The Beautiful Tennessee River

The bridge to nowhere.  Guess they needed a couple
million more to finish it!

If there were a river that was the direct antithesis (pretty big words for a retired guy!) of the Mississippi River, that would be the Tennessee River.  What a joy it was to be on the scenic, calm, quiet river with minimal head current and very few towboats.  It was just as we remembered it from 4-6 years ago when we lived in this neck of the woods.

 


An abandoned dock along the Tennessee River

Hey, TowBoatUS, I think I grounded on a sandbar!



We're in either Kentucky or Tennessee

We only spent 3 days on the Tennessee before we arrived at the turn onto the next waterway.  The first night out, we stopped at a quaint marina that was adequate, but nothing special.  That is, until breakfast the next morning, when the marina served free coffee and fresh-baked cinnamon rolls.  Did I mention that it was all free?  I had read about this marina on the Looper website, and it was an enjoyable stop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typical scenery along the Tennessee River

 

Our second night out, we anchored where the river split around an island.  As the sun was setting against the cliffs at water’s edge, the scenery was drop-dead gorgeous.  The river was calm & quiet, the birds were squawking, and the goats on the island came down to the river’s edge.  Yup, there were wild goats on the island.  Just another day cruising through America!  We really enjoyed our last night on the Tennessee River at this special anchorage.

The view out our "back door" at the anchorage

 

The next morning at anchor with wisps of fog on the river

Our friendly goats at our anchorage

Our last lock upbound.  From here to Mobile AL, it's all downhill.

The third day, we made our marina at the junction of the Tennessee River and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.  This junction is right at the common boundary of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama.  Our next leg of our trip will be down the Tenn-Tom for 450 miles to Mobile AL.  But first, we’ll take about 2 weeks to rent a car, drive to Chattanooga for dentist appointments & to visit with Sue’s mother, and then drive back east to Southport NC, where we started our journey this year, to retrieve our personal car.  Then we’ll drive to Birmingham AL to our storage unit to pull out some winter clothes.  We’ve been pretty much freezing these past few weeks with only our summer clothes.



When we arrived at this marina, we reached a major milestone in our cruising adventures by completing the “Great Loop” of the waterways around the eastern part of America.  More about that on my next post, after we’re presented our “gold burgee”.