Day 54 – 57
On Wednesday morning, 11/04/20, we treated ourselves to a big breakfast up at the Joe Wheeler State Park lodge’s restaurant (for old time’s sake) and left the marina a bit later than usual that morning. We traversed two locks, Wheeler and Wilson with no problems. Over the past few days, we’ve noticed more and more seagulls and pelicans gathering in the shallower parts of the river. Apparently, it’s migrating season for both species of normally coastal fowl. A large flock of seagulls stared at us from the wall at Wilson Lock as we traversed it, all 94 feet down. Obviously, Wilson is a popular hangout during migrating season.
We arrived at Florence Harbor Marina at 2:45 pm that afternoon and tied-up in our usual spot on the transient wall. We’d decided to hole-up at Florence while the latest tropical storm made its way northward from the gulf. We were not alone on the transient dock that evening, as Tug Life, a 27-foot Ranger Tug was slipped right behind us. Brian Chapin and Karen Silverton, Tug Life’s crew, invited us to join them on Wednesday evening for docktails behind their boat. They are originally from Canada and had been traveling extensively in their RV up until recently, when they decided to sell the RV and purchase a boat, so they could travel The Great Loop. We learned a lot about RVing from them, as they have been pretty much everywhere in the North American continent. Steve had to apologize to Brian for having to severely wake their boat the day before coming out of one of the locks. Ranger Tugs typically travel at a slower rate of speed than our boat does. Tug Life pulled out of the lock chamber first, forcing the other boats to follow him. Since this particular lock was spilling when it released us, we were all met with a strong current and some rough waters. As mentioned earlier, Legacy does not handle well in turbulent waters at very low speeds. In order to maintain control of the boat, Steve was forced to pass Tug Life, since they were still going so slowly. Legacy throws a considerable wake, and the courteous thing to do is for larger boats to pass smaller boats slowly to help reduce the size of that wake, but Tug Life was just going too slow for us to do that. On top of that, the channel to exit the lock chamber is very narrow, so we had to pass fairly closely. When we passed them, our wake caught Tug Life at full force and made it rock almost comically on top of the already turbulent waters. I’m sure the crew of Tug Life were not amused, however, as heavy waking can cause unsecured items inside the cabin to go flying! Steve felt really bad for having to do that and I said he should get on the radio and apologize, but he didn’t. Lo and behold, when we met Tug Life in Florence Harbor, it was the perfect opportunity for Steve to apologize in person. Brian and Karen were very understanding and didn’t seem to be upset by the event at all, which I found to be admirable, since I would’ve been livid in their shoes!
That evening, I noticed a post on The Great Loop’s Facebook page about a couple who’d stayed at Florence Harbor several days prior to our arrival and had lost their cat, Sam, while they were there. She posted for anyone who was traveling to Florence Harbor to please keep an eye out for Sam. Apparently, they let Sam off of their boat to roam around, as they’re traveling from location to location, and he normally returns to the boat within two hours. This time, though, Sam didn’t come back to their boat. ☹ They ended up staying in Florence for two additional days and scoured the marina, city park, and surrounding areas looking for their kitty. They called the animal shelters and rescues in Florence, and posted “Have you seen me?” pictures of Sam everywhere, with their names and phone numbers, in hopes of hearing from someone with good news about their cat. Being the way I am about pets, I made it my personal mission to find that cat! I kept imagining myself in that same situation, and realized how very upset I would be. On our errand-running day, I sat in the passenger seat of the courtesy vehicle scanning the grounds for any trace of a yellow tabby. When I went for my walks, all I could think of was that poor cat and those poor people having to leave on their boat without him. From her posts on FB, their plan was to rent a car and drive back to Florence to get him if he should be found. I became obsessed with that cat and its whereabouts. Steve got really tired of discussin Sam, the cat ad nauseam. On one of my walks, I had a strong feeling I was going to find Sam. I even combed the wooded areas around the marina calling his name and cooing “Heeeere kitty, kitty, kitty!” But sadly, right on the other side of those woods, directly across from the marina, was a busy highway, which I feared Sam might’ve ventured out onto the night of his disappearance, and the thought of that broke my heart even more. I’d been really missing having a pet while we’re on this adventure, but this ordeal with Sam made me realize how bad that could turn out to be! While I would never purposely let a cat of mine off the boat to go roaming, I could just imagine it darting out the door and off the boat before we could stop it and getting lost the same as Sam. It would break my heart to have to leave without it, but we would eventually have to, since this journey is on a seasonal schedule. So it’s probably best that we remain petless while we’re on this boat. (But as soon as we’re off of it…! 😊)
Even though we ate one dinner at the marina’s River Bottom Grille, we couldn’t leave Florence without eating at our favorite – Ricatoni’s – a local Italian restaurant downtown. YUM! After some boat cleaning on Saturday, 11/7/20, I ventured out in the courtesy van by myself for a Hobby Lobby fix in Florence. I’ve mentioned before that the Florence Harbor courtesy van is high-mileage and well-used. Its engine has a habit of just up and dying while driving down the road! Of course, when the engine dies, power steering is lost, so it’s not always easy to get the vehicle safely off the road so it can be stopped, placed into park, and restarted. Sure enough, I’d barely made it out of the marina parking lot and was driving about 30 mph when the engine just quit. Fortunately, I was in the right-hand lane next to a decent shoulder, so I man-handled the van off the road and out of traffic without incident, although the people trying to drive behind my suddenly coasting van didn’t seem all that thrilled. It started right back up and took me the rest of the way to my destination and back with no more issues. When we left our house in Franklin, I left 90% of my crafting supplies behind to be included in our estate sale, knowing I probably wouldn’t be doing a lot of crafting while onboard, not to mention the lack of storage space available. But, I’ve since realized how very much I miss crafting, so I bought some more supplies that day at Hobby Lobby. The finished crafts will be gifts, so Steve won’t have to worry about me trying to stow them aboard once they’re completed.
This time, while in Florence, we visited the Rosenbaum House, designed and constructed by the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. We’d wanted to see it on a previous visit, but COVID kept us from it. While we still had to wear masks as we toured this time, we lucked-out with an excellent tour guide who was both informative and entertaining. I have always admired Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs, and have read several books about him, so being able to see one of his works in person was a treat. Story has it that Mrs. Rosenbaum’s parents lived in Florence in the 1930s and had offered to buy their daughter and future son-in-law (Mr. Rosenbaum) a new house as a wedding present, as a way to keep their daughter and her future family close by. The young couple searched and searched, but could never find their dream house. There was a vacant lot across the street from Mrs. Rosenbaum’s folks, so they bought that lot and commissioned the prestigious Mr. Wright to build their dream house. The house took two years from paper design to finished dwelling, from 1939 through 1940. The Rosenbaum House is a typical Wright “Usonian” home, which is a term he used to describe his vision for the landscape of the USA, including the planning of cities and architecture of buildings, as a New World character as distinct and free of previous architectural conventions. Wright’s designs were famous for their Earthy nature and their ability to blend right into the landscape, giving them the illusion of having been created naturally, rather than constructed by man. The Rosenbaum House was designed for a nuclear family, with a future addition designed in advance to be added if and when the family needed additional space.
Position: N 34° 47.166, W 87° 40.478
Distance traveled: 17.4 NM
Total distance traveled: 959.4 NM
Total marina nights: 46
Total nights at anchor: 11
Locks today: 2
Locks Total: 15