TN River Trip - Friday June 3, 2011

Breakfast this morning was at Panera Bread, just a few blocks away from our dock. After breakfast Glenda and Abby played on the "steps" waterfall and I caught up on downloading pictures and such to the computer. After taking care of some housekeeping, we walked awhile in the dock area. We visited the "Moon Pie" actory store and decided to eat lunch before buying anything we'd have to carry around with us. Another block or so up  the street was "Sugar BBQ" which I'd heard was good. We were impressed by the friendly service, and the BBQ was some of the best I've ever had (and I eat lots of BBQ).


The view from our dock, looking down river last night.

 Stopping back by the Moon Pie store, we loaded up with Glenda's favorite banana flavored pies, and Abby got souveniers for her and her little sister Bailey. Once back at the boat we packed things away and cast off for Hales Bar. This trip would only be about 36 miles, and I hoped the current allow us to make good time. I set the throttle at about 3800 rpm and the GPS registered about 6.7 mph.

Just South of downtown we were passed by the houseboat "River Dawg" who radioed to warn of his passing and assuring us that he was not making a big wake. The crew was finishing a 500 mile cruise and would stay tonight as Hales Bar before ending the trip at thier homeport in Guntersville.

Going back through the Gorge, we deviated only slightly from our previous course, taking the left downsteam route around Williams Island. This proved to be worthwhile, as we saw from this side that the island was mostly pasture land where a fairly sizeable heard of cattle was being kept. There was a small outboard powered barge platform tied up on the island that appeared to be used to transport equipment and cattle back and forth.

As we passed the discharge facility for the Raccoon Mountain Resovoir, Glenda's sharper eyes spotted a large doe white-tail standing ankle-deep in the water at the bank. We approached to try and get a video shot, but she wouldn't stand for that!

We arrived at Hales Bar about 5:05 Central Time, and decided to stay at the fuel dock. River Dawg and Mo Jac, a yacht that also passed us during the day, were both tied up nearby.

Glenda Says:
It was nice to have options for breakfast!  We enjoyed our walk to Panera Bread.  Abby wanted to spend as much time as she could playing on the step waterfall.  She and I played most of the morning.  We made a make shift frisbee from our drink lid.  We enjoyed strolling back down the street for lunch.  But after moonpies I'm afraid I better start worrying more about those calories.  The views of the mountains along the gorge are amazing.  I am very grateful for this opportunity to enjoy these gifts from God!

Abby and I played frisbie with a soda cup lid on the steps this morning.

It was hard to drag Abby away from here. It was one of the only cool spots around.



We have lots of pictures of the steps!



Lookout Mountain

Glenda samples a "factory fresh" banana Moon Pie.

The other side of William's Island gave no clue that it was home to a herd of cattle.

Typical river path through the mouintains in the Gorge.

Abby says:
I got to play on the steps a lot.  Papa even played with me some.  I got a stuffed llama at the moonpie store.  I liked the mint chocolate moonpies.  We got something for Bailey too.  I got to go swimming when we got back to Hales Bar.  While we were gone Daisy wet on my bed.  So we had to wash it.