10-15-09 Goose Pond to back to Guntersville, AL

Betsy speaks…OK, we know we haven’t written in a few days, but there was not much to tell. We did make a few trips to Wal-Mart using the marina’s courtesy car. Then the car seemed to be on its last leg when it had a pancake flat tire one morning, and as soon as the marina got that fixed there developed an antifreeze leak so the engine was overheating.

We did stay at Goose Pond longer than any place so far…10 nights total. We were just laid back and relaxing at one of our favorite locations on this entire trip. Goose Pond Colony Marina near Scottsboro, Alabama was so relaxing, beautiful, friendly…there just aren’t enough superlatives to describe it. If I were ever going to leave North Carolina, this general area would be my new home!

We did finally get a flu shot yesterday at the local health department. We’ve put up with rain for several days, sometimes downpours, other times just drizzle. There was a break in the clouds today, so since there was no longer a courtesy car available we decided it was time to move on! So we drove the 22 miles back to Guntersville and are tied up at the free town dock.

On the way, we passed what looked like a restaurant being pushed by a barge.

We also took the time to pull into the docks at Lake Guntersville State Park. You will recall that we went to the lodge there a couple of weeks ago when we were here, but we had not yet stopped in at the marina there. We worked our way through the beginnings of a sailboat regatta (oops, we forgot to take pictures) and tied up at what appeared to be a day dock. We went to the nearby store to ask about availability of transient slips, as this place is not mentioned in any of the cruising guides. They do have transient slips with power and water, with bathrooms/showers nearby, for the rate of 75 cents per foot…very reasonable. But we were obligated to meet someone in town, so we didn’t stay there. We will surely stay there next time we are in this area.

We met looper friends Ann and Ralph on “Harmonie” at the town docks and went out to celebrate their anniversary with them. Now we’re back on the boat running the generator, as there is no power at this free dock. Tonight it is supposed to get into the high 30s, but our boat is tight and cozy so we’ll be warm enough. We can run the heat pump using the generator, or we have a small space heater that will take the chill off in the morning. Tomorrow we will head downstream again.