Florence to Anchorage at Mile 287 - October 4-6, 2015

On Monday morning, October 5, we were picked up by Enterprise and by 10AM we were heading out of Florence bound for Northshore Animal Clinic in Knoxville. We’d decided that the rest of the trip would be better for us and Lucy if she could be in a more controlled environment.

At 4PM, Eastern Time, we got to the vet and handed over our Lulu. She’s used to the people and surroundings there and will get along just fine while we forge home. We then drove back down to Chattanooga to spend the night.

This morning, October 6, we left Chattanooga at 5:15AM, Central Time and (breakfast time included) got back to the Enterprise location in Florence at the last minute, 9:15AM. Whew!
But wait! Then we took the Florence Harbor courtesy car to grocery store…and were back at the boat by about 11:30. While I returned the courtesy car to it’s place in the parking lot, Wayne called Wilson Lock, a short jaunt from the Harbor, to see if we might be able to get through this afternoon. We were thinking we could then go up through Wheeler Lock…or anchor somewhere on the Wilson Lake if they were tied up.

“Leave within the next 5 minutes!” said the lock master. We did. And it was a most interesting lock-through. We were in the lock this time with a Coast Guard work crew and barge...



But the new twist was…we had to get past the forward barge as we left the lock...



Viewing it all was a class from local school...



So, then we called Wheeler Lock just to see if we could get through that one, too…and they had the doors open for us when we got there. ;-) Life is good!

About twelve miles later we settled into an anchorage at Melton Bluff.