To Pickwick Lake, Tennessee

October 31, 2001 - To Pickwick Lake, Tennessee

It's the last day of October and tomorrow I get more minutes on my cell phone -yeh! I sure need them. It's a beautiful morning - steam coming off the water and very peaceful. We got up early and had scrambled eggs for breakfast. Our little portable generator works great - glad we "popped" for it. Captain said "all hands on deck" and we pulled the anchor at 8:30 and were on our way to the Pickwick Tenn-Tom Marina, on the corner of the Tennessee River and the Tenn Tombigbee Waterway. We will travel 36.7 miles to the Pickwick Landing Lock, and then have about 10 miles to the marina.

There are lots of fishing boats on the river. We are having to watch out for them as we pass a down bound tow carefully on 1 whistle. The captain of the tow was friendly and wished us a good morning. Interesting, the fishermen neither wear life jackets nor move out of the way for us, or the barges. We had a little wait at the Pickwick Lock and Dam and everything went smoothly. We were alone in this huge lock and went up about 55 feet. We entered Pickwick Lake, which is quite large and very pretty. The wind started to pick up again, of course, and was quite strong while we were docking at the Pickwick Tenn-Tom Marina. Luckily, there were a couple of strong young men on the dock to assist us. Help never hurts. This is a gorgeous marina with everything anyone might need - cable T.V., a computer so one can check and send their e-mail and a courtesy car. Very nice. We will cruise to Florence Alabama tomorrow and meet and have dinner with Jo and Ralph's friends.