We got to Pickwick State Park in Counce, TN and anchored in the bay outside the marina. It was a really nice 3 day stay with perfect weather, calm waters and only a few fishing boats. We even got the Lottie boat down for a putt around the bay and a trip to the marina dinghy dock to dispose of trash and to see what the marina had to offer. But as is so often the case, we ran into a problem. We got halfway across the bay and the motor stopped and Michael could not get it to keep running, so we drifted back to THIS is what. Michael did some trouble shooting and found that there may be an issue with the fuel line going from the gas tank to the motor, sooooo Amazon, here we come. He ordered a new fuel line and a fuel filter which for some reason was going to take a week to get delivered. What happened to Amazon’s 2 day deal on Prime? I have broached that subject many times with my Personal Amazon Representative whose response is, “Mom, not my department, I can; however, give you the number to customer service”. Jeesh!
On our second day there Meant to Be returned up river from their couple of weeks down river and joined us in the anchorage for a couple of days. That was nice. We did ultimately take a dinghy trip – theirs – ashore and took a long walk around the State Park and the marina and even got together for a game night. Mark won…
On Friday October 4th we left Pickwick State Park anchorage saying goodbye to Mark and Debbie on Meant to Be as they are heading south and we will not be seeing them again until everyone is back home in Florida. We continued a whole 5 miles across the Tennessee River to Dry Creek, another anchorage in Savannah, Tennessee. There we spent 4 relaxing days. Although the weekend got a little busy as this is apparently a party spot for boaters that raft together and play in the water, grill and just have a fun day on the water. This is “off season” so I can’t imagine what this place looks like on summer weekends.
On Tuesday, October 8th we made the 2 mile journey back across the Tennessee River to Grand Harbor Marina back in Counce, TN for a few days as we needed to take care of some of the “essentials”, – water, pump out, laundry, and groceries. We were here in June with Bruce and Diane on the way up the Tennessee River heading to Knoxville. It is much quieter this time of year than it was when we were last here.
We have been here for 3 days and have completed all necessary tasks and have met many more Loopers, who are starting to show up in these parts as they too travel south to the Gulf. The big concern now is hurricane Milton who yesterday just devastated almost all of Florida for the second time in 2 weeks. Are we going to even have a place to put the boat when we get back home? Our home area got a lot of wind and over 18 inches of rain water in only 3 hours, so it’s wet. We have spoken with our neighbor, Trish, who told us the house is okay, only some downed trees, and we do not have electricity, which we expected. Hopefully that will be remedied by the end of December when we anticipate getting home, but you just never know with Duke Electric. Now we just have to cross fingers that there will not be another one, as there remains 6 weeks in the official hurricane season. We shall see what Mother Nature has in store, but it seems pretty evident all across the country, she’s really angry.
We will be heading down the Tennessee-Tom Bigbee Waterway tomorrow. Don’t know if we are going to another marina or anchor somewhere as the new fuel line and filter did not solve the motor problem so Michael is trying to find a fix-it place that can do it quickly. So far, no go, which will be too bad as the remainder of the trip down south has some reportedly great anchorages with lots of options to dinghy around to. We will see how that works out.
Thanks for following THIS is what and hope you keep up with us along the adventure. Love to all, Gina and Mike.
