Mike and Beth's Adventures

Amy Marie entering Pickwick Lock at the end of a full day of travel A single  goal guided the crew of Amy Marie as we departed Green Turtle Bay and pointed the bow south.  We had been resisting and trying to ignore it's siren call.  The attraction was becoming too strong.  We had to acknowledge it's presence. So we did so in a clear and forceful manner.  Our normal cruising mode was to amble and linger which allowed us to engage with and interact with the areas through which we travelled.  We were so close to crossing our wake, we discarded our leisurely style and instead single mindedly focused on "crossing our wake".  This is the goal for which all Loopers strive.  For 365 days our focus had been on the journey.  Thereby allowing us  to savor our interactions with the people, towns, and geographies through which we passed.  Intellectually, we did not want the experience to end.  We wanted to continue travelling with the Loope...

Joe Wheeler State Park Joe Wheeler State Park We completed our Chattanooga sojourn by returning to Joe Wheeler State Park.  Upon arrival we picked up packages that we had sent there to fix items we broke on our two week and 400 mile round trip to Chattanooga.  The inverter died, operator abuse, and the microwave died, probably due to the bouncing it endured on the trip across country.  We installed both these items before leaving the next morning for Florence Alabama.  To get there, we had to travel through two locks.  First up was Wheeler Lock with a drop of 52 feet.  Within 15 miles we would drop 92 feet, the largest drop of the entire Loop, at Wilson Lock.  We were fortunate that the gates were open and we were able to transit Wheeler quickly.  At Wilson we waited about 30 minutes before we could begin our transit of that lock.  We were happy that we really had no delays of any consequence on our first day out of Joe Wheeler State Park. Th...