A 3 hour tour on the Tenessee River

On Friday My Mom, Dad, Jackson, Lincoln and I took a little ride on the Pickwick Belle River Boat. I had scheduled us to go on a "lock and cruise." Jackson had his picture made with the Captains and was quick to tell them his daddy was in Afghanistan and he was also a Captain.




PawPaw and Jackson loved looking off into the river. They looked for fish jumping and Dad got to answer all Jackson's questions as we entered the lock and began our decent.




Lincoln really just loves being outside. He is spending more time awake and has finally began to smile at us! He is taking well to his feeding schedule and is practicing falling asleep on his own most days. He's also flexible when we need to adjust him for our busy lifestyle. How I wish his daddy could see him now!






Jackson and I have discussed many times what the lock is at the local Dam. I told him that the lock is the boat "elevator" that lifts it from the low side to the high side. I have referenced the Dam before being our local hydro power source. This particular one is Pickwick Dam located in south western TN. We actually drove through 3 states during our trip. We hit the Mississippi side on the way home. You can see here where we enter the lock and then the doors close and the water is let up or down for us to get through the lock. The drop on this lock is about 45 feet. You can see the chamber that we drive into and tie the boat off to get back up.




We had a fun little trip on the Pickwick Belle. We were accompanied by about 50 senior citizens that thought the boys were just the cutest things! They were very patriotic on the boat and in the spirit of the deep south, also very religious. We prayed for the troops, including Jason, before we left the dock!

On a side note, I had wanted to title this blog, "only in Alabama" because I don't know of many places that you can actually get on a old fashioned paddle boat. I didn't because we were actually in Tennessee but then I found a new reason to talk about living in Alabama. On a walk to a wedding in a small downtown area I passed the towns local library. There in the window was a flyer for storytime next Friday. It read: "Mobile Dairy" Learn to Milk a Cow! Hands on experience! Sheffield Public Library Friday July 17th. Now that you can do...ONLY in Alabama!