Chattanooga to Chickmauga Marina

Sunday, October 6:  Docked now at Chickamauga Marina, Chattanooga for repairs, we find that we'll be here a few days. We arrived here early afternoon Thursday after seeing Ty and Caroline off at the Chattanooga downtown dock where we'd been a couple nights mid-week. We had a nice time with our two friends during their 6-night, 5-day stay aboard. Continuing from last post (some overlap), we were overnight Monday night at Hales Bar Marina which we found to be in declining condition. Showers had no toilet paper; advertised laundry had washer but no dryer. But we lucked ino a picnic grill which allowed us a delicious grilled salmon with grilled romaine dinner, home-cooked! Bonus of BIG mosquitoes! Thank goodness for Cutters in ample supply.

Watts Barr floating cabins

Fountains at the Chattanooga Riverfront

Loopers at Chattanooga

Chattanooga riverfront with Loopers docked

We awakened the morn of Tuesday, Oct. 1 with floating log cabins in our view of the harbor. Three women were fishing off the porch, and we supplied the cheering section when one snagged a large bass. Fun! Made their day...and ours. A day cruise found us approaching the Chattanooga downtown riverfront where we were greeted by Harbor Host Hal (harbor hosts are Great Loop folks who enjoy meeting other Loopers, welcoming them to their home port). Supplied with only power and water for our stay...no restroom, shower or laundry privileges...we were nonetheless spoiled by the site! Walking paths were well-maintained and stretched for miles. The area was so user friendly, accommodating kids, families, the disabled, and boaters/kayakers/paddleboarders/etc. Restaurants galore, Chattanooga's downtown aquarium, a cinemax theatre, and foot and car bridges to cross to the other side of the river where the Delta Queen was docked.

Delta Queen floating hotel/restaurant

Early morning with mountain fog

We ate dinner at a local brewery called the Big River Grille. Elijah Craig has been joining the fellas the past few evenings post dinner as they reminisce. Tonight was no exception; so good to have memories...and to have time to reminisce! I retire early most nights as I'm, by nature, a morning person, and I'm now nursing a sore throat; Caroline came aboard with one. Guess we two females are a couple of sickies right now, but it doesn't seem to affect our ability to enjoy ourselves.

AM walkers on the old wooden pedestrain bridge

Many levels to the riverfront-switchbacks

Caroline and Sally

Wednesday morning Clay, Caroline and I had a terrific time on our morning walk, exploring the riverwalk and the various pathways leading to and from the main walk. We crossed the old wooden bridge after climbing the zig-zag path to the Art District.

Switch back walking trail up the steep hill and an early AM picture of the Delta Queen

We admired sculptures along the way, the beautiful landscaping, and the fountain shooting streams of water out over the TN River and adjacent kiddie wading pools. What it must take to maintain this area!

The AM walkers!

Gals lunch at the downtown Panera; guys hit the riverfront Blue Water Cafe for a fried/greasy meal they don't get from Sally's Galley. The afternoon got away from us, though I don't know where it went. Ah, remembering now...Caroline and I trekked across the car bridge (using the pedestrian path) to Walgreen's while the guys swabbed the deck. Nothing like a shopping trip for gals and a clean boat to boot! Dinner was manufactured from leftovers we'd accumulated; yummy! And it helped to pare down the frig contents. Driver/friend Randy was due at 9 a.m. Thursday to take Ty and Caroline home, but we had ongoing confusion as to which time zone we were honoring, Central or Eastern.

Blue grass festival and concert

Randy arrived 9 a.m. Eastern time, and we bid our friends farewell. Caroline remarked she didn't remember being so relaxed; a huge compliment. We enjoyed their time aboard. Clay and I then prepped to depart upstream to Chickamauga Marina for some scheduled repairs where we find ourselves now. Another pretty marina, but few offerings in the way of restaurants or entertainment. We do have electric, water, shower and laundry privileges. Yay! So I spent Thursday doing accumulated laundry, a good form of entertainment, eh? I figured I logged an hour walking time, back and forth to the laundry room; good exercise but boy was I pooped by eve.

Met some nice folks on our C Dock location, one of whom (Clyde) offered to drive us to the riverwalk entry point for a walk downstream toward Chattanooga downtown Friday morn. He said his wife would kill him if she knew. I'm with the wife on this one. Oh my! Clay and I took our life in our hands as we trekked along the interstate, separated from speeding cars by only a 2' retaining wall. Won't do that again.
Later in the day, Clyde took me to pick up the Enterprise weekend special so we'd have wheels. Good price; good decision! We put the Chevy Cruse to good use Saturday when we drove downtown to the 3 Sisters bluegrass festival on the riverfront. Clay and I assisted a docking boat only to realize it was Ed and Sue, Shady Acres. We went aboard and chatted a bit, catching up, then parted company for us to make a Wal Mart run and them, a late lunch. Post WMT run and stowing purchases away, we navigated our way to the Bonefish Grill for dinner then back to the boat at Chickamauga Marina.

Sue called Sunday and asked for a ride to WMT to do some provisioning.  We took them to Wal-Mart, stopped for cocktails on their boat and went to the Boathouse restaurant over looking the TN River.  Great location but so-so food.

Up today, Sunday, I am finding my sore throat malady has rendered me speechless. Actually, not speechless, but unable to make much noise when I do speak. Maybe voiceless is a better word choice. Ah, a glorious day upcoming for Clay. Funny though, when I whisper my sentence fragments to Clay, he whispers back. I told him he can talk in regular voice. We are just back from our morning walk, a section of the riverwalk chosen by Clay that we both found to be less appealing (too many buildings, parking lots, industrial areas, etc) but these didn't stop the city fathers from continuing the paths here. Nice surface nonetheless for walking. As I told Clay, if it's not broke, don't fix it...our yesterday stretch of riverwalk was delightful so why change? He's more of an explorer than I; I prefer more the known and predictable. As I finish this post, Clay is outside dismantling the new canvas fly bridge top for A2Z Canvas who is to work tomorrow and Tuesday in an attempt to waterproof it. I do hope they are successful!