I can't believe it has been four days since I last updated this blog.

The pictures are of Calypso (with the blue canvas), Pat and I in Cathedral Cavern, and the view from inside Guntersville Lock.

Today we are at Joe Wheeler State Park, where the America's Great Loop Cruiser's Association Redezvous will take place starting Monday. We arrived here yesterday at around 2pm.

Back tracking a bit, we had a great time at Goose Pond Marina. After visiting with our friends Carl and Sharlis, we also were able to spend an evening with Louis and Peggy Letson. Pat and I met Louis the first time we pulled our boat into a slip at Goose Pond 10 years ago, and have been friends ever since. On that day, he came out to help us get into the slip, and then offered me a cold beer. If you know me at all, that act is the seal of friendship. Louis is a retired surgeon, an experienced delivery captain (boats and babies too), and a former Navy doctor, Vietnam Veteran, with a very interesting history in that war. Louis took me to the hardware store and the grocery store, and then later he took us to his home where he and his wife Peggy treated us to the best salmon dinner I have ever had. They are great hosts and wonderful friends.

After we departed Goose Pond, we headed down river toward Lake Guntersville Lock and Dam. We had a very easy transit, with the lock door opened and the green light on when we arrived. It was a little windy so getting into the lock was a challenge, but we had no problems, meaning there are no new dings on the boat. The lockmaster gave us a slow, easy ride down, so the passage through the lock was uneventful. Guntersville is the last lock we will see until we depart Joe Wheeler.

After transiting the lock, we picked an anchorage on the Flint River to anchor in for the night. We arrived there around 2:30, set the hook, and got ready for a very relaxing evening on the hook. Then I heard a call on the VHF radio from a boat named Calypso, calling the Ditto Landing Marina. I recognized Calypso as the name of a boat belongng to some folks I had never met, but had communicated with several times over the internet. Rich Gano and his wife Mary own Calypso, and Rich had been very helpful to me several times when I had questions about some aspect of boating. Rich also sent me a set of CDs with some boating information that I needed, and he sent them at no cost to me. He even paid the shipping. I told him then that when we met I'd buy him dinner.

I called Calypso on the radio, and as soon as I identified myself as Irish Ayes, Rich knew who it was. Needless to say, Pat and I pulled up the anchor and made our way the five miles to Ditto Landing Marina. The dockmaster placed us on the same dock as Calypso, and we had a great evening with Rich and Mary. We called a cab and went to Ruby Tuesday for dinner, (yes, Pat and I bought dinner), and then we walked across the parking lot to WalMart for some shopping. The next morning Rich and Mary fixed waffles for breakfast, which turned out to be about the best waffles I've had in a couple of years. Since Rich and Mary were headed up River and us down river, was said farewell after breakfast. We will definitely see them again. Oh yes, since I raved so much about Rich's waffles, and since they had two waffle irons aboard Calypso, Rich and Mary presented us with a gift of a waffle iron before they departed. Boaters are pretty special people who will share everything they have. Even a spare waffle iron.

After we departed ditto Landing, the only event worth talking about is the train. Considering all of the possible obstacles I thought would, or could delay us on the river, I never thought we would be stopped cold by a train. But, there we were, coming down the river, passing under the I-65 bridge in Decatur, AL, when about 1/2 mile ahead I saw a very low bridge over the water, about 5 feet off the water. As we approached, darned if a train didn't come across the tracks, and got about half way across the bridge and stopped. He backed up off the bridge, and then pulled forward over the water again, and did that several times. I'm thinking this could last all day. Another boat that was behind us called th bridge tender on channel 16, but no answer. After about 15 minutes of turning in slow circles, the bridge tender called us on the radio and asked me to call him on channl 13 (the book we have says that he monitors both 13 and 16 - WRONG). So, I called him on channel 13, and he responded that he would move the train off the brige, raise the span, and allow us to pass, which he did. I think one must have great power to move a freight train just by telling them to move !! Anyway, after that event, we moved on down the river a total of 60 miles to Joe Wheeler State Park, and here we are. More later.