10-01-09 Guild TN Hales Bar Marina

[Rick] What a pretty Day. We went to the fuel dock of Alred Marina to fill up. Alred has a special for loopers. If you get at least 100 gallons of gas, you get two nights dockage FREE. We had already planned to take them up on this. When we got to the dock, we found out why they do this. The price per gallon is $3.899, at least $.50 more than we have seen in weeks. Remember, we saw $2.499 at Pebble Isle. We went ahead and filled up and figured the stay was a discount of about $36.00. Oh Well.

We proceeded upbound toward Chattanooga. The weather was perfect. The scenery was beautiful. As we neared the town of Guild, we saw one of these famous signs.

We called the Nickajack lock and told the lockmaster we were ready to go through. We waited about 10 minutes for him to empty the chamber, and the doors opened for us to enter. We proceeded in and tied to the starboard side in our usual manner. After we were secured, the lockmaster, via the loudspeaker, told us to tie to the port wall. We figured he had just forgotten to tell us when we entered. So, we untied, moved over, and retied. The rest was very normal and we were on our way in about 20 minutes. On the way out Betsy very calmly said on the radio “Thanks for the test of our boat handling and line preparation skills.” You don’t want to know what she said while not on the radio!

We are docked at the Hales Bar Marina. We are in a covered slip. The marina has free Cable TV, free very strong wifi, and in general a nice marina. Unfortunately, it is in the middle of nowhere. So, we had my birthday dinner on the boat and watched Survivor on TV.

A large houseboat came in after us. The boat is 80 feet long, 19 feet wide, and two stories tall, with a full deck for lounging on the top. It is gigantic. They have huge banners on the side pulling for the Alabama Crimson Tide this Saturday.

BTW. Happy Birthday to ME……..