Upper Tennessee River

Today the crews of C-Traveler, Sea Spray and C-Play explored downtown Knoxville, while Mystery Girl and Sunbeam explored more on the water. Mystery Girl and Sunbeam are anchored in Knob Creek this evening, while the rest of us are spending one more night on the dock here at Calhouns. We’ll get back together tomorrow or the next day, as we start heading back downstream. We had a great time exploring Knoxville. So many interesting murals around town, part of the Art in Public Places Mural Program. Several alleys that are filled completely with Murals. Many more than what was on a Mural Map, and way too many to upload photos of all! We also visited the East Tennessee History Center. So much history of the area, and of the Civil War. The one thing that really stuck with me with our current political situation is the bitterness that existed between the Unionists and the Confederates long after the war. We vote in less than a month. Please please please, become informed on the issues and on the candidates. Personally, I see this having to do so much more with our democracy and little to do with conservatism or liberalism. We also enjoyed walking through the farmer’s market in Market Square, and did some shopping with all the fresh produce available. We enjoyed lunch at the Tupelo Honey Restaurant, then went up in the Sunsphere. While up there, we saw four people on the roof of the Tennesseean Hotel climb over the edge and thinking WTH as we watched them repel down the side of the building. Not just repelling, but doing acrobatics as well. Come to find out it was Solastalgia practicing for a show they are putting on later this week. After walking 6.16 miles around downtown Knoxville, we couldn’t go back to the boats without stopping for ice cream at Kilwins!
Ok, question for my readers. You come back to your boats, find one moved so that its stern is hanging out from the edge of the dock, with another big boat that has taken slip space in front of you. And our other two boats which are close together on the dock now having a large Gibson house boat rafted to both? How would you react or handle it?
This weekend is a big UofT Vols football game. It’s common for the docks to be crowded with boats. And I guess that means several days in advance! We were told when we docked last night, to register with Calhouns if spending the night, which we did. Apparently the big boats didn’t, or they could have gotten my phone number to call and see what could be arranged. Jeff had got back before us as he skipped the ice cream stop. He texted us what was going on to give us a heads up so we wouldn’t walk in to the situation cold. I had some strong words with the owner of the Gibson. Man, you just don’t raft on another boat without their permission. I won’t go into detail with all that was said, but while stern, I felt it was appropriate and not obscene. I did call law enforcement as the other boat owner refused to move, although he said he would unraft from us when we were ready to leave. My concern is with wakes on the main river here, having a much larger boat rafted against us. In the end, there did happen to be some smaller spaces on both sides of the dock at the other end where we could just fit, so we ended up moving. Jeff also decided to come up and was able to fit around a pontoon boat and get behind him on the inside of the dock, but had to fit under the overhang of Calhouns. Just not a great way to end the day!

Ok, late note. My video of the group rappelling off the side of the building is 16 mins long and Find Penguins won’t accept over 10 mins, I’ll have to figure something else out.Read more