We pulled out of Ditto Landing Marina about 9:30AM Sunday morning and headed toward Lake Guntersville and our next night's stay destination of Goose Pond Colony Marina in Scottsboro, AL -- a 44 mile ride. It was cloudy but no rain expected for the day.
Within a few miles, we encounter a sight we haven't seen - a plane that can land on the water. We didn't know if us driving in the middle of the TN River was keeping them from landing or if they were just out enjoying the day, but it was neat to see.
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Water Plane flying above us on Lake Wheeler Near Ditto Marina
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| Painted Bluff Signifying the end of the Cumberland Plateau |
As we often see as we start getting close to a Lock, the river gets narrow and the current picks up quite a bit. One of the last things we wanted to see was a barge coming toward us when the river is narrow....well as luck would have it, here it comes. We were so close to it, I hollered out the window and asked if they "had any Grey Poupon". I realize there may be several readers that don't know what that means -- but there was a mustard commercial years ago where a "person riding in a limo" drove up next to a car, rolled their window down, and asked the car next to them if they had any Grey Poupon (which is fancy mustard) so they could make a sandwich. Probably not funny to you if I had to explain it...… But it was hilarious to us. A close passing....
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| Meeting Barge in Narrow River Channel -- Too Close for Comfort |
A few miles after passing the barge, we were getting close to Guntersville Lock. Since we had such an encounter with the last lock we went thru with a 4 hour wait, lightening and 40mph winds, I called the Lockmaster before we left the marina on Sunday morning to see if he knew of any barges coming through that would delay our trip. He said there were none coming and to call him about 15 minutes before arriving at the lock and he would have the doors open for us......well that's exactly how it happened and we pranced into that lock like "we owned it". Within 20 minutes, we were through the lock and on our happy way into Lake Guntersville.
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| Cloud Nine Inside Guntersville Lock |
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| Look at the "turbulence" in the water as we are being lifted 84' inside the lock. That water MOVES quickly |
We are now in Guntersville Lake and it is absolutely gorgeous. This lake is at least 2 miles wide in many places, is the 2nd largest lake on the Tennessee River and has hundreds of amazing homes on the water with beautiful boat houses. It's a Sunday afternoon so boat traffic is heavy, coming from all directions.
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| Amazing houses on the lake shoreline |
Our next stop for the night is 8 miles past the Dam, Goose Pond Colony Marina. This marina is known for their plants that grow in the water, Hydrilla and milfoil that float all over the water and this marina is covered with these plants. They look like huge Lili Pads to me. They are pretty, but you don't want to get them caught up in your motor props.
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| Picture of Hydrilla and Milfoil on the water |
We got a really nice covered slip and will stay here for 2 nights. We were scheduled to stay only 1 night, but with the storms coming in, we prefer to be protected in a covered slip. The best thing about staying here is that we got to meet up with a friend of ours that we met at our home marina, Kenlake. He just moved here 2 weeks ago and it was fantastic to catch up with him....borrow his car to go to the laundry and grocery and to mouch off his wi-fi. Gene had "crashed" our I-pod and inadvertently deleted 8,700 songs from our I-pod. He felt the world had come to an end. Luckily we used our friend's wi-fi and re-installed the songs from the laptop to the I-Pod. He had to upload the songs twice because the first time he uploaded them, he selected "Japanese" as the chosen language. We had to delete the songs and re-load them using "English". We didn't know if the song titles would be in Japanese or the actual songs would be sung in Japanese!!! Now they are re-loaded in English and we are ready to set sail and move up the river.
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| Brentt on the left, our friend from our home marina, Kenlake |
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| Beautiful sunset from Goose Pond Colony Marina. |
As always, we run into someone on the dock that has completed the Great Loop. This picture shows the boat to our left that has traveled over 25,000 miles in his boat...they did the loop, Bahamas, and many river systems (like the TN River) that they have completed. They took the Cumberland River to Nashville, TN about a month ago for 10 days and had a great time. They've been to Knoxville and gave us some recommendations on where to stay and what to do. Their boat is now for sale as they want to go out West and will likely get a motor home for their next adventure. We love talking to folks on the docks that have experienced traveling on the water like we are loving right now.
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| Boat to our left has traveled over 25,000 on the water |
Our plan is to leave Tuesday headed for Nickajack Resort and Marina near South Pittsburg, TN then into Chattanooga by Wednesday.
Love my Captain......Love Cloud Nine...
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