Three more dams - Nicka Jack, Guntersville, Wheeler Rob & Chris learn to water ski

  The second day we ran 96 miles. Six miles below the marina we locked through Nickajack dam, a 39 feet drop, and another eight miles downstream we crossed from Tennessee into Alabama.

  In another 16 miles we passed by the Bellefonte nuclear power plant.  Construction started in 1974 but was never finished. This is TVA country (Tennessee Valley Authority), similar to Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) in the northwest. And TVA is in trouble also, some of it caused by a failed nuclear power program similar to BPA.

  We had to be aware of where marinas were in which we could gas up. Even with the prop on our boat, our mileage was never better than five miles to the gallon. On runs of over 50 miles, we had to either fill up our spare cans or stop on the way for refueling. The marinas charged a premium for gas, the highest was $1.69 per gallon, but being able to run up to the dock and refuel right there was worth the extra as compared to carrying cans of gas. An excellent guide book by Fred Meyers, Florence, Alabama, helped us greatly in locating marinas.

  The next dam was Guntersville, a 39 feet drop. By now we are familiar with the procedure and have no problems. Our stop for the night, and the next night, was Ditto Landing Marina at Huntsville, Alabama. We took a day off from the river to visit the U. S. Army's Redstone Arsenal and Marshall Space Flight Center, and the Space and Rocket Center. It's the world's largest space museum and has the largest and finest collection of NASA rockets and army missiles.  This is where the army brought the German rocket scientists we captured in Germany in World War II. The team, headed by Dr. Wernher Von Braun, sent up the United State's first satellite. In the political infighting, Huntsville lost out to Houston, but some space work is still being done there such as Boeing is building modules for the space station to be put up in combination with the Russians in the next few years. The center has a Space Camp program for youngsters and some from Gold Beach have participated in the program.

  I had wanted to rent a car, but everything was booked up. Huntsville, however, was large enough to have taxis, so we had no trouble getting around.

  Wednesday, June 26, we were on the river again for a 50 mile run to Joe Wheeler Lake Marina, just above Joe Wheeler Dam. This is where Sam and Betty kept two boats, a houseboat and a speedboat. Sam used the speedboat to give Rob and Chris their first lesson in water skiing. In the evening, Sam and Betty took us out to an excellent dinner of baked catfish.

  Joe Wheeler State Park Marina is a concept we don't have in the west.  I've noticed this arrangement in several southern states. There is a complex of marina, lodge, restaurant and camping, all owned and operated by the state of Alabama.

  Just below the marina is Gen. Joe Wheeler Dam. At only 72 feet high, it is the lowest of all the dams on the Tennessee. Construction began in 1933 and was completed in 1936.

  Just 15 miles downstream from Wheeler Dam is Wilson Dam, the oldest on  the river. Construction began in 1918. The main lock, built in the 1950s, was shut down for three weeks for repairs and all traffic was being routed through the old original lock. The old lock is 60 feet wide and 300 feet long and modern tows of barges and tugs had to be broken up to go through and reassembled on the otherside, a slow, expensive procedure. This probably accounted for the limited amount of barge traffic we saw on the upper river.

  Pleasure boats have the lowest priority in routing through locks, and it took us three hours to pass through Wilson dam. The old lock has two chambers with a combined drop of 98 feet, the most of any dam we went through.