July 5, 2020 - Grand Harbor to Clifton Marina

We awoke to the unfriendly sounds of the alarm at 515am. Or well I did, Amy still dozed a bit :) The "Outta Here" crew was up, and couldn't reach anyone at the Pickwick Lock. I turned on the VHF, and showed nothing for commercial traffic on the lake or near the lock, so we readied Toscana to get underway. Anchor was on deck at 6am, and we were off like a herd of turtles! (Trawler owner joke :) ) We got some great shots of Steve and Tiffany's new houseboat "Outta Here" and headed for Pickwick Lock. Just like yesterday there was no wait and the chamber was ready when we arrived. The only downside was the tow that went through earlier in the morning left a heavy dose of mayflies at the lock. we closed up the cabin and kept them on the outside, however Amy was less than pleased with tieing us to the pin wile getting bombarded by them. We got most of them shoo'ed off the boat after we were moving on the other side. We caught up with the tow rounding the bend at Savannah, TN, and boy we felt sorry for him and his crew. The tug was literately covered in them. The Captain said he couldn't even see out his windows earlier they were so thick. We got a few more pictures even though we were on the same route as the previous day, only in reverse. As we passed under the US641 bridge just up from Clifton I saw "Outta Here" turn sideways in the channel behind us. We circled back. They got her under control with 1 engine, as it appeared they lost the engine coupler on the Port engine. They felt confident on being able to make it the 40 miles left to Cuba Landing on their own, so we pulled into Clifton at 1245pm. We got tied up, and enjoyed delicious Prime Rib sandwiches and some kind of blue raspberry slushy drinks. Just what the Dr ordered to cool off! We settled in for the afternoon, Amy read while I took a little nap. By 6pm we threw steaks on the grill, and got word that Outta Here made it safe to Cuba Landing.

Toscana is staying 2 days here as Amy and i both need to work from the office on Monday. We staged her car here Thursday so we can get up and drive into the office. We will complete the trip back to Cuba Landing on Tuesday, and tuck Toscana back into her slip.

July 4, 2020 - Clifton Marina to Grand Harbor, Iuka, MS

We cast off about 730am from Clifton, having nearly 57 miles to travel, about 50 of them upstream, and Pickwick lock to transit. Another beautiful sunny day... almost too sunny for me! Amy on the other hand likes her sun, even when it is a bit too hot. The Tennessee River is very beautiful. The surrounding soil is quite sandy compared to WI and Northern IL. As a result you see more "rip-rap" of private property shorelines. You will also see a couple houses that likely wished they had been able to protect their shorelines from high water erosion. There are other places where you can see the river has been cutting through the sandstone for thousands of years. I admit I do like to see some of the towns and the man-made developments along the waterways... but the nature views mean the most to me. There are so many people that seem to feel so self-important.... that the world revolves around them. Taking all these beautiful scenes also reminds me... it was all here thousands and thousands of years before me... it will be here thousands of years after me. We, and our life spans are not even a spec of dust in the big picture.

Pickwick lock was ready to open the doors and take us in when we arrived. A fairly long lift... around 50 feet by quick estimate. Pickwick Lake was a beautiful ride as well. It took us about an hour from the lock to arrive at Grand Harbor. We knew ahead we could not reserve dock space for the night and would have to anchor. Unfortunately, even with lots of space visually available, we weree not able to even tie up for an hour and visit with our friends. Grand Harbor is a beautiful place, but when you combine their lack of hospitality, (possibly related to the next point) and their location right on the navigation channel leading to the Tenn-Tom canal without an actual harbor for protection, I would not be putting this place very high on the list to visit. It appears a majority of loopers go on to Aqua Harbor, about a mile or so further in... and from my view, with good reason.

We dropped the anchor about 200 yards east of L dock, to settle in for the fireworks show. The video and pics don't do it justice, GH put on an excellent fireworks show. We called it a night right after, as we were getting up at 530 Sunday, to travel with "Outta Here" and crew back south. They wanted to leave early because they needed to make the entire 100 miles back to Cuba Landing in 1 day. Happy Independence day everyone! I hope yours was as blessed as ours!

One last observation: over the last 2 days i bet I have seen 200 boats flying "Trump 2020" flags. That sure makes me smile. The media pounds the leftist agenda, the protests, the hating of everything that makes this great country great... then you get to see that you are not alone!