored in the middle of the lake.

Day 1 - Part 2

As we pulled into Ft. Loudon, my heart tightened.  This is where I leave 5 of my 6 kids and not see them for3 months.  We had said goodbye to Jennfer the week-end before, So make her 3 months and 1 week!  I know we have phones and Skype (if I can work it!) but it's just not the same.  The grown kids will understand and they know how much we love them and will miss them.  But  Hudson and Lily have stayed with me at least one day a week from the time they were born until they started school, and I still had them some afternoons.  Would they understand why I'm not there for them anymore?

As we filled up with gas, Hudson was so excited that the tank kept turning for so long!  I told him that DanDan wasn't quite that excited.  We took pictures, hugged a lot, and waved goodbye.  I didn't cry until we were out of sight, but it was so hard.

The highest lock of our entire trip was just outside the marina, Ft. Loudon Dam, and we made it through with flying colors!  We were now in Melton Hill Lake, and the cruising and the weather were beautiful!  Danny is determined that we will limit our traveling time, and try to stop by 4:30 every day.  Those of you who know him can guess why!  So our first night's anchorage was in a cove just south of Kingston.  We slept like babies.

Day 1 Part 1

What a day!  Exciting, sad, funny, relaxing, can't begin to list all the emotions.  First, closing up the little house, then packing and then unpacking the LAST load in the truck, and trying to find a place to stack that last load.  We are out of places to store so have resorted to stacking.  Jeannie, Luke, Charles, Hudson and Lily joined us 9:00, Jeannie bearing gifts of Egg McMuffins.  I am going to miss my favorite breakfast, don't think we will find McDonalds at many marinas.  Once we took off, th grandkids had to drive, of course, and Hudson loved the new chart plotter, it was like a video game to him.  One small glitch - Danny found a hose squirting water in the engine room while making his rounds.   Thank goodness he, along with helpers Charles and Luke, and message relayers Hudson and Lily, were able to fix it.  The kids thought it was so funny when DanDan got squirted when the first plugging effort didn't work. Jeannie and I spent the ride trying to get me up to speed technologically.  Hopeless cause.  I can now operate the Kindle at least, but still can't download my pictures to this blog.  I hope there will be a kind hearted and very patient techie at the Great Loop Rendezvous who will help me.  We also tried to set up an e-mail list at the request of my nephew, William.  He just wants the important updates without having to search the blog or Facebook.  No luck with that, either.

(Day 1 continued in next post)

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!

"You'll never be ready.  Go anyway!"  This quote from a boat blog pretty much describes how we feel tonight.  We have packed, loaded, stowed, moved, until we are exhausted.  Departure is scheduled for 9:00 am Sunday morning.  Charles, Jeannie, Huson and Lily are riding with us as far as Ft. Loudon Marina where we plan to stop for gas.  Then we will be off!  Once underway, I hope to have more time for blogging.  My learning curve is steeper than I thought, so I'm making no promises!

"Getting Ready" is getting old

It seems that we have been getting ready forever!  We are still excited, of course, but ready to be through the "Getting Ready" phase.  We have been to the bank, the lawyer, West Marine, the phone company, the pedicure place, West Marine, the grocery store, Costco, West Marine, the pharmacy, the dermatologist, West Marine -- you get the idea.  Tomorrow we are having the carpet shampooed, the TV set up, and loading more stuff!

On the personal front, we had pictures made today with Jeanne and the grandkids for our boat gallery.    We are going to miss our kids and grandkids so much it makes my heart ache.  And our wonderful friends.  I gues it's a good thing that there are a lot of things still on the "Getting Ready" list so we don't have time to think about that!