Tennessee River Thru Paddle - Day 2 (4/12/21)

Day of the Bald Eagle

Start: River Mile: 629

Finish: River Mile: 609

Day Total: 21

Trip Total: 42.7

Sleep was not bad last night. Still learning how to sleep comfortably sleeping with my knee replacement. For those of you that don’t me well, I just had my right knee replaced on January 12. So a mere three months later and after a ton of Physical Therapy and dealing with a lot of pain, I’ve made it this far. 

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day

Today was another windy day. As usually it was mostly in our faces, which is still mind boggling since we are on a twisting and turning major river. That’s how paddling goes. Even though the wind was not quite a strong as yesterday, add the following fatigue from the day before and we had to call it a day at 21 miles. 

For me the highlight was paddling about 3 miles with a pair of Bald Eagles. We watched them fish, and fly back to their nest to feed the their eaglets in there giant nest. These majestic birds are very special to me. Even though they are not as endangered as they once were, they still are a symbol of grace and strength. I never get tired of seeing them in there natural habitat.

Thanks to a website that Bradford Collet sent me, we found a nice little TVA area just next to a public boat ramp. Dinner was my turn so since we landed at 4:30pm, I had time to make my Mac & Cheese with broccoli, crab and shrimp. Even Jon thought it was edible! Clean up was a bit of a mess, but I had time so it was not a problem.

The high end homes where spectacular

Tomorrow we lock through the Fort Lauren Lock & Dam, our first of the journey. Since our only experience is on the Mississippi River, we will call ahead to the lock master to alert them of our arrival. We are off on our float plan by almost a full day. Mostly this has been due to the wind, although we did not experience much in the way of current today. My hope is that on the other side of the lock that we will get a boost, at least for a while.

Today’s learning. When we stopped for lunch, I opened up the lime green lunch bag that I keep in the cockpit with me and was shocked to find it was actually my dinner bag! Nothing in there that didn’t need a stove which was packed away in the deep recesses of my fore hatch. So, I begged Jon for some snacks and he came through with a homemade beef stick and a cheese stick. That did the trick and I was good. When we landed at the end of our day, and I was unpacking my boat, I found that the bag I thought was clothing, was actually my lunch bag!! Grrr. Oh well, now I have an extra bagel for tomorrow. Long story made longer, when you have two lime green dry bags, label them!

It’s Bourbon time!