Linda at the helm 
A typical view of limestone cliffs, Tennessee
Getting ready to go up 93 feet in Wilson Lock, Alabama
Little Crooked Creek River inlet, Tennessee
Confederate battleground victory site, New Johnsonville, Tennessee
Cherry Hill Mansion view from our boat, Savannah, Tennessee
Back entrance of Cherry Hill traveling by car, Savannah, Tennessee
Union cemetery site at Shiloh, Savannah, TennesseeWe apologize for our delay in posting this blog. We are presently just outside of Chattanooga, TN (on a 400 mile side trip!) at anchor and will be there by noon tomorrow, Thursday, October 29th. We have been on the go every day and have had limited computer access as well. Then we finally got our entry finished, only to lose it before we saved it properly. Here we go again!
Leaving Green Turtle Bay Marina in Kentucky on October 5, Charlie and I cruised south on Kentucky Lake until it became the Tennessee River again. We traveled in a downpour that day where the rain was so heavy it looked like a blanket of fog and we used our navigation lights in the daylight for the first time. Three foot waves, which are not very common in this area, were easily handled by Freedom’s Turn! We all stayed two nights at a small, friendly marina named Pebble Isle, located in New Johnsonville, Tennessee. We’ll remember this marina because we were treated well and the morning we were leaving they gave us all (eight boats) free, freshly baked hot cinnamon rolls (from scratch no less) at their friendly harbormaster- restaurant-gift store building.
While there, we also enjoyed a lovely, two mile Autumn walk from the marina to the historically significant Johnsonville State Historic Park; our first Civil War site to visit on this trip. Here, on the banks of the Tennessee River, on November 3, 1863, a Confederate Calvary attacked and defeated a Federal Naval force; the only time ever recorded in all of US war history that a Calvary defeated a naval force. We walked through these woods close to the river and observed several marked spots where soldiers had fought and died. We were somber and felt humbled during this walk. We stumbled on a few family cemeteries as well; one was named the Crockett Cemetery. We wondered if these folks were any relation to Davy Crockett! When we read our river charts for this area earlier in the day, we had noticed that along these river banks there were several old family cemeteries.
I would like to point out that during this time we are going up the Tennessee River, we are geographically going south on a road map. That is because the Tennessee River begins in Knoxville, Tennessee and flows southwest and then north as it curls up towards the Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky and empties into the end of the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky. When one goes up river, one is returning to the beginning and when going down river, one is going toward the end of the river. When going up river, the red buoys will be on the right in most cases; as in the navigation rule “red right return.” That should explain why, in the photo of me piloting, (Which Charlie secretly took of me while I was giving him a break) that as we go up river, we have our red beanie baby on our right to help us remember!
Heading further up the Tennessee towards another anchorage, we were intrigued to see a stately old house on top of a river bank in Savannah, Tennessee. The house was Cherry Hill Mansion, built in 1830 by landowner and planter David Robinson. The house was a wedding gift to his daughter Sarah and her new husband W.H. Cherry. We first saw the home by boat, and then later, by courtesy car loaned from our marina, Grand Harbor, near Savannah, TN, we had the opportunity to go to it by land. We were interested to learn from our pamphlet that the walls are 18 inches thick and were built by slave labor with bricks made on the riverbank there. The historical significance is that this home was the southern headquarters of the Union Army under Major General U.S. Grant in 1862 which he occupied during the battle of Shiloh.
W.H. Cherry was sympathetic to the Union and thus granted permission for the Union to operate out of his home. Grant was eating breakfast here on April 6, 1862 when he heard the distant dull thud of artillery fire as Confederate forces suddenly attacked his army at nearby Shiloh. Cherry Hill Mansion became a hospital as well during the Battle of Shiloh where both sides came to be treated at the same time!
Besides seeing the mansion first by boat, we also passed the river banks where the Battle of Shiloh began. We continued our sightseeing of the Shiloh Military Park by car. The Union and Confederate soldiers plus the Union gunboats TYLER and LEXINGTON were involved. The battle of Shiloh was named after a church on the battlefield. We were fortunate to have an audio guide as we drove through this park which has 151 monuments, 217 cannons and more than 450 historic tablets on 4,000 acres. I quote from a cruising guide titled ‘The Tennessee River Cruising Guide’ written by Fred Meyers, “By the time the battle had ended, nearly 24,000 men were dead or dying. At such quickly named places as Bloody Pond, Hell’s Hollow and Hornet’s Nest, much innocence and enthusiasm was replaced by grim reality as those who had come to defend their cause discovered the horror of war.” This battle was a turning point for the Union because it permitted Grant to launch a relentless nine-month campaign to capture the so-called “fortress city of Vicksburg” and recover the Mississippi River. All casualties were buried in pits after the battle. Two years after the Civil war ended the US government reburied the Union casualties in individual graves; the Confederate casualties were left in the burial pits, a continuing sore point with our southern friends. The spoils of war, I guess.
On this same day in Savannah we found the Buford Pusser Museum home. Sheriff Pusser fought and defeated a grizzly bear but the most important thing about him is that he led a successful campaign against moonshiners, organized crime and prostitution in the mid 60’s. His unusual methods of law enforcement (he was known to have carried a big stick) made he and his wife targets of many assassination attempts which did take the life of his wife in 1967and left him scarred. He died in 1974 when his car went off the road and crashed. There have been four major motion movies made about him including “Walking Tall”. Citizens of this area of Savannah honor this famous man every year with a three day festival.
On October 16 we pulled into Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville, Alabama and settled into our marina slip for a ten day stay. By the way, that meant ten days of guaranteed laundry opportunities and hot showers, electricity and cable TV; wonderful things! Everyone on the docks had raccoons on their boats every night but lucky for us, they did not find anything to get into of ours. During that time, we attended our cruising association’s fall rendezvous ( we filled up the transient docks with our 65 boats), drove our friend’s, Warren and Debbie, truck round trip 1300 some miles home to see the MSU defeat against OSU, and visited with our good friends both in Alabama and at the game in East Lansing. Because we were only home very briefly, we apologize to everyone that we did not call or could not see. We especially wanted to see our girls but they were out of town, which was very much understood. While at Joe Wheeler, Charlie visited the city of Huntsville with other boaters where he saw the Space and Rocket Center, botanical gardens and many historical sites.
Currently we are heading up to Chattanooga for a 10 day side trip on the Tennessee River. The panoramic views of these river banks look like another Grand Canyon and are magnificent. One amazing thing we did was go through the Wilson Lock in Tennessee. The water there raised Freedom’s Turn up 93 feet, our second biggest lock we will have on the whole trip!
We will pick up here next time.
Sorry this is a long blog and long in writing. I will close and assure you we are safe and well and still happily living together! A special hello to my brothers Larry and John and their families, my sister Jennifer and her family, my mother Nancy, and to Charlie’s brother Bud and his family! We miss you and are trying to come up with a plan to come home at Christmas. We miss all of you very much!
Happy Halloween and Happy Fall,
Linda and Charlie
Leaving Green Turtle Bay Marina in Kentucky on October 5, Charlie and I cruised south on Kentucky Lake until it became the Tennessee River again. We traveled in a downpour that day where the rain was so heavy it looked like a blanket of fog and we used our navigation lights in the daylight for the first time. Three foot waves, which are not very common in this area, were easily handled by Freedom’s Turn! We all stayed two nights at a small, friendly marina named Pebble Isle, located in New Johnsonville, Tennessee. We’ll remember this marina because we were treated well and the morning we were leaving they gave us all (eight boats) free, freshly baked hot cinnamon rolls (from scratch no less) at their friendly harbormaster- restaurant-gift store building.
While there, we also enjoyed a lovely, two mile Autumn walk from the marina to the historically significant Johnsonville State Historic Park; our first Civil War site to visit on this trip. Here, on the banks of the Tennessee River, on November 3, 1863, a Confederate Calvary attacked and defeated a Federal Naval force; the only time ever recorded in all of US war history that a Calvary defeated a naval force. We walked through these woods close to the river and observed several marked spots where soldiers had fought and died. We were somber and felt humbled during this walk. We stumbled on a few family cemeteries as well; one was named the Crockett Cemetery. We wondered if these folks were any relation to Davy Crockett! When we read our river charts for this area earlier in the day, we had noticed that along these river banks there were several old family cemeteries.
I would like to point out that during this time we are going up the Tennessee River, we are geographically going south on a road map. That is because the Tennessee River begins in Knoxville, Tennessee and flows southwest and then north as it curls up towards the Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky and empties into the end of the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky. When one goes up river, one is returning to the beginning and when going down river, one is going toward the end of the river. When going up river, the red buoys will be on the right in most cases; as in the navigation rule “red right return.” That should explain why, in the photo of me piloting, (Which Charlie secretly took of me while I was giving him a break) that as we go up river, we have our red beanie baby on our right to help us remember!
Heading further up the Tennessee towards another anchorage, we were intrigued to see a stately old house on top of a river bank in Savannah, Tennessee. The house was Cherry Hill Mansion, built in 1830 by landowner and planter David Robinson. The house was a wedding gift to his daughter Sarah and her new husband W.H. Cherry. We first saw the home by boat, and then later, by courtesy car loaned from our marina, Grand Harbor, near Savannah, TN, we had the opportunity to go to it by land. We were interested to learn from our pamphlet that the walls are 18 inches thick and were built by slave labor with bricks made on the riverbank there. The historical significance is that this home was the southern headquarters of the Union Army under Major General U.S. Grant in 1862 which he occupied during the battle of Shiloh.
W.H. Cherry was sympathetic to the Union and thus granted permission for the Union to operate out of his home. Grant was eating breakfast here on April 6, 1862 when he heard the distant dull thud of artillery fire as Confederate forces suddenly attacked his army at nearby Shiloh. Cherry Hill Mansion became a hospital as well during the Battle of Shiloh where both sides came to be treated at the same time!
Besides seeing the mansion first by boat, we also passed the river banks where the Battle of Shiloh began. We continued our sightseeing of the Shiloh Military Park by car. The Union and Confederate soldiers plus the Union gunboats TYLER and LEXINGTON were involved. The battle of Shiloh was named after a church on the battlefield. We were fortunate to have an audio guide as we drove through this park which has 151 monuments, 217 cannons and more than 450 historic tablets on 4,000 acres. I quote from a cruising guide titled ‘The Tennessee River Cruising Guide’ written by Fred Meyers, “By the time the battle had ended, nearly 24,000 men were dead or dying. At such quickly named places as Bloody Pond, Hell’s Hollow and Hornet’s Nest, much innocence and enthusiasm was replaced by grim reality as those who had come to defend their cause discovered the horror of war.” This battle was a turning point for the Union because it permitted Grant to launch a relentless nine-month campaign to capture the so-called “fortress city of Vicksburg” and recover the Mississippi River. All casualties were buried in pits after the battle. Two years after the Civil war ended the US government reburied the Union casualties in individual graves; the Confederate casualties were left in the burial pits, a continuing sore point with our southern friends. The spoils of war, I guess.
On this same day in Savannah we found the Buford Pusser Museum home. Sheriff Pusser fought and defeated a grizzly bear but the most important thing about him is that he led a successful campaign against moonshiners, organized crime and prostitution in the mid 60’s. His unusual methods of law enforcement (he was known to have carried a big stick) made he and his wife targets of many assassination attempts which did take the life of his wife in 1967and left him scarred. He died in 1974 when his car went off the road and crashed. There have been four major motion movies made about him including “Walking Tall”. Citizens of this area of Savannah honor this famous man every year with a three day festival.
On October 16 we pulled into Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville, Alabama and settled into our marina slip for a ten day stay. By the way, that meant ten days of guaranteed laundry opportunities and hot showers, electricity and cable TV; wonderful things! Everyone on the docks had raccoons on their boats every night but lucky for us, they did not find anything to get into of ours. During that time, we attended our cruising association’s fall rendezvous ( we filled up the transient docks with our 65 boats), drove our friend’s, Warren and Debbie, truck round trip 1300 some miles home to see the MSU defeat against OSU, and visited with our good friends both in Alabama and at the game in East Lansing. Because we were only home very briefly, we apologize to everyone that we did not call or could not see. We especially wanted to see our girls but they were out of town, which was very much understood. While at Joe Wheeler, Charlie visited the city of Huntsville with other boaters where he saw the Space and Rocket Center, botanical gardens and many historical sites.
Currently we are heading up to Chattanooga for a 10 day side trip on the Tennessee River. The panoramic views of these river banks look like another Grand Canyon and are magnificent. One amazing thing we did was go through the Wilson Lock in Tennessee. The water there raised Freedom’s Turn up 93 feet, our second biggest lock we will have on the whole trip!
We will pick up here next time.
Sorry this is a long blog and long in writing. I will close and assure you we are safe and well and still happily living together! A special hello to my brothers Larry and John and their families, my sister Jennifer and her family, my mother Nancy, and to Charlie’s brother Bud and his family! We miss you and are trying to come up with a plan to come home at Christmas. We miss all of you very much!
Happy Halloween and Happy Fall,
Linda and Charlie
