Aquaholic

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

7/4/18- Wednesday - Chattanooga, TN to Gu Kerrville, AL

We got an early start after topping off water tanks and pumping out. Headed down the river around 7am, EST. Shortly after leaving Chattanooga we entered back into central time, our internal clocks are so confused! We came upon some pretty dense fog for a little while, but after a short time we hit Nickajack Lock, our first and only lock of the day. The lock master was filling the chamber when we arrived, so after a short wait we were lowered down and on our way. Heading back down river we are trying to cover distance. We stopped a few times to cool off but mostly kept moving all day. Because we were moving at a pretty good pace, and the time change, we arrived at Guntersville Marina around 3. Not bad for a day of 105 river miles! Just as we were getting settled in, we watched a storm move in from across the lake. Perfect timing today! We took showers, did laundry, played some pool in the shower/laundry house, then Erik made shish-kabobs, YUM!!!! We made a quick trip to the store then watched the Guntersville fireworks from the back of the boat. We were both to exhausted to leave the dock to go watch them, but we could see pretty well from the dock. Finishing blogs as my eyes start to get heavy....goodnight moon....😴

Leaving at sunrise

Sun rising behind us

Lookout mountain (where we went to Ruby Falls)

Ruby Falls entrance from the river

Very cool looking.....is it smoke, fog, or cloud?

We foundout shortly that it was fog....very dense fog for a while!

The fog is lifting

What a beautiful backdrop to river setting!

Another lift bridge, but plenty of clearance

7/3/18 - Tuesday - Chattanooga

We had a great layover day in Chattanooga today. We’ve found this city to be very boater friendly as well as may neat things to see and do.
We started the day slowly by sleeping in some and relaxing on the boat a good part of the morning. After a late breakfast we ventured out to the Tennessee Aquarium which’s right above the city docks where we are located. The aquarium is huge and very nice. It has an entire large building dedicated to the river systems; how and where they start all the way to the oceans. It is very well done, and bonus....it was inside and air conditioned on a VERY hot day 😎. We spent 5 or so hours here and could have spent even more (except for our feet getting tired).
After the Aquarium we hopped on the free shuttle bus and went across the river to do some shopping at Publix. Provisioned back up for the long boating days we have planned for the coming week.
Back at the boat we ventured back up into downtown for a few for ice cream (gotta have it 🍦) and then rested our tired legs for a bit before cooking dinner and settling in to enjoy the Independence Day festivities. We sat in our zero gravity chairs on the bow of the boat and enjoyed a nice concert by the Chattanooga Sumphony while eating our baklava cheesecake we had gotten yesterday 🤩. The fireworks were not as good as the Ft Loudon display we’d seen on Saturday but they were nice.
To bed we went to rest up for a planned long cruising day of 100+ miles tomorrow in the predicted 96 degree heat.

Rowing team practice

Otters playing at the aquarium

American Alligators.....I hope I don't see any this close on the rivers!

Paddle fish, they open their mouths and filter food from the water!

Petting stingrays!

Albino??? catfish

The lemur exhibit was pretty cool!

Ring tailed lemurs

Lots of butterflies!

Penguins!

more penguins!

Jellyfish are so much cooler here than at the beach!

All different types of jellyfish

SHARK!

Aquaholic at the docks at the Bluff, Chattanooga

Our neighbor at the docks!

Our view of the pops concert and fireworks

Chattanooga fireworks

Monday, July 2, 2018

7/2/18 - Monday - Hiwasee River (anchorage) to Erwin Marina Chattanooga Tn

We both slept well at our peaceful anchorage after our loooong day of cruising yesterday. We slept in just a bit (Erik to a whopping 6am! 😂) and awoke to a cloudy and calm morning. Erik fished for a little while during our morning coffee and planning for the days adventures. He caught a healthy sized catfish (5-6 lbs).
We planned for a reasonably short (40 miles and 1 Lock) cruising day but we decided to pull anchor early anyhow to get it out of the way prior to forecasted afternoon rain again. We also wanted to get back to Chattanooga to do some more exploring of the city. We pulled anchor at about 730am and slowly made our way downriver. We decided to top off the gas tanks at Lakeshore Marina (reasonable prices) and Renee bought a sun dress and a new boat bumper rope adjuster (we lost one earlier this week). Lakeshore was just above the Chickamauga lock and we were fortunate to hale them on the radio just as we were leaving and they were preparing to open the doors to lock another pleasure craft down....good timing 😋. It was just another 7 miles or so downriver to Chattanooga and our slip for the next two days. We got just a brief light shower of rain as we were coming into Chattanooga...that was it for the day (yay!).
We got settled in at our slip, ate lunch and took a brief walk up to the riverfront and downtown to orientate ourselves to where we were. To this point boating fatigue set in and we both decided that a good nap was in order 😴
We awoke about 4pm, showered and headed across the pedestrian bridge to explore "The North Shore" area which is across the river from downtown. It is a nice little area with a couple nice parks, shops, and restaurants. We made a quick stop into Julie Darling Donuts for a pre dinner treat 🍩 😂. We split a delicious grandma's apple pie donut. We walked through a few shops and then through Coolidge Park where we rode the restored 1800’s carousel. Renee rode the fish who’s colors matched her new dress. Erik rode the donkey which matched his personality 😂.
We then walked backed across the pedestrian bridge and through downtown to the "City Cafe Diner" which came highly recommended by several people we had met. It had one of the largest menus we had ever seen. Also HUGE portions. We split a Greek combo platter which was yummy and still didn’t have room for desert.... Stuffed! Ok, well we did get a desert to go for later (as it turns out for tomorrow because we are still too stuffed to enjoy it. Looks like breakfast tomorrow will have to be baklava cheese cake 🤭
We’re spending time time tonight catching up on several days of blogs and off to bed we’ll go.

Erik caught his breakfast!

Aquaholic at the bluff dock, from the pedestrian bridge above.

how long has it been since I roe a carousel?

Coolidge park fountain

Hand carved horses!

Pedestrian bridge

7/1/18 Sunday- Ft Louden Marina to Hiwasee Island anchorage

Started the morning with coffee and number theory....well I, Renee, did. Spent some time reviewing and studying a little more before showering and getting ready for my midterm in my master's class. I logged on around 9:30 and worked on my midterm, which I think I did really well on, till about 1130am. While I was doing school stuff Erik did some little projects on the fly bridge. He replaced one of the ignition fuse holders and moved the cigarette/ accessory lighter we had just installed. After I was done we gassed up, again, pumped out again and headed towards the Fort Louden Lock. We were able to lock down fairly quickly and motored up about 15 miles to Louden. At the Malibu boat factory thy were having a wakeboard competition. We dropped anchor, jumped in to cool off, made lunch, and watched some crazy wakeboarders! The videos and pictures do not do these people justice. They were getting crazy air, and flipping and spinning too! We didn't stay long as we were hoping to make some distance. Erik was hoping to make more distance than I. This became a point of strong discussion....😠😈👹. We hit some pretty heavy rain and pushed forward. We made it through another lock, then drove through an amazing sunset, then in the dark to an anchorage on the edge of the Hiwasee River. I was exhausted from grouching at Erik for making me cruise in the rain, then in the dark(neither of which I care to do!) He is just lucky the amazing sunset colors softened me up so I didn't throw him overboard! ⚓ Did not take long to fall asleep tonight!

First lock going back down!

We shared the lock with a few other boats, one was the TVA boat(our version of DNR)

Two wake-boarding boats headed down to the competition.

Check out that air!

Sunset!

Beautiful colors in every direction tonight

It just kept getting prettier

and prettier!
Click on picture for video!

Then Erik said "we haven't seen many bugs"..... yes then minutes later this happened!! As we pulled into our anchorage there were swarms of mayflies!

6/30/18 - Saturday - Ft Loudon Marina/Tellico Lake

Today was a good day at a great location to make it a layover/no travel day. In addition to this area and marina being beautiful, having lots of great amenities, activities going on we also needed to ensure that we were at a location tomorrow morning at 930am for Renee to take her Number Theory class mid term exam online. So, we decided to stay out here for another day today.
Renee spent the morning and early afternoon studying while Erik grocery shopped, did laundry, and a bait project.....a new kitchen faucet got installed (taller and with sprayer type spout). This, of course, required three trips to Home Depot (thank goodness for a courtesy van 🙂).
At about 5pm after our chores and studies were complete we left the dock for the whopping .2 mile cruise over to the adjacent cove/park where the town was having the Anyal July 4th festivities. We anchored out along with many other boats and listened to several bands. The first two were so so classic rock bands. The ‘headliner’ leading up to the fireworks was a good 80’s and 90’s country band ‘Pure Country’. While floating and enjoying the music we grilled a nice ribeye and baked tatoes. The fireworks topped off the evening....they out in a really nice display. We hung loose for a while after the fireworks to allow the majority of the chaotic boat movement to die off. A slow but short cruise back to our transient dock slip and we were both more than ready for bed! It was a nice and relaxing day.