Here is the link for our track today, minus the first 3 miles, as I forgot to turn the app on:
There was lots of activity at Ingalls Landing well into the night last night!
This was day 7 of our trip, and when we left the dock this morning there were only two unknowns that could affect our schedule. One was the Norfork Southern Railroad lift bridge just a mile away and the other was the Guntersville lock. If we didn't have big delays at those two spots, we should make the 55 miles to Guntersville by early afternoon.
After a short wait for the train to pass, the bridge was raised for us to pass under.
The wait at the RR bridge was only about 15 minutes as a southbound train crossed over. Then the bridge lifted about 40 feet and we followed a towboat under. After we cleared Decatur, the scenery turned rural and beautiful again. The super industrial sites were gone, and we began to see colorful rock ledges and walls on the riverbanks, and hills ahead upriver. By the time we got around Huntsville the hills had grown into mountains, and the rock ledges had become sheer rock cliffs.
First we saw hills ......
Then mountains .....
And finally we cruised at the foot of the mountains !
At the Guntersville lock our timing was perfect. I called them when we were about 15 minutes away and the operator said he was just about to lock up another boat, and he would wait on me. As I got to the lock wall, the gates opened and we followed a pontoon boat in. About 20 minutes later we were out of the lock and had only 10 miles between us and our destination at the Guntersville City dock.
A threatening storm cloud diverted my attention and I completly forgot to look for the famous bat cave just above the lock. It's home to thousands of bats that can be seen leaving every evening. We saw it several years ago from our little tugboat, and I had been looking forward to seeing it again.
Thankfully, this one passed north of us.
The storm passed us to the north, and we made it to our dockage about 4:00. As we were eating supper, a full rainbow appeared. I joined the other couple dozen people here at the dock in taking pictres until it slowly faded away.
It was quite an ending for our last 7 days on the water!
Glenda says:
We had a nice relatively quiet night at Decatur in Ingalls harbor. Sometime in the middle of the night a boat came by playing loud music. Apparently a lot of people do night fishing! Today was our last day of travel. The weather cooperated and the views were amazing. God's greatness is so apparent in the massive cliffs and tree covered mountains we went through today.
God made all this yet He still cares about me! Today was a good day. We are settled in at the Guntersville city dock for the night. I fixed chicken and rice for dinner. As we were eating I heard a childs excited voice. I looked out and there in the sky just in case I had some how missed it was the oldest symbol of of Gods grace and mercy, a rainbow!
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