Day #63: 1576.6 total miles (today: 23.3 miles)
Locks: 13 total (today: 1)
Port #30 – Pickwick Lake, Counce, TN
Blue Angel, Sea Estate, NII Wishin, OB and Quest pulled anchor shortly after sunrise. Today’s destination was Grand Harbor Marina situated on Yellow Creek in Mississippi. Although our boats would be in Mississippi, our feet would touch land in Tennessee when we walked off the docks.
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| Sunrise at Wolf Island anchorage. If this isn't Heaven, I don't know what is. |
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| Left to right, Blue Angel with Sea Estate rafted off her starboard (right) side, OB's big nose and Quest forward and off to our right. |
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| Quest got this picture of NII Wishin and OB rafted and getting ready to pull anchor. |
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| OB leaving Wolf Island. Thank you Judy (Quest) for catching these shots. |
Before we reached our destination, the Tennessee River would lead us past Pittsburg Landing and the Shiloh Battlefield. Even from the water, the area felt very quiet and humbling. After we passed Pittsburg Landing, I brought up the history of the Battle of Shiloh on the computer and read it to Todd as we moved along.
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| Pittsburg Landing from the water. |
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| The battle of Shiloh Apr. 6-7, 1862. |
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| Part of the cemetery as seen from the Tennessee River. |
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| More of Pittsburg Landing along the Tennessee. |
After passing Pittsburg Landing, we came to the Pickwick Landing Dam and Lock. A barge was in the lock and we had about an hour’s wait. Once in the Pickwick Lock, it raised us 63 feet.
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| An aerial view of the Pickwick Lock. |
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| Waiting for the lock. |
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| Charlie still trying to take over as Captain!. |
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| Entering the Pickwick Lock...they just keep getting BIGGER! |
OB would be delivered out of the lock into Pickwick Lake, another TVA man-made lake. The lake stretches from Pickwick Landing Dam to Wilson Dam. Pickwick Lake has excellent sportfishing areas. It is the north end of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, which provides a water transportation route to the Gulf of Mexico. After AGLCA Fall Rendezvous, we will be taking the Tenn-Tom Waterway to Mobile Bay.
Our flotilla of Looper boats descended upon Grand Harbor Marina five hours after leaving the anchorage at Wolf Island. Grand Harbor is a sponsor for the AGLCA (America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association) as well as a Boat US Marina. We felt very welcomed here. The marina had two Courtesy Vans for our use at no extra charge.
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| Grand Harbor Marina. The marinas keep getting nicer, too! |
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| Those gliders were full of Loopers at Happy Hour! |
Happy Hour occurred right on schedule at 5PM in front of the Marina Store/Office. Todd has decided he will need to join AA when we return to normal life. I will probably need to renew my membership in Weight Watchers as well!
After Happy Hour, we took one of the vans to the Catfish Motel for dinner. This restaurant claim to fame is their catfish dinners. I learned to eat catfish last year during the AGLCA Fall Rendezvous in Rogersville, AL. I also learned that I like it.
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| L to R: Judy (Quest), Todd & Paula Sue (OB), Sharon & Jim (Blue Angel), Connie & Ed (Sea Estate), Jerry & Joan (NII Wishin). |
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| Catfish dinner...what else would you eat at the Catfish Motel? |
Ten of us left Friday morning to visit Shiloh. Nearly the complete flotilla fit into the courtesy van provided by Grand Harbor. It was an experience that will remain high on our list of memories during our adventure. Reading about the battle the day before helped prepare us for what we saw throughout the battlefields of April 16th and 17th, 1862.
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| Shiloh...near the Visitor's Center. |
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and was encamped principally at Pittsburg Landing on the west bank of the river. Confederate forces under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard launched a surprise attack on Grant there. The Confederates achieved considerable success on the first day, but were ultimately defeated on the second day.
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| U.S. National Cemetery at Shiloh as well as the Cemetery for the Federalists. We found recent burial monuments on one side of the cemetery for Veterans. |
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| Just after the cemetery entrance, the first battle monument was for Grant's Army. |
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| A closer look at Grant's Monument with the plaque below. |
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| Most of the soldiers buried from the battles of Shiloh are UNKNOWN. Some graves are marked with monuments above and others are marked with little square marble markers engraved with numbers. |
After the war, the Union forces were allowed to come into the battlefield and rebury their dead from mass graves to individual graves. The Confederate forces were not allowed back into the battlefield. Their dead remain in mass graves within the Shiloh Battlefield.
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| Pittsburg Landing... |
...the sight where Buell's Army arrived during the night of April 6-7, 1862 refortifying Grant's Army and ultimately turning the tide of the battle.
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| A replica of the Shiloh church. Johnston's Confederate Army came upon the sleeping Grant's Army early morning Apr. 6, 1862. Unparalleled slaughter resulted, pushing Grant's Army back to Pittsburg Landing. Johnston bled to death. Beauregard retreated the Confederates during the night unknowingly allowing time for Buell's Army from the north to strengthen Grant's Army. Doing so ultimately lead to the Confederate defeat at Shiloh but not before more than 23,000 Union and Confederate forces were injured, captured, missing or killed. |
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| The new Shiloh Church. |
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| The monument for the Illinois Union Army regiment in the Shiloh Church cemetery. The big pillar monument behind the Illinois monument is for one of the deceased Tennessee Governors. |
Summertime pulled into Grand Harbor as we returned to the dock from Shiloh. Ray and Linda were the first Loopers we met. They were at Put in Bay. We spent two days with them at Pt. Sanilac. Since then, we had been two ports apart until now. It was great to see them again and compare notes on what we had experienced. We went to dinner with them at another local favorite…Freddie T’s.
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| I found some friends at Freddie T's.... |
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| ...and so did Todd! |
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| Clockwise L to R: Cam & Tia (Spring Moon), Todd, Ray & Linda (Summertime) and Paula Sue. |
Saturday Todd, Jerry and I did some last minute shopping. Todd and Jerry got their flu shots at Walgreen’s. I had my flu shot at WalMart in Pebble Isle. When we returned to Grand Harbor, Squivot was coming in. This is one of the fun parts of Looping. We are forever making acquaintances then reacquainting after weeks of being a port or two apart.
Saturday afternoon, Linda and I checked out the condominium complex. There was a spa with a beauty shop, massage therapist, a nice room to socialize in and bathroom complete with showers. After we checked out the amenities that were available to us, we went up the block to an open house Todd and I had spotted on our trips in and out of the marina. All in all, it ended up a nice walk on a beautiful afternoon.
The afternoon ended in another…yes, Happy Hour.
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