October 27, 2011

The Rendezvous ended yesterday.  We debated whether we wanted to take the time and spend the $$ to go to Chattanooga, TN.  It would be several days there and back and added cost for fuel.  We would travel 190 river miles to Chattanooga from Joe Wheeler, then 250 back to the Tenn-Tom to start south.  During one of our walks, I decided we would go.  We might not get here again and should take the time to go by boat.  We kept hearing that the fall colors were spectacular.

The morning was sunny but turned cooler by afternoon.  We traveled with 5 other looper boats leaving Wheeler.  Wind Song travels slower, by choice, than the other boaters so they passed us.

This looks like Brown Eyed Girl.

Something Special is passing us and another boat 

This is PassPort passing us.

An island we passed.  Looks like a rookery.  I'm not sure what kind of birds these are.

Another first, this is our first lift bridge,  the Southern Railroad Bridge at mile 304.4 on the Tennessee.  The bridge is pictured in the up position, but we had to wait for a train to pass before it was lifted.  In the down position, vertical clearance is only 9.8 feet.  Interesting factoid:  This bridge is on the same site as the Memphis & Charleston Railroad bridge burned by the Union Army on April 27, 1862, to stop a Confederate advance.

We also passed the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville.  Heard some booms along the way.  Some sounded kind of close.  Spent the night at Ditto Landing Marina in Huntsville, AL.