10/2/11 -  10/13/11    The Tennessee River does not flow as fast as the tributaries of the Mississippi so the travel was much more relaxed.   Deciduous forests beginning to turn their fall colors covered the limestone river banks.  Anchorages were easy to find so we anchored several nights on our way to Grand Harbor Marina for Lace's birthday.   The marina is a big one and it had several loaner cars for transient boaters.   There happened to be five other looper boats there that day and everyone went into town for supper at Freddy T's.  A good time was had by all.  At this point, we decided to depart from the usual looper route and take a side trip to Chattanooga Tennessee.  The first lock was the Wilson which has the largest lift east of the Rockies at 84 feet.  We were going up-river which means we entered the lock and after they closed the gates, they added water to the chamber until we reached the level of the river above.  The locks were mainly built for commercial traffic so the turbulence inside as they filled it tossed our relatively small boat around quite a bit, but we managed to control it without damage to life or limb.  Over the next five days we anchored up in increasingly beautiful surroundings as we neared the Appalachian Mountains.  We really enjoyed Chattanooga.  In fact, Lace believes it is her favorite city of any we have visited.  The city is spanking clean, they have a world class aquarium, they have free public transportation, and there are sculptures mounted on sidewalks throughout the city.  The city was of course made famous by the Glenn Miller Band in 1941 with it's recording of "Chattanooga Choo Choo". The song refers to a railroad route which took passengers from the eastern states to the southern states beginning in the late 1800's. We spent two days there.  Lace got a hair cut, we visited a once-a-week farmers market, got groceries at an upscale organic grocery store, and went to the I-Max theater for a 3-D movie about orphaned elephants and orangutans.

9/22/11 -  10/1/11   As we entered the Mississippi, the first landmark was the St. Louis Gateway Arch, a monument to westward expansion completed in 1965.   I had been up in the arch years before and St. Louis is not easy to visit, so we didn't stop.  A little further down the Mississippi is Hoppies Marine Services at Kimmswick, Missouri.  I believe I read somewhere that Hoppie Hopkins is descended from one of the last lamp lighters whose job it was to go around and light the navigation lamps on the river.  Although it is just a rather haphazard arrangement of floating barges tethered to the river bank, it is a favorite stop for loopers because it is the last fuel stop for a couple of hundred miles and Fern Hopkins gives a daily briefing on the latest river conditions.  The next evening we tied up to the lock wall at the Kaskaskia River where there were already 9 other boats tied.  Great happy hour!  The Mississippi River is extraordinarily turbulent in places and it takes continuous attention to steer the boat.  The next couple of days were rainy and foggy so we found an anchorage behind a wing dam and waited it out.  Wing dams are rock structures that radiate from the shoreline to keep the channel deep and navigable.  The next day we turned into the Ohio river at Cairo, Illinois (Unlike the Egyptian capital it is pronounced kay-row).  The Ohio River was even swifter than the Mississippi and since it flows into the Mississippi we were now going against the current.  At one point, as we were passing a dam, the boat actually stopped briefly which means the current was between 6 and 7 miles per hour.  A short time on the Ohio and then an even shorter time on the Cumberland brought us into Barkley Lake.  The starboard engine was running hot so we took a day at Green Turtle Bay Marina to change a water pump impeller and we were off again and into the Tennessee River.