10-20-2010 – A little downtime in Florence, Alabama!

One of the brochures at the marina reported that Florence was named by an Italian guy who founded it. Since there are no canals or gondolas in Florence, Alabama, we thought that the Italian guy was probably just homesick.

A quick trip into town for some hardware and vegetables Wednesday morning took us across the majestic buildings that are the campus of Northern Alabama University.  The homes around the campus are older, neat, and stately. These beautiful homes are on                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              quiet tree lined streets. Driving by, the neighborhood around the college looked just like Evanston, Elmhurst, or any of dozens of college towns.

Earlier on Wednesday, there was a nice couple from Put-in-Bay, Ohio who arrived into the marina on their 50 foot Defever, named Seadog. The couple had just spent several days in Chattanooga. They told us that they had heard that there was an excellent Italian Restaurant in Florence and invited is to join them for dinner. We would have gladly accepted their invitation but had already started a pot roast in a small crock pot on the boat before they arrived. We planned to try the Italian restaurant soon as long as there is a favorable report from the couple on the restaurant tomorrow. It is always good to have someone run interference for you. In the meantime, everyone passing by on the dock today commented that the aroma, (cooking pot roast) from Sleeping Bear. It smelled good. It tasted excellent as well!

For the next few days, Sleeping Bear is tied up in the municipal marina in Florence.  This is about 20 river miles (probably only 15 miles “as the crow flies”) from Joe Wheeler State Park. The park is the site of the AGLCA rendezvous which starts this coming Sunday and runs thru Wednesday. The river trip to Joe Wheeler includes two locks that lift more than 120 feet combined.  However, because of the dams, bridges and windy roads, Joe Wheeler is every bit of 45 minutes by car from Florence. According to people at the marina, there are no more slips available at Joe Wheeler Sate Park.  Unless something changes at the last minute, Sleeping Bear will need to anchor using the dinghy to attend the sessions next week. For now, we are killing time at the Florence marina, doing a few boat projects and chilling a bit. Under the circumstances, there is no reason to leave the civilization of Florence for Joe Wheeler until absolutely necessary. There is a daily influx of boats stopping to spend the night on their way to Joe Wheeler. We enjoy meeting all of the folks and hearing stories of their adventures.

Sleeping Bear has served its crew well so far on the trip south. Al, who has had a lot of experience with boat restoration, started tackling a few projects over the last couple of days that are greatly improving the exterior bright work that is an on-going effort with a boat of this vintage.  Al is proving to be a Rembrandt when it comes to sanding surfaces and applying even coats of varnish. After almost 1,000 miles, the boat looks better than when she left Racine. Sleeping Bear, Kona and I are lucky to have found such knowledgeable, helpful and energetic crew.

After the Rendezvous, next week, Sleeping Bear will head west and then south, back down the Tennessee River and into the Tombigbee. Al’s wife Kerri will meet us in Columbus, Mississippi and will travel with us to Mobile.  We are looking forward to Kerri’s arrival and her participation in the adventure.

I promise to find some time between boat projects to sort through and post some pictures and/or some comments on the site seeing during the slowdown in southerly movement.