Yesterday we borrowed the marina's courtesy van and drove to Shiloh National Military Park. Benji hopped up onto one of the cannons.
The 45 minute movie about the battle showed us that 151 years ago on a rainy April day in 1862, some 23,372 young Americans died for a cause they believed in. Family vs family and town vs town. In the end the confederate army was seriously weakened and Ulysses S. Grant was free to launch his relentless nine month campaign to capture Vicksburg and the all important control of the Mississippi River.
The cemetery was along side the Tennessee River in a beautiful rolling hill setting where the battle took place. It was rather shabby as compared to the American Cemetery in Normandy. The still grateful French people maintain our cemetery there and it is manicured. See, the French aren't all bad!
Back at the marina we sat around for docktails (boaters do that a lot) and told and re-told more boating adventure stories. Most are headed south to places like Sarasota, Ft. Myers, Marathon, Key West and later in the season to the Bahamas. Some are on their second trip around the loop. Many have sold their homes and their boat is now their only home and some bought a looper boat with plans on selling it when the trip is done.
We've seen every boat imaginable on this trip. Many Sea Rays, Carvers, Mainships, Grand Banks, and a few cute little Ranger Tugs. Few sailboats though.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Yesterday Blue Moon landed in Florence, Alabama. For all you "Sunny" fans it seems some of the McPoyles live here! haha It's across the river from Muscle Shoals where I think Lynrd Skynrd was created. Sweet Home Alabama and all that.
We wanted to take the courtesy car (2 hour maximum) into town to see the Frank Lloyd Wright house but some rude person took the keys the day before, kept them overnight and took off with the car early in the morning. Jerk! So we rode our bikes up some big big hills and crossed unfriendly roads to get to town. While waiting for a light I heard a whoosh sound. Dave's back tire died. So we walked the bikes back down the big hills to the marina and he changed his tire. While waiting for him I was playing on the ipad and noticed that the Frank Lloyd Wright house is closed on Mondays. Nuts again! So we still rode our bikes back up the big hills into town. We rode around the University of Northern Alabama campus and some cute little neighborhood full of Sears kit houses from the 1920's-30 's. So cute and all of them had front porches.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
The Wilson lock was our first hurdle. A TVA project, at 137 feet high and 4,541 feet long it is the most significant structure on the Tennessee River. We were the only boat locking through and it took us 35 minutes to lift.
The next lock was the Joe Wheeler Lock at 72' high.
We saw a ballsack of eagles today. IT IS A WORD! Look it up or google it!
The scenery is ever improving and tonight we are at a marina near Huntsville, Alabama.
We just had docktails with some loopers we haven't run into since the North Channel in Canada a few months back.
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