Pickwick Lake to Chattanooga
October 28, 2023
We were carrying on south then east to Florenceville, AL from Pickwick Lake, so we said adieu to Kevin and Leslie who were headed south and home to St. Petersburg, FL. I will catch up with them later this winter at their home. Our plan was to visit Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Muscle Shoals, AL across the river from Florencville, but the museum was closed. We visited the place anyway and there is indeed a very powerful energy at that place where so many special musicians made their music like Aretha, Dylan, Wilson, and the Stones.
We did meet the ‘Catfish Ladies of Florenceville Alabama’. Tammy and Barbara set up their chairs on the marina dock just before dark, baited up their Walmart fishing kits with liver chunks, and proceeded to catch catfish for the next few hours. Tammy had been fishing since she was a little girl and Barabara was new to Sunday night fishing. They weren’t keeping, just catching and Barabara wrapped each catfish gently in a towel talking to them as if they were her grandbabies. I asked about church because it was Sunday night and Tammy replied without hesitation, “I was at church this morning, but being out here with the solemnness of the water is where you will hear God”. “Yes ma’am” I replied.
The next day we made a long run to Ditto Landing Marina. A long run for WW is about 75 nautical miles (135 km) which sounds like a short run for car drivers, but boating like this is hard work albeit fun. We met more Loopers including the head of the association heading to the group’s biannual rendezvous. There was an interesting couple in a gasoline-powered Meridian cruiser hopping between places chosen based on the money in their pockets. They started as non-boaters, did four rides on the Meridian, sold most everything, and set off on their journey which was currently a quest to find a place to hold up for the winter. I am meeting quite a collection of people out here who are living various versions of this very simple life on the water.
As Rob and I sat in the cockpit enjoying some beverages after dark, a streak of very bright light pulses streamed across the clear sky. These looked like a string of lights that came on then off in succession. We have both witnessed meteors or satellites burning up and trailing fire upon entry into earth’s lower atmosphere, but this was more like an alien invasion as depicted by Hollywood. Some head scratching and googling suggested we witnessed one of Mr. Musk’s mini-satellite launches when multiple small spacecraft (a mere 1,000 kg) are released in succession from a main rocket blasting through the lower, outer atmosphere. He has >5,000 in space already with >40,000 coming soon, which reminds me that we have yet another environment where we wantonly dump our trash.
Our next stop was Guntersville Lake and the Goose Pond Colony Marina. We landed here because we needed a break and didn’t realize this was the Miracle Mile where fish catching was guaranteed. We didn’t see any fish, but we did watch a boat weed-whacker in action (aquatic weed-whacking is a big business). The lake has a serious problem with Eelgrass (Vallisneria americana). It is one of several aquatic plants that are overwhelming the lake, and the only waterbody where I saw such a massive accumulation of aquatic vegetation clogging shorelines and creating islands of plants. Ironically, the explosion of eelgrass in the last 20 years may be the result of an introduced hybrid eelgrass we created to be fast-growing for ecosystem restoration including manatee recovery projects in Florida, i.e., the ‘Rockstar’ hybrid (V. spiralis x V. denseserrulata). How it arrived in Guntersville Lake is unknown, but it most probably came as a hitchhiker on boats and trailers that weren’t ‘cleaned-drained-dried’ and it is now an invasive species; remember these steps when you move your boat between waterbodies, please. Now the mitigation of 40,000 acres of Eelgrass requires weed-whacking and of course, herbicides, costing millions annually and killing native plants as a side effect.
Dinner that night was at The Dock. I ate the famed shrimp and grits, but I wanted the ‘all you can eat fish fry’ assuming it was catfish; “No sir, it’s Pangasius”. As a sometimes ichthyologist, that was a new species to me. It is a catfish species native to Asia, likely farm-raised and imported, and sometimes called Basa. Later, after Miss Linda behind the bar caught her breath from serving lots of people, she explained that locals don’t like the muddy taste of river catfish and preferred the pond-raised fish, but we can’t call it catfish. Miss Linda also explained that ‘Miss’ is a Southern tradition of respect for elders. She was 70+ years old, the owner’s mom, worked the busy nights, and she had stories of life on the river. “Listen to the river and all the out-of-doors…we need to pay attention”. “Yes ma’am” I replied. She invited us back when the place wasn’t so busy, or to stop by for a coffee at her home just upriver. We didn’t see her place, so we missed that coffee the next morning as we headed for Chattanooga.
The trip to Chattanooga winds through the lovely Tennessee River Gorge. Approaching the city you pass by Moccasin Bend, a place of many histories; the Civil War, Underground Railroad, and First Peoples for the last 12,000 years. One place of importance for me to visit was Ross's Landing Riverfront Park on the city’s waterfront where a group of Cherokee artists created the ‘The Passage’. This exhibit is anchored to a staircase of water in remembrance of the Cherokee people’s forced eviction and travel along the Trail of Tears. It is an impressive and moving exhibit with that Nation’s seven clans represented by weeping walls of water that flow into the water staircase that is the trail to the river and boats that took the people away. However, the water also draws strong, positive energy from the Cherokee culture depicted by the seven discs created from ancient motifs located in the wall, the stickball sculptures, and the Seven Sisters origin story. As one storyteller describes this place, it completes the circle on the Trail of Tears story and opens the door to a better future together. I concur; we can’t forget our history, we need to re-learn the true stories, and we need to look forward together.
Chattanooga has invested significantly in revitalizing its downtown and waterfront and has done an excellent job. The Tennessee Aquarium was one of the best live animal exhibits I have visited. I am not a fan of these, but I understand their importance as educational tools for the many people who don’t get to spend time in wild environments. The aquarium has done a terrific job of replicating aquatic life from the local mountains to the sea with some side trips, e.g., Antarctica and Vancouver Island the first home of WW. It is extremely difficult to sustain visually impactful aquaria, especially the seawater environments and these folks get an A+ from this biology professor.
Brother-in-law Rob headed home before the Two Sisters Bluegrass Festival got underway. This was my first immersion into true bluegrass music. I was amazed by the musicality and really enjoyed my night along with the many smiling, happy people spread across the open field, from babies to dancing grandmas. I didn’t stay too late because the next day I would begin to retrace my river trail to Pickwick Lake.
Until next time from somewhere down the crazy river.
Allen
Demopolis, AL
