Traveling UP the Tennessee River.......

rlehardt
Oct 25, 2022
3 min read

We have had some very fun stops on our way up the Tennessee River to Chattanooga. The first non-anchor stop being Florence, AL……which is across the river from Muscle Shoals, known as the “Hit Recording Capital of the World”. We toured the original FAME Recording Studios (Rick Hall) and the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio where in 1969, four local musicians later known as the Swampers (mentioned in the Sweet Home Alabama song sung by Lynyrd Skynyrd), left FAME and created music recordings for artists such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Dylan, Bob Segar, the Rolling Stones and many others. FAME, where it all started, has done recordings for the Osmonds, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Alabama, The Gregg Allman Band, Steven Tyler, and many others. FAME continues to operate as a recording studio to this day. They were both very educational visits. The list of hit songs created in these two studios is just amazing! We were also able to meet David Hood – the only member of the Swampers still living. We also had a wonderful dinner at 360 Grille in Florence, a revolving restaurant up about 15 stories, and had beautiful views of the Tennessee River. We left Florence at 6:00 a.m. in the dark (per the lockmaster’s request) and entered the 100 foot (up/down) Wilson lock in the dark on a 31 degree morning with steam/fog rolling off the waters – quite an experience. Our next stop was Ditto Landing Marina in Huntsville, AL. There we toured the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, and especially liked the Saturn V building – which had the actual Apollo 16 command module that landed on the moon. On the Tennessee river we also passed a very large ship, almost cruise ship sized, that was named “Rocket Ship” on the way up the river. We learned that it is a one-of-a-kind ship (no other ship quite like it) that transports rockets from Decatur, AL to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The next night we stopped at Goose Pond Marina & Resort and were able to get caught up on our laundry (best laundry facilities on the trip so far). We have traveled an additional 250 miles on this side trip up to Chattanooga. The scenery has been absolutely beautiful……although the fall colors have been dull due to the dry weather. We arrived in Chattanooga on Monday 10/24 for four nights and look forward to checking out this area. Everyday is a new adventure……seeing new sights and meeting new people… and seeing parts of the country that we likely never would if traveling by road.