Lake Guntersville Yacht Club another highlight on the trip. Our Bayshore membership provided a slip, laundry and use of the truck today.  The land-based basics mean a lot along with friendly folks.  Looking forward to southern gormet dinner at the Rock House.

Cute boat house along the Tennessee

Heading back towards Mobile after a great side trip to chattanooga. Tennessee River calm and fall color coming alive. We did 84 miles today in 10 hours.  Staying at Jackson County AL park tonight. Nice quiet evening with quick skillet dinner and walk thru the campground. Far cry from watching the World Series last night in Chatt with looper friends.   The balance of urban experiences and back to nature with our blue heron friends are defining the adventure so far.

Game 7 at the World of Beer.  Open air!

Akasha buds. 

Back down the Tennessee

Our new favorite fowl, thanks for the shot, Clarke.

There's our pet heron again 

City bikes took us to the historic homes district and UTC. Hills a bit challenging but fun time this am. Best Mexican lunch on the trip so far at Taconooga on the north shore. Saw Gone Girl at the Majestic movie theater...creepy good.  Watched the Giants struggle during dinner and returned to the boat for the night. Looking forward to seeing some more crew teams on the River as they prepare for the Head of the Hooch race this weekend that brings in over 2000 boats from all over the world. The regatta was once held in Roswell GA on the Chattahoochee, thus the name.

Loophole is the little guy three boats back

Loving Chattanooga! Vibrant downtown where we are docked with 7 Loopers. The Hunter Museum of American Art was fantastic.  Perfect day once the heavy fog lifted to a sunny 85 degrees. Docktails on Akasha were lovely- thank you Rosemary and Clarke!
Biking and exploring tomorrow.

Cooling off in the Cherokee trail of tears

Childe Hassam

Frank Stella

Soothing sounds steps from our river front port 

Tennessee River getting more interesting as we go. Limestone and hills and a few colorful trees.  The sunrises continue to be highlights. Heading into Chattanooga for 4 nights next. Sunny and 77. Ahhhh.

Misty morning today. Not sure how I got the antique paper effect!

Another misty start to the day yesterday. 

Huntsville Alabama today and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.  Very impressive museum where we learned about the history of space travel and science. Huntsville is the birthplace of the rockets that NASA used and a German scientist led the charge. Thus, we enjoyed dinner at the Biergarten that is held every Thursday at the space center. Beer, brats and a band!

Lunar module from Apollo 12

SR71 Blackbird

Florence Alabama was a great town. Frank Lloyd Wright house, an iced latte, univ of northern alabama with live lion habitat- they were inside for dinner but are part of campus life. Yes we ate Italian. Not bad for my favorite city's namesake.  On our way to Chattanooga to catch some 70 degree days and fall color.

Pickwick state park day 2 was just what we needed.  Recharged via sleeping in till 7, hiking to the lodge for breakfast, laundry, some reading in the sunshine, biking to lunch at the golf course, visited the cemetery and some cool new cabins.
 Kurt planned our 10 day side trip up Chattanooga as well. Looking forward to sunny and 70's and hoping for some fall color.  We finished the day at Lanie's with peel and eat shrimp and cheese balls.  Met up with Sandy and Dayton from Dubuque on their Cat at the docks and met Leslie from Memphis who has a fabulous sailboat, Tiki.

Early morning web at the docks

Funky new cabins

Still lot of boats in the water

Lanie ran out of oysters over the weekend but the shrimp was quite tasty

Eleven hours down the Tennessee to Pickwick State Park. Whew. While we were headed mostly south the current was against us losing 2.5 kts all day.  Many homes on stilts and wedged into limestone cliffs. I have posted the route below as well to help show how we plan to "chase the sun".

Misty sunrise this morning

Sunrises and sunsets frame our days so beautifully! The limestone River walls don't seem to deter the building of residences - one that was designed as a lighthouse.  Our port tonight of Clifton,Tennessee was a cute little River  town of about 3000. Biked from the marina to town.  Visited TS Stribling (Pulitzer prize winning novelist) museum and the general store. The highlight though was Mexican dinner at Victoria's.  Looking forward to sunny and 60's tomorrow as we head further down the Tennessee.

Paris, Tennessee has an amazing state park that we enjoyed yesterday.  The sun finally came out after 5 days of rain.  We biked and hiked and had dinner at the lodge.  Lazy cruise on the TN River today.  Heading for Cuba Landing Marina next.  Exotic international cities in Tennessee. 😉

Paducah Kentucky today where we learned about steamboat days and ate Elvis cookies.  Fun time with Looper friends Akasha from Fort Worth TX, Our Last Boat from Fair Haven NY and Bucket List from Punta Gorda.
Elvis cookies are peanut butter, bananas and...bacon!