Decatur

Guntersville Lock?

Halloween decoration?

As usual, when we plan for early departure it is foggy.  Our seven a.m. intention turned into 8:20 in reality.  Even that was too early in someone's opinion, but we found Guntersville Lock through the drifting fog at a slow speed 15 minutes later.  The lock master informed us it would be 20 minutes for him to get it ready but it was barely over 10 minutes.  Thankfully in that time the fog pretty much lifted.  At first we thought there was a Halloween decoration hanging from a light pole at the lock, but come to find out it was a dead bird hanging there.  It looked like it must have gotten tangled in fishing line and met its fate.  That was just the beginning of the bird watching for the day.  We spotted a pair of bald eagles in a tree and two large flocks of white pelicans circling and flying very high.  There was no wagon train to be found this year like there was last year on the way down, but there were campers and rowers near Huntsville in this chilly weather. 


Painted Rock seemed extra spectacular with the morning sun shining against it

Pair of bald eagles

We had to wait at the Decatur railroad bridge for just a short time while a train went by, but by 3:00 p.m. we were pulling into Ingalls Harbor where we were not sure if we could stay or not.  The mate, Jeremy, on the Pickwick Belle paddle wheel tour boat here immediately came out, invited us to pull in, and helped us tie up to the dock.  He and Captain Mike told us it would not be a problem to stay, that it was very secure here, how to get to town, and offered their vehicle.  The restrooms were nice and extremely warm which would have been even better if there were showers in there.  There is a twice the ice machine here too so we filled up the cooler before heading off to find Mellow Mushroom on our bicycles.  We went over the railroad tracks on a cool pedestrian bridge and through some great neighborhoods with old beautifully restored homes.  Next time we should take the time to do a historical home tour as there were many signs in front of them.

Flocks of white pelicans

We still get confused with this Central Time Zone thing and were surprised when it was already half time for the Tennessee/Alabama game when we arrived at Mellow Mushroom.  It seems we can make friends anywhere so got to talking to John next to us at the bar all night.  He was a Tennessee alumni and there was another table of Tennessee fans so there was a little bit of cheering when Tennessee scored some points in the second half.  John offered to give us a ride back to the boat, but we had fun finding our way back on our bicycles.  We took a little shorter route getting back than we did getting there with different old homes and church buildings to fascinate us.  The trains must be almost constant around here as there was another train below us when we crossed the railroad bridge again.


Decatur railroad bridge