Monday, August 24, 2009

CLIFTON MARINA

Aug. 22, 2009---Departed Grand Harbor Marina at 10:00 a.m. In about 15 minutes crossed the imaginary line into Tennessee from Mississippi. Alabama could be seen on the starboard side for a short distance.

At mile 206.7 we had about 30 minutes to wait before entering the Pickwick Landing Lock. In the lock looking back it is hard to realize the beautiful Pickwick Lake extends nearly 53 miles. This lock lowered us 55’ as “BB” admired the new dingy cover. Total dam height is 113 feet. It is 7,715 feet long, and has a generating capacity of 240,200 kilowatts. Notice the crew was doing a fine job.












Current downstream of the lock was rather strong and the 9 MPH rate we like to travel was easy to reach at 1500 RPM. Took advantage of some fuel savings today!







Passed a structure that was suggested it might be a real fixer upper!




Met a tow hauling a large load of crushed rock. There is more barge traffic than we have seen for quite some time. May be a sign the economy is truly starting to improve. It's okay to hope anyway.




Notice the terrain along the river does not have the moutainous look of the upper part of the river. There is a lot more low land as we get closer to the end of the Tennessee River.


It took about 8 hours total time to reach Clifton Marina at mile 158.5. Distance traveled today was 62.5 miles. Securely tied it was time to think about eating. There is a small restaurant within easy walking distance. Chose Smokey’s as our destination for food rather than use the courtesy car and drive farther into the town of Clifton, TN. It was obvious they are Tennessee Fans! The place is not large, but the service was great and the food was also.
The short walk back to the Dream Manor took us past many of the resident boats and gave us an opportunity to meet some of the people.



























What timing! As we reached our boat the band was already warming up. They started playing at 8:00 p.m. and entertained about 70 people until midnight. It was easy to hear the music as the bow of our boat was about 50’ from the band! “Backwater” is the name of the band. They played a lot of the good old songs.

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