Day 165: Florence to Joe Wheeler State Park, Alabama
Day 165: Friday, September 30th: Today was to be another short cruise distance involving transiting two locks, so we lounged around in the morning. We had a chance to get some pictures of the marina. Here you will see the twins, Her Ladyship and Integrity on the right:
The converted tugboat named Mi-T-Mo that we saw two days ago pulled in to the marina just as we were leaving. They are also Loopers, and we had a chance to meet the crew, Capt. Jack and wife Karen. The boat and crew have an interesting history and are sort of famous among us Loopers. We'll have pictures later.
We left the marina and headed the 2.5 miles upstream to our first lock at Wilson Dam. Part way up, we passed this old bridge. Over time, it has been used to carry pedestrians, horse carriages, automobiles and railroad trains. It was partially torn down when some local citizens saved it and turned it into a sort of walkway across the river. It doesn't go anywhere as you can see:
As we approached Wilson lock, we could see the old, smaller lock to the left and the main one on the right. The small one is no longer used except in emergencies:
At 65 feet, this lock was once the highest lift lock in the country (to square with our earlier comment about the highest lock one must use in the Loop; this lock is no official ON the Loop). However they have since built five higher ones on the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. Still, it is a very impressive structure at 137 feet high and 4,541 feet long. We were all alone in the lock:
It will take a second to figure this picture out due to the sun and shadow. It is the huge pair of lock doors just before the lock started filling:
When the lockmaster started flooding the chamber, there was so much swirling of water, we had trouble controlling the boat:
The upper gate of this lock drops vertically down to allow boats to exit. This is the second lock we have seen (out of 130) that had this type gate. Here is the gate about half lowered:
Looking at the dam from upstream, one can see the Roman influence on the design:
As we got further away, you could see how big this dam is. We don't know what bridge that is:
Much of the shoreline of Wilson Lake, which we were now in, is privately owned. This is unlike much of the Tennessee, which is owned by the TVA. This lake has more houses per mile of shore than any on the river, and many were quite large and beautiful. We spotted this house with a unique setting. You have to hope for good brakes when launching your trailered boat!
The house next door had the longest flight of stairs we had seen:
Wilson Lake is only 15 miles long, so we soon arrived at Joe Wheeler Lock and Dam:
This spiral staircase caught our attention. We haven't seen one of these before. Usually there is a vertical ladder in the lock wall to allow access to the upper/lower levels:
This is another large chamber, but only about 50 feet of rise. That's Dondabar ahead. They are Loopers, of course. We are two miles from the AGLCA Rendezvous site:
Here is a closer view of Dondabar. Look closely to the left and you will see a rather large log sharing the lock with us:
At the top, we pulled out of the lock.
We had planned to anchor for the night in one of the creeks nearby, but couldn't find a spot that was shallow enough and at the same time wide enough. So, we called to Joe Wheeler State Park Marina and got the OK to move our reservation up a day. We pulled into the marina and joined about 35 other boats already there for the AGLCA Rendezvous - which didn't start until Monday and today was Friday.
It was like old home week seeing friends again that we had met all along the Loop. There were already about 35 Looper boats in the marina with another 35 expected by Monday night.
We had happy hour at the pool patio with lots of animated conversations and much fun.
We transited two locks today for a trip total of 130 to date.
Position tonight: N34 48.734 W087 19.922
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