Well, I start tonight's blog with very mixed emotions. We have been on the Ten/Tom River for several days and have greatly enjoyed this river system. We spent last night in Marina Cove which is a little marina in Carrollton, Alabama. We took the courtesy van and went to a local restaurant named "Down Yonder". I ate some delicious catfish. This is very rural country and we had to drive 10 miles just to get to a small grocery store. We left Marina Cove this morning at 6:00, passed through two locks and arrived in Demopolis Alabama around 5:30 today. We made 91 miles today. Not a lot of places to anchor in this part of the river system. As we rounded a curve in the Ten Tom we came upon snow white cliffs. I don't know if this is lime stone or what. The shore line was green woods and dirt banks just before hitting this shore line. It really is amazing.

This picture shows the trees and dirt bank before entering the white rock substance. We saw a couple of places like this. I think this area was being mined as there was a lot of equipment and a place for barges to load a substance on them.

This part of the river was called the "Blue River" and I think that was because the rock shore was blue. Very pretty shoreline.

This is a picture of the Tenn Tom. It is quite rural and very pretty. Today, Saturday, I saw more bass boats than I've ever seen before. These people in this area love to fish and go fast.

This is just another picture of the Tenn Tom. Great kayaking country and it looks like it would be great to fly fish in.

When we left Smithville, Mississippi we had many, many May Pops or May Flies on our boat. I washed them off and this morning in Marina Cove the boat was covered again. There are just thousands of these critters flying around.

I started by saying I had mixed emotions tonight. We are going to rent a car Monday, unload the boat, have it stored in a dry storage and go home for the rest of this year or until after hurricane season. So I guess this will be my last blog until I return later in the year. However I am looking forward to seeing my family and doing some fishing back in NC. The kids have the truck at Cape Lookout and I understand the fish are biting so I don't think I'll have too much withdrawal until I can get back and continue this Great Loop experience.

See you in late November or just after Christmas.

Carl

I need to begin tonight by saying this is a beautiful trip and if you can't tell, I'm having a fantastic time. We have left the Cumberland River and did the Tennessee River. I think it is pretty obvious from the picture below that there are some Tennessee fans that boat.The Tennessee River is extremely beautiful. The current is not bad, the water is clear and the scenery is great. We did 190 miles of this type scenery. This sure beats working.

We spent Tuesday night in Clifton, Tenn. This was a small marina and everyone was extremely friendly and welcomed us to their part of the world. There was an Alison speed boat gathering and we saw approximately 15 to 20 Alison's on the river. One guy said his boat would do 109 mph Plus. They were expecting quite a few more boats for the weekend. We also meet a guy who knows Sterling Marlin, the Nascar driver. Sterling has a house in Clifton and the picture below is his river home.

Below are a couple of pictures of a dredge with a barge on each side. The dredge is dredging sand and stones from the bottom of the river. The dredge has a conveyor belt that lets the sand fall through on one track to a barge and the stones onto another track to the other barge. The water depth was 20 to 25 feet deep normally, however where these dredges were working the water was up to 75 feet deep. I guess they are mining from the bottom of the river. This type mining does not adversely effect the environment.

As you can tell from the picture below, there are some really nice homes on the river.

We now on the Tennessee Tombigbee River. We have quite a few locks to go through. This is the first lock and it lowered us 84 feet.

Once you enter the lock you can tie a line around the floating bollard, pictured below and bring the line mid ship. This holds the boat against the wall. One person can lock through without any effort at all. The line goes around the lower station for pleasure boats and around the upper station for barges. These locks are 600 feet long.

The picture below is of the miter doors opening as we exited the lock. Quite an impressive operation

Tonight we are in Smithville, Mississippi. This is a picture of the sunset from the dock. It is a hard life but someone has to do it and I'm glad I am fortunate enough to be able to see such a sight. The only comment I have is "Thank you Lord"

Tonight we are in Camden Kentucky Lake in West Tenn. We are up the Birdsong Creek at the Birdsong Resort Marina Campground. We left the Cumberland River this morning and come onto the Tennessee River. More about the river later. Bob Keast is the owner of this establishment which has something very unique about it. This is the only place in American that cultured pearls are raised in fresh water. Bob has a pearl farm which consist of the PVC pipes pictured below. Hanging from these pipes are baskets with muscles in the baskets. The muscles are opened and a seed (different shapes) is placed in it. The seed is covered with the muscle and it grows into a cultured pearl. This process takes approximately 5 years to grow each pearl. The results is fantastic. We toured the museum and saw how the entire process happens. We also saw some beautiful pearls, which are grown here. If you have more interest in the pearl process check out his web sight at www.TennesseeRiverPearls.com or www.BirdsongResort.com

Houseboats are very popular on the Tennessee River.

This is a picture from the dock we are tied up to.

This is another picture from the dock.

Here is the Pelican taking a rest from a long day on the Tennessee River, which is a beautiful river/lake.

I found this to be an interesting shot of a bird taking a rest on a marker.

We are not in flat lands anymore. There are hills all around the river/lake

This is the Tennessee River, which is also a lake which is approximately as wide as the Neuse around Upper Broad Creek. It is a beautiful river to travel on. There are lots of sailboats, house boats and great fishing on this river. We are enjoying our time on the Tennessee River. The water is clean and the area is beautiful. What a great way to see this great country we live in.

Later,

Carl

It is Sunday, the 12th of July. We have traveled 199 miles to find the next Marina. We have finished the last 109 miles of the Mississippi River and I'm glad to be out of the Mississippi. I saws the knot meter reach 12 knots, due to the amount of current in the river. We also entered and left the Ohio river which was much easier to navigate, even though we were going upstream. We only averaged 6 knots on the Ohio. We were on the Ohio for 58 miles. We spent last night in the Ohio and today traveled 32 miles on the Cumberland River, which was beautiful as well. Tonight we are in Grand Rivers, Kentucky and are at Green Turtle Bay. Tomorrow we will enter the Tennessee River and travel approximately 190 miles on it before entering the Ten/Tom Waterway to finish this leg of the journey. We may be in Demopolis next Saturday or Sunday. I plan to leave the "Pelican" in Demopolis until the first of the year and begin this beautiful journey again. Tonight we ate dinner @ Patti's and had a great meal. I had a 2" thick pork chop and a delicious desert. Don't need to eat again for a long time. The picture below is of the hills along the Cumberland River. This is a scenic river that is very clean and pretty.

This is another picture of the Cumberland River.

This is the Ohio River and as you can tell there are a lot of hills in this part of the country. Quite beautiful boating area.

This is a rock formation in the water called the Tower Rock and it is located in Witbenburg, Mo. which is on the Ohio River. It was a strange structure to be sitting off the bank, in the river.

This is another picture of the Ohio River.

Well, I'm sort of like a little puppy. My tummy is full and I'm ready to lay down and go to sleep. I'll update another time or two before finishing this leg of the journey.

Later,

Carl

We left Alton, Ill. this morning and came down river to Kimmswick Mo. We are at Hoppie's Marina. It consit of 3 one hundred foot barges tied together. As you can tell from this picture we are tied to the middle barge. Kimmswick is known for two things. Hoppie's Marina and The Blue Owl Restaurant and Bakery. We had lunch at The Blue Owl. The restaurant was voted Restaurant of the year for the St. Louis several years ago. The food was delicious however the deserts were fantastic. This was, by far, the best meal we have had on the trip.
Once I contacted Hoppie's Marina, Fern Hopkins came down to the barge and gave me specific instructions on how to approach the barge, which line to give her first, which line to give her next, how much slack to allow and after I was docked she told me to bring my charts up to a covered part of the barge and she went through what I was to expect for the next 4 or 5 days and where to anchor, where to go in case of an emergency and how to run the river system. There are a lot of unmarked weir dams, which are rock jetties jutting out into the river ( they help divert the river so it does not shoal up. However Fern says they are trying to fill the Mississippi with rocks and the weir dams do not work, just as jetties don't always work in our part of the country.) and are only under water a couple of feet. Fern is a true water lady and it was a real treat to meet and talk with her. She is in the golf cart in the picture below.

This is a picture of the barges.

The next several pictures are of St. Louis. The arch was beautiful and quite a masterpiece. Very impresive.

Gambling is a big business on the Mississippi River and this gambling casino is in St. Louis.

Below is a picture of us in the Mel Price Lock. On the down river side there are gates that open to let you out.

On the upriver end of the lock the gate goes down, under the water and you pass over it. Once inside the lock the gate is raised and the lock is drained to the level of the downriver level.

This lock and the Chain Of Lock have two chambers that operate at the same time. A 600 ft. long chamber is for tugs and pleasure boats and the 2nd chamber is 1200 ft. long and is for barges. This is quite an engineering masterpiece. WHAT A GREAT EXPERIENCE WE ARE HAVING.

Well, I've been complaining about being cold. Not any more. At 5:30 today the temp. was 100 degrees. It is now 8:20 CDT and it is 94. So I'm getting some of the heat I've been missing. I actually could stand for it to be a little cooler. Some people just can't be happy with what they have.

As my boating friends know the "Pelican" cruises at 7 knots to 7.5 knots. Well today I had white knuckles as with the current I saw the speed reach 11.4 knots and we cruised at 10. 5 to 11 knots most of the day. I now understand, first hand, why the Mississippi River is called the mighty Mississippi.

Thanks to Fern for your lesson on the barge to help us get down the Mississippi.

We are in the Mississippi River. We spent Monday night in Grafton, Ill. which is within a rocks throw of the Mississippi River. The high bluffs are quite beautiful as we have not seen this landscape on the Illinois river. We only traveled 18 miles to Alton, Ill. and stayed here two days. We rented a car and went sightseeing. We visited the Melvin Price Lock Museum which was a real treat. The locks on the Mississippi River are much larger than the ones on the Illinois River. We pass through the Melvin Price Lock first thing Thursday morning heading to Hoppie's Marina, which is 3 barges tied together along the river shore. Hoppie's Marina is in Kimmiswick Mo. There are a lot of beautiful homes between Grafton and Alton on the high cliffs.

This picture is of the Mississippi River. It is much wider than the Illinois, at this point.

To the right is the Illinois River and to the left is the upper Mississippi River.

Today is wash day and you can tell there is a lady on board. Much different than when only guys are on board. We are having a great time

This is the 2nd blog for today. It is July 4th and we are in East Peoria Ill. The temp. is 66 degrees and raining. I sure do miss NC weather. Yesterday was in the 80's and nice. The picture below is the Peoria Riverboat. It really is a pretty riverboat.

There are a lot of lakes along the Illinois River. The following pictures are of the lakes and hills in the background. This is pretty country.

We left Chicago on June 30th and spent the first night on the Illinois River in Joliet. We stayed at the town docks and below is a picture of the Harris Casino. There is a lot of barge/tug traffic. The tug boats may be pushing 3 to 5 barges long and 3 wide. That is up to 15 barges. One loaded barge is equivalent to a convoy of 870 semi-trucks or a train pulling 225 jumbo hopper cars. Most of the barges are carrying fuel, coal, or grain. It is amazing how much of the river they take up and they have the right of way. It has been a challenge to get out of their way as Murhpy's law has worked and I've met them in narrow areas, bends in the river and passing under bridges.



The picture below is a barge being loaded with gran.

This is a small load that I met going under a bridge. It was a rather narrow passage.

The locks are much larger than the ones on the Erie Canal. They have floaters or floating timber heads or Mallards which are built in floats in the side of the lock. All you have to do is wrap a line around the floater, mid ship, and it holds the boat next to the lock wall while the lock is being lowered or raised. This system really works well.

This is an approach to a lock.

There is another part to this update. I don't know if it is in front of this or behind this update.