MAKING OUR WAY UP THE TENNESSEE RIVER TO CHATTANOOGA

After leaving Florence, we took advantage of some reasonable weather to anchor out for a couple of nights.  There was rain in the forecast, but it was not expected to get that cold. 

It usually works as follows:  the weather will be prevailing from the south.  With the southerly flow comes warm, moist air.  Temperatures even in the winter will reside between the mid 60's and the mid 70's.  However, the jet stream comes to play every few days and screws it all up. 

The jet stream is like a massive sine wave that moves around the earth in the mid to upper latitudes, from west to east.  Depending on the position of the North Pacific High (a massive high pressure system that moves north and south, back and forth, with the seasons - north in the summer, south in the winter) the sine wave may be north or it may be south.  When it is north, the California coast has beautiful weather.  Actually, the weather is good all the way up to Washington and Oregon.  The same generally goes for the mid west and the plains.  When it is south, it tends to drag weather from the Gulf of Alaska right into northern California, Washington and Oregon, and occasionally Southern California as well.  These same low pressure systems also catch polar air and drop it into the lower eastern part of the US.

You might imagine that the bottom of the sine wave stretches and compresses depending on the size of the polar air mass that falls into this trough.  The bigger it is, the further south the trough of the sine wave will dip.  This is also a function of it being cold and heavy air - high pressure air, if you will.  So, for instance, if you have a large mass of polar air corresponding with a trough in the sine wave, then that trough may dip as far south as the Gulf of Mexico.  You may recall we had ridiculous weather last winter on the Gulf Coast.  That was because large polar air masses kept pushing the trough in the sine wave way down. 

You can see the frozen mist hanging just over the surface of the water.  That's snow on the windshield.  It didn't last long and barely stuck, but it was interesting none the less.

So, the sine wave moves from west to east.  Highs and lows.  One after another. We can fairly well predict the weather here in the central plains region based on what happens a few days earlier in Washington, Oregon and California.  The Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada play a role, for sure.  Cold air that makes it over the top accelerates down onto the plains.  This helps the trough of the southbound sine wave move along and when you have this combination of cold, fast moving air come into contact with the warmer air that was coming up from the south, you get a rather nasty frontal system bringing with it rain and even snow for a couple days.  Then, as you might well expect, the sine wave continues on its merry way to invade points further east, and the now inverted trough allows the warmer southerly air to fill in.  This seems to happen every few days.  So, three of good and three of nasty, three of good and three of nasty and so on and so forth.  It's a little more complicated than I have described here, but not that much.

Anyways, we anchored out for two nights in this really pretty place out in the middle of nowhere called Goldfield's Bend.  We hung out, listened to the radio, watched movies, did a few boat chores, and basically took it easy.  We did drop the dinghy in the water and went for a short cruise and then a hike on shore. 

On shore, there was not much of anything.  We found a launch ramp to exit from and then walked on a lonely country road for a mile in each direction.  The Droid showed that there was nothing around, but it was nice to walk in any event.  What was so wonderful was how quiet it was at night and even during the day.  There was simply nobody around.  Granted, we anchored out on Monday and Tuesday nights, and we did not expect to see other boats out.  Also, it is winter and there are not that many brave souls out there using their boats at this time of year.  Finally, there was a weather frontal system approaching.  We were in a good spot for its arrival.  So, the wind comes from the south and it is warm and rainy. Then, the wind shifts to the north and it becomes cold and rainy.  We even got some snow.  However, our anchorage was perfect for both northerly and southerly conditions.  We had plenty of chain out and slept very well at night.

That's us anchored way back in Goldfield Bend.

Our next stop is Huntsville, Alabama.  There is a rocket and missile museum here.  Apparently folks in Huntsville had a lot to do with the development of rockets and whatnot.  We still have all of that to learn about so I will write more about that later. 

Yes, those are bullet holes in the boating safety sign. 

You might be wondering why I publish what some might consider really poor photographs out the windows of the boat.  I do that so you can see what we see.  Also, sometimes, it's just too cold to open the window and take that shot......from the port side.

More later.....


HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA

I must say that I bristle at the idea of how life would be different if Jim Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13 had uttered the words, "Huntsville, we have a problem", instead of "Houston, we have a problem."  Well, it actually could have been. 

We have visited Kennedy Space Center, where rockets are launched.  We have visited Houston Space Center, where they are controlled after launch.  Finally, to complete the trifecta, we have visited the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama where they design and build rockets.  Actually, we visited the museum and space camp portion of the establishment.  Either way, it was very interesting to see the variety of rockets, missiles, and other flying things. 

They have a Saturn V rocket exhibit that is, hands down, the best we have seen.  There was more in the way of interactive exhibits and actual artifacts than at Kennedy and at Houston combined.  Plus, they had a Saturn V actually "all up".  It is so big, you simply cannot believe.  However, you can see it from miles away.  Even having seen this magnificent machine twice now in different locations, it is still overwhelmingly impressive.

They had a very interesting exhibit there covering the life and work of Wernher Von Braun.  Von Braun is probably the greatest rocket scientist of all time and is directly responsible for the success of American rocket science and the technology that ultimately put Americans on the moon.  Before this, however, Von Braun worked for the Nazis.  Whether consensual or not, Von Braun's science is directly responsible for the V2 rocket which was used by Germany to terrorize its enemies during WWII.  For me, the most important part of the exhibit focused on the moral decision he made at the war's end.

Von Braun was a very intelligent man and was very good at a lot of things in addition to building rockets.  He was very well read, and was very astute at comprehending the world around him.  So, when the Nazi stronghold on Germany was coming to an end and the Americans were at one gate, and the Russians were at the other, he and his team of scientists had to decide which gate to go through.  Von Braun chose to surrender to the Americans.  We learned that he believed it was a moral obligation to ensure that his science and his work would go to the side that had in place the best system of checks and balances to make sure that his work would never again be put to use for evil purposes.  This noble gesture notwithstanding, he also wanted to come to America. 

So, with the help of an army general, Von Braun and 118 of his co-workers were taken out of Germany, not as POW's, but rather as POP's (prisoners of peace) and taken to a military installation in Texas where they lived essentially hidden until WWII was over.  Then, they started building and testing rockets in Texas and in New Mexico before finally being moved to a facility in Huntsville.  Then, Von Braun was given the keys and allowed to run the whole program.  At first, his group worked on an intermediate range ballistic missile for the army, but then, when his program was assimilated by NASA, his group worked on the super booster known as the Saturn V which is the rocket that ultimately took Apollo astronauts to the moon.

That's one small step for man.......one giant leap for Bucket.

Von Braun became the Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center located here in Huntsville.  He marshaled (pardon the pun) some pretty extensive resources to help this country develop its rocket and missile program.  So not only was he the chief architect of the Saturn V program, but his work lead to the growth and development of just about every other aspect of missile technology we have today.

The first American in space.  This little dude was only 11 oz and fit into this canister for the trip to space and back.

Here is where he is buried. 

Since we had the rental car for the day, we took the opportunity to do some sightseeing in downtown Huntsville.  It's a very nice smaller city that has absolutely everything you could possibly want.  The historic downtown area is very nice.  Lots of old brick buildings built in the late 1800's interspersed amongst newer buildings.  You can sense the effort on the part of the city's planners to retain the old school charm.  Whether it is a good thing or not, the downtown area is dominated by the big county courthouse.  As such, the streets below are lined with law offices.  However, what I have not seen before were the window dressings.  I have never seen law firms that actually organize a window display on the street level.  Mostly, they involved the placement of books and furnishings, as opposed to broken and bent cars or slippery floor tiles.  But, they looked pretty nice. 

We finished our day with the grocery shopping escapade at the nearby WalMart Supercenter.  That's always a treat.  You just never know what you are going to see.  Long hours travelling on the river seem to have inspired Brenda to take over as Ship's Quartermaster.  For one, she is cutting and organizing coupons.  Actually, if you know Brenda, then you know that what she is doing is searching for coupons online, printing them and then cutting them out.  She has established methods for finding manufacturer's coupons that work on top of the store coupons for additional savings.  Moreover, she has found Droid Apps that allow you to scan bar codes and she has started an inventory of items we keep in the pantry and in the fridge.  I'm proud of her for taking the interest, and I now sleep comfortably knowing that our chances of running out of sliced jalapeno peppers have just dropped from slim to none.  You go girl!

OK, that's quite enough for now.  We'll be heading further east today on our journey to Chattanooga.  We will be there in a few days.  I'm thinking of stalling our arrival until after the weekend.  We will stand a better chance of finding a space on the wall near the aquarium and will lessen the chance of getting stuck moored under the pedestrian bridge which, in any city, can spell bad news given the propensity of certain lower species of humankind to throw things off bridges at the boats below.  (We almost got nailed a couple times in Nashville and we weren't even directly under the bridge).  So, the weather is looking good - sunny but very cold - so .......

See ya later.