Tennessee River

Captain's Log - Day 18

After a fantastic night's sleep (nice and cool with almost no bugs!), we are officially on the Tennessee River!

I'm going to expose my own ignorance and confess that I believed the Tennessee River would be flowing south when we entered it from the Ohio. Turns out it flows southwest from Knoxville and then curves back north to meet the Ohio! Also, is that an eagle's nest? It's huge! They have eagles here, right?

Despite a calm and uneventful day, I was stressing for most of it. You know those lock closings I mentioned yesterday? I called the people who run the locks on the TennTom to see if there was some way to get through. I figured it was a situation similar to when there's road construction on a residential street - the sign says "No Thru Traffic," but you can actually get through. Nope. Turns out they're closed tight - no exceptions.

I asked the woman on the phone if there was any way at all we could get around the closed locks. After a pause, she drawled "Well ... you could go down the Mississippi." Thanks zero (and that's no thanks).

My newest scheme was to get the boat pulled out of the river above the lock in Gainesville, Alabama and put back into the river below the Coffeeville lock. Three hours later, I had called about seven boat transport places and no one could help me. It seemed our only options were fast becoming a) strap a 50 gallon drum of gas to the swim deck and hope we could make it down the Mississippi, or b) end the trip in Gainesville, Alabama. Neither of these options thrilled me.

Ten minutes after we passed through Kentucky Lock (only thing that came to mind when I saw it was "gates of Mordor") I got a phone call. We were just pulling out of a tugboat marina where we'd come closer than I'd like to a break water (it was dark). A guy who had been recommended by a guy who had been recommended by a marina was finally returning my call! He says he can help us out! Definitely a weight off.

On an unrelated note, during Simon's daily nap yesterday, we were swarmed by Japanese beetles. For those of you who don't know, I have a history with Japanese beetles. One summer during college, I was employed by FedEx as a plane de-bugger. There were about five teams of six people whose entire purpose was to guard FedEx's planes and ensure the beetles didn't get on board. We massacred them by the tens of thousands.

I was a bit nervous at first that perhaps word had traveled in the Japanese beetle community and this was a hit squad come to exact revenge. But I played it cool and they didn't suspect a thing. You'll be happy to know that I was able to suppress my training and didn't squish a single one!

Tonight we're docked at the transient dock of the Kentucky Dam Marina. This is the first we've set foot on land for over four days! Crazy, right? The mosquitoes here are smaller and more lugubrious than those we last encountered on the Mississippi! Could be some decent sleeping tonight!