Huntsville, Alabama to Chattanooga, Tennessee


Coming from Rhode Island, we find it unusual to expect “post-Columbus day” warm weather with good swimming days and little foliage change. We’re not complaining, in fact we are enjoying this change of pace. However, this weekend colder temperatures are forecast so we will probably have to forget swimming for a while, and will probably start seeing autumn colors in the trees. The last two weeks in October are supposed to be peak foliage time in the area we are now exploring.

We haven’t mentioned our “first attempt” at gardening on the boat. Back in June we decided to have an earth box garden, so Bill found plans on the Internet for building one and we planted one tomato plant, some basil, thyme, and parsley. We’ve enjoyed fresh herbs several times a week, but have just harvested our first RED tomato! Our tomato plant had a traumatic start – planted in Indiana, traveled by pickup truck to Rhode Island, withstood a 60 mph wind storm in RI which blew off its only two blossoms, traveled by pickup to Nashville, TN, stored in the shade under a boat shed roof for four weeks before actually making its debut on the boat. Now it is flourishing in the bright sun, growing very tall and bushy, producing over forty tomatoes, and inviting many comments from passing boaters and pedestrians. We are amazed at how many people actually see the “tomato tree” stored on our top deck behind the flying bridge. Yesterday a man actually called us on the radio and said to let him know when we set up a vegetable stand because he would like some fresh tomatoes and he could see we had plenty. The only problem is “our green thumb” should have been a “red thumb”. We’re hoping warm weather will stay with us long enough for all those GREEN tomatoes to turn RED. If not, we’ll just have to try the southern delicacy of fried green tomatoes in huge quantities.


We wonder if our garden is the cause of our having had three stowaways in the last two weeks. Two weeks ago we had a small frog on the top of the boat. Then four days ago we had a lovely light green one on the side of the boat. Yesterday was the ultimate! After Bill got up and I was still relaxing in bed something either jumped or flew on the bed. The second time it moved, it landed on Bill’s pillow and I shrieked. “Yes”, it was another lovely green frog and “No”, I did not kiss it since I already have my prince! Have any of you had the experience of sleeping with a frog on a boat? If so, how do suppose it got on? Bill watched the last frog swim back to the boat and climb part way up the side, but then it disappeared. We assume it jumped back into the water, if not, we may find number four before too long. We don’t have the heart to kill them, so we just put them back on land or in the water and hope they don’t make their way back.

Ditto Landing is a marina in Huntsville, Alabama. In our last posting we talked about nearly getting run over by three deer there when we went for a bike ride. The next morning when we were getting ready to leave, the scenery at the marina just shouted at me, "Take a a picture". The picture to the right was taken at the marina near where our boat was docked. While taking the picture I watched a tow with several small barges moving towards shore near the narrow channel entrance. Our friend Mike, on Sanctuary, realized the significance of what was happening, so he called the towboat captain. The captain said that he was going to tie to shore and would be blocking the entrance for the rest of the morning. Luckily Mike convinced him to wait ten minutes until they and we got our boats out of the harbor. So the four of us untied lines, unplugged power cords, and quickly got out of the harbor.



After leaving Ditto Landing we stopped at an interesting marina called Goose Pond Colony Marina. It is a 360 acre recreation complex owned by the town of Scottsboro, Alabama. Besides a marina it features an eighteen hole golf course in a beautiful setting. The golf course is of championship quality and is visited by golfers from throughout the United States. The hiking trails and the condos in Goose Pond Colony are also very appealing. Many people are retiring to this area because of the "good living" it provides. The town of Scottsboro is famous for its Unclaimed Luggage Center. Every week they bring in truckloads of unclaimed airline passenger property and unclaimed cargo and freight shipments. It makes for an interesting change of pace in shopping.












The section of the Tennessee River starting at mile 432 and going about thirty miles to Chattanooga is known as “The Grand Canyon of the Tennessee”. While this may be a bit of an exaggeration, it is undeniable that it has some of the most stunning scenery to be found anywhere on the beautiful Tennessee River. At first, homes and small farms line much of the riverbank. Then, as you leave them behind, the tree covered mountains drop steeply into the river which in some places is barely seven hundred feet wide and which twists and turns many times before reaching Chattanooga. Every turn in the river brings a new view containing mountains and some of the more than three hundred kinds of trees and nine hundred varieties of wildflowers grown in the Chattanooga area. In his book “The Tennessee River Cruise Guide” Fred Myers says, “Nowhere in the world except in central China is there such a wide range of plant life.” Boating, hiking, and mountain driving are great ways to view the many sights in this area. Lookout Mountain and Signal Mountain are two of the best-known peaks that you pass on this winding section of river.




Besides wonderful scenery, Chattanooga has so many tourist attractions that we could easily stay for a month without getting bored. But we felt for now we would like to spend four nights there. Since we couldn’t get four days reservations at the town dock the first weekend in October, we decided to go through Chattanooga and spend that week exploring small creeks and rivers east of Chattanooga and then come back to the city for Columbus Day weekend.

Dayton, TN was one of our favorite small towns. To get there we had to follow a narrow secondary channel several miles up Richland Creek to an anchorage in a pond near the town. Dayton is where the John Scopes trial was held in 1925. You history buffs probably already know that this “Monkey Trial” was a planned test to see if the law forbidding the teaching of evolution, instead of the Biblical explanation of Creation, was constitutional. John Scopes, a high school teacher, was found guilty and had to give up his teaching career. The courthouse where the trial was held was built in 1890 and it is still in use today. It also houses a museum of memorabilia from this important trial, old documents, photographs, posters, etc.


We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Dayton and our visit to the museum and the local college, Bryan College, which was named after the main prosecuting attorney in the Scopes trial, William Jennings Bryan. However we made a very hurried exit the next morning when we realized that the water level had fallen one and a half feet overnight. It wouldn’t have been too bad, except that we were really stretching our luck when we anchored in water that was only two feet deeper than our keel. During the fall and winter months water levels in many of the lakes, created by dams on the river, is lowered to what is called “winter pool”. Also because of the water being used for producing electricity, the water levels change regularly year round. We are now more aware of the need to call for “pool level information” when we plan on anchoring or cruising in shallow water. The Tennessee Valley Authority, TVA, has a daily-recorded phone message that gives the current water level of any of the Tennessee River lakes and a prediction of water levels for the next day. We keep that phone number handy! The TVA runs a large number of power generating plants on the Tennessee River, including the Sequoyah nuclear plant shown in the picture. The TVA controls almost all of the waterfront along the entire river.


One evening we anchored in a bay off the Hiwassee River, one of the Tennessee River’s largest tributaries. The next morning there was a lot of “sea mist” blowing over the water, giving it a surreal appearance as we traveled up river. The Hiwassee River has a large wildlife refuge on both sides for several miles. In this section of the river we saw quite a few bald eagles, many blue herons, many turtles. and of course spiders.



















Red marks the portion of the Tennessee River that we've traveled since our last posting. So far we've gone 1254 miles since leaving Nashville in late August!!!