10/8 Chattanooga

So it has been a few days since I posted.  We do not have good Wi-Fi here.
We left Goose Pond Marina and headed up the Tennessee to Little Cedar Creek anchorage for the night.  It was a snug, protected anchorage just off the Tennessee.  Hot dogs and beans for dinner tasted so good.  The sunset was spectacular.

John has a satellite tracker on his phone.  After dark, I saw one go right overhead.

The next day, we went through the Tennessee Gorge to Chattanooga.  The mountains create fantastic scenery.

Many of the sites of the Battle of Chattanooga were able to be seen here.  We passed Brown's Ferry and could see the buildings on the ridge of Lookout Mountain.

Arriving at the Chattanooga City docks, Jim from the Erwin Marine was there to catch our lines.  He offered a tour of downtown on his golf cart and I took him up on it to get the lay of the land.  The city docks are right at the foot of the Tennessee Aquarium and park in downtown.  This is close to everything.  After lunch, I made a trip to the visitors' center.   I came back with maps, coupons for meals, and a plan for seeing the Chattanooga sites.  I also took my first walk across the pedestrian bridge that goes to North Chattanooga.

  Here is the view of the docks from the pedestrian bridge.

The next morning we took Uber to the base of Lookout Mountain.  We took the Incline Railway to the top.  It is run by cables and goes at 600 ft. per minute.

At the top of the mountain, it was noticeably cooler.  They said it was generally 6-10 degrees cooler on top.  It was hazy, but on clear days, they say you can see 6 states from there.

We are less than 100 miles from North Carolina.  There was an excellent movie with a 3-D panorama where they showed where the battle movements were.  Looking out from the National Park at Point Park was more meaningful after that. 

Chattanooga was a railway hub.  After Chattanooga fell to the Union, the assault on Atlanta set up.  This statue commemorates the soldiers of the Union and the Confederacy.

After the Incline ride back down the mountain, we headed back downtown. 

I toured the Tennessee Aquarium for the afternoon.  The aquarium has two buildings.  In each you start at the top and work your way down.  The first is a fresh water aquarium highlighting fish from rivers all over the world but also aquatic life on the Tennessee.  The river otter exhibit was fun.  They are pretty cute.  We haven't seen any as we go along and have been keeping our eyes peeled.  I liked the large seahorse exhibit, too.  The fresh water building takes you down to the delta.  I saw turtles, alligators, and macaws.

 Then you go to the salt water building, that goes from the delta to the oceans. The penguins were being fed just as I got to that exhibit.  Oh, they are so cute.  A huge jelly fish exhibit was there too.  It included glass art that was inspired by the jelly fish.  I did get in the shark cage.

The art museum is further down the waterfront.  The walk there included walking over a glass bridge.  It was a little unsettling.  The museum was free from 4-8 pm so we took advantage of that offer.  The museum had rooms dedicated to different art in the United States.  It included pieces from Grandma Moses and Childe Hassam.  This piece of Dale Chilhuly glass was a favorite of mine.

Saturday we took the free electric bus to the Chattanooga Choo Choo.

It is named for the famed Glenn Miller song from the 1940's.  The Chattanooga Terminal was bought by Hilton and turned into a hotel in the 1970's.  The entrance to the hotel is the main terminal building where they kept the grandeur.

Stepping out from the lobby in the back are the train tracks with the trains on them.  The cars have been outfitted as guest rooms.  It would be fun to stay in one.

After lunch, I took another free electric bus across the river to North Chattanooga. 

This area is an eclectic mix of art and antique stores, as well as a Publix, CVS, etc.  I met the nicest people on the bus from Nashville.  The husband was on business in Chattanooga and they were spending a few extra days sightseeing.  They were very interested in our Great Loop adventure.  I walked with them to the 100 year old carousel in the waterfront park.  It was a beautifully restored.  I took a video of their ride with their camera for them.

The neatest thing about the loop is meeting such nice people.  Speaking of nice people, that morning Pookie from Pookie II left a homemade jar of sweet pickles on our boat as they headed out early in the morning, Yum.  The Harbor Host for Chattanooga came by too.  The package he left included a Moon Pie.  We thought about coming to Chattanooga because we heard him give a blog talk radio on it.  We are so glad we took his advice to come here.

It is Saturday morning and there are sculling races going on in the river front.  As one of the Alabama boats rowed by John called out, "Roll Tide".  The whole boat yelled back, "Roll Tide".

Yesterday, we went to a glass blowing store.  The neatest thing was that they let you blow your own glass ornament.  So I did.  It has to cool overnight so I will go back today to pick it up.

10/3 A day at Goose Pond in Scottsboro, AL

Goose Pond Colony Marina is such a nice place!

We did some boat chores this morning, three loads of laundry, filling the water tanks, washing down the boat, etc. 

In the afternoon, we took the courtesy car to downtown Scottsboro.  It is a lovely town with a quaint downtown area with cute shops.  We had lunch at Holy Smokes Barbecue.  It was locally owned and the family was running it.

Then we headed to a store that is a legend in the area.  I had heard about it first in Nashville and then again in Huntsville.  Started in the 1970's, Unclaimed Baggage Center buys baggage that has been reimbursed by the insurance companies and then resells it.  Unclaimed Baggage Center keeps one area as a museum and puts items on the wall with the history of the year it came in and descriptions.

Some of the more well known items were a huge emerald and a fabulous diamond.  They have a set of gold spoons in the Russian Orthodox style, where the spoons represented Jesus and each of the Apostles.  This boa snake skin was impressive. 

This 2002 Paul McCartney tour jacket had been signed by Paul McCartney, too.

Of course, they sold the luggage that items came in.  The collection of computers, Bose headsets, cell phones and watches were quite large.  There were fine jewelry items like a diamond necklace that was just gorgeous for $4300.00.  Some stuff was not so enticing but it was fun to look at it.  I did not get to be one of the people that open a piece of luggage for the first time.  I think that would have been fun.

Tomorrow, we will head up the Tennessee and anchor out for one night before we head to Chattanooga.  We are keeping a good eye on Hurricane Matthew even though we will not be home to greet him if he goes to Wilmington.

10/2 Quiet Day on the Tennessee to Scottsboro, AL

It was a pleasant day on the Tennessee River.  The winds were calm and it was warm but not hot.  There was slight fog on the water as we headed upstream to pass this tow.

The scenery was stunning.  Fall is in the air.

In this photo, you can see our wake on the water, too.

We went through only one lock today.  The Guntersville Lock and Dam hold back water to create Guntersville Lake on the Tennessee.  There were lots of boaters out on this Sunday.

We cruised into Goose Pond Colony Marina in Scottsboro, AL.  What a welcome!  Not only were the dock master and staff welcoming but we hadn't been tied up 4 minutes when the harbor hosts for Goose Pond, Ray and Patsy, arrived to say hello and offer any help if we need it.  The crew of Copper Penney that were on the dock behind us in Chicago are here too. 

Tomorrow, we will have a down day to do laundry, etc. 

Lat 34 degrees 34.82 North
Long 86 degrees 4.77 West

10/1 Marshall Space Flight Center

We could not go to Huntsville without visiting the Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. 

There was lots to see and much of it was interactive.  The displays are so large; many are visible from the highway.  The focus of Marshall Space Flight has been on rockets.  It makes sense to be so close to the Redstone Arsenal.  Just off the parking lot is a rocket with a shuttle replica.  This is what is looked like from the side.

However, when looking from below, it was just huge.

The Saturn V rocket exhibit was amazing.  The stages were separated so you could see how it worked.  The back of the rocket was amazing. 

But when I got to the front and looked back on it, I was even more impressed.

There was a neat interactive on how to land the space shuttle.  It is good thing that Christine works for NASA and not me.

There was a very good exhibit on the International Space Station.  Huntsville can be a back up for ISS mission control. 

There were two other exhibits.  One on the Army and the technologies they use.  John tried an interactive on an actual Avenger Missile System Table Top Trainer. 

Another exhibit was on Archimedes and all his inventions.  While both John and I tried many of the inventions to raise weights and roll balls uphill, I was the one who splashed in the bath and said, "Eureka!".

Remember a couple of days ago, we saw the Delta Mariner taking rockets from United Launch Alliance?  ULA had an exhibit and showed this picture of a rocket being loaded on the Delta Mariner in Decatur, AL.

After lunch, we headed back to the marina where our friends, Tom and Carolynn, had docked their boat Su Sueno.   They have already been up to Chattanooga and are heading back down the Tennessee to get on the Tenn Tom Waterway.  It was good to see them again.

Tomorrow, we head up the Tennessee to Goose Pond Marina, where we have a package waiting for us.