Ditto Landing Marina - Huntsville, Alabama 1-Night Stay

As we continue our adventure, we rode 56 miles today from Lake Wheeler Marina and State Park to Ditto Landing Marina in Huntsville, Alabama on the Tennessee River.  We left Lake Wheeler about 9AM and arrived in Huntsville about 2PM.  I am so excited to have access to internet -- I'm writing 2 stories in 1 day!!!  The good news was -- no locks to travel through today, but we will have 1 lock tomorrow getting into Lake Guntersville. 

I forgot to post a picture of our boat at Lake Wheeler Marina in yesterday's post so am including it now.  In perspective, we are the small one on the left!!  I've always heard great things come in small packages and that certainly rings true in this picture!!  The boat on the right was our boat neighbor that had a visit from the raccoon in Lake Wheeler.

That's us -- Cloud Nine on the left -- Concrete Idea on the right.  

Lake Wheeler is very pretty and the houses are right at the water.  Boat houses are a big thing here.  I could be happy living in one of these boat houses -- many of the houses here are huge.  The skies looked like they were going to drench us all day, but luckily we didn't have any rain at all.  About 11 miles into our excursion we see Browns Ferry, one of the world's largest nuclear generating plants.  It was impressive.  

Brown's Ferry Nuclear Plant near Decatur, AL

As we get closer to Decatur, Alabama, there are industrial plants everywhere along the shoreline.  There are lots of barges ready to be loaded and shipped throughout the US.  It was a very busy area.  We also came across a railway bridge that only had a 9.8 foot clearance.  We are small in comparison in our boat picture above, but we are proudly 11.5 feet tall so we had to call the "bridge tender" and ask him to raise the bridge so we could go under it!!  We felt so big!! 

Railway Bridge We had to have Raised

Another very interesting area we passed in Decatur was what I am calling the "barge garage".  For whatever reason, they store barges in this covered garage.  Who would have thought a barge needed to be in a covered area.....not me.

 

The Barge Garage -- look at the big opening in the center.  There is a barge in there....

One of the last, and funniest, things we saw in Decatur was the sign below proudly saying "Decatur, Home of Meow Mix"!!  It was a huge operation and they were actually loading a barge just upstream and all we could smell was "cat food".  Shew that was stinky in that large quantity!!

Meow Mix Plant in Decatur, AL

A very familiar interstate that many of us in TN and AL frequent is the infamous I-65 Bridge located in Alabama at about MM 336.  We actually called our grandsons when we got under that bridge and facetimed them so they could see the big trucks driving over the bridge while Mimi and Grandad were in our boat under the bridge.  They thought that was really neat and will give them something to talk about every time they drive over that bridge. 

I-65 Bridge around Mile Marker 336 in Alabama

After we went under the I-65 bridge, the scenery changed from all industrial to total scenic with only trees and flat-lands or small hills.  It was a beautiful ride the rest of the way into Huntsville.

Beautiful scenery from I-65 into Huntsville

Then it was time to settle in, write a few blogs, take sunset pictures and order pizza delivery from Marco's Authentic Pizza.  I've never had it, and it was fantastic.  They delivered it to us at the marina.  Now that's great southern hospitality.

Here's one of our favorite sunset pictures of the night.

Sunset at Ditto Landing Marina in Huntsville.  Gorgeous end to a Picture-Perfect Day

Pictures like what we have shared today are a primary reason we are doing what we are doing.  Traveling the river is so amazing and every day is an adventure.  So love this trip we are on.  Hope you are capturing a glimpse of the beauty we see every day.

There is also a campground here and the smell of campfires burning is amazing.  Love it.

Well it's 10PM and the raccoons are also here at Ditto Landing Marina.  Holy crap that raccoon is about to climb onto our boat.  It's time to take the trash can downstairs and hunker down!!!

Love my Captain.....Love Cloud Nine …..Don't Like Raccoons.....