Friday - I went to McDonalds for breakfast and spent an hour on their WiFi. The Iuka McDonalds is 11 miles south of where I am parked. I downloaded some a couple of episodes of a TV series and a movie. The J. P. Coleman State Park is only a little over a mile from where I am parked. Kathy and I have driven through it previously. It is a nice park. It is right on the Tennessee River. I drove down to it to see if it might be worth getting my bike out and doing some riding. No way! It seemed like it was all downhill getting to the park and there was no way I would be able to ride back up the hill. When I got to the park the roads were more hilly than I remembered. It was a nice day for a short drive around the park. On the way in and out I noticed the trunk of this tree that had fallen over. If the people in the mobile home were home when it happened I bet it was quite exciting.
I didn't do much the remainder of the beautiful day.
Saturday - I went back to McDonalds for breakfast and WiFi access. Again I was there at least an hour. When I parked I noticed a guy in a car parked diagonally over from me. He was working on some type of handheld device. When I left he was still working on it, probably he was also taking advantage of the WiFi access.
After breakfast I drove up to Pickwick Dam in Tennessee, It's 21 miles from McDonalds and 17 miles from where I am parked. It was an absolutely gorgeous day.
The first several photos show the upstream side of the dam. The dam is 7,715' long and 113' high. The water behind the dam is about 85' deep. It was built by the TVA in 1935-38. The hydroelectric plant started commercial generation of power in 1942. There are 6 generating units that produce 247 megawatts. On the far side are two locks; one 110'x600' and the other 110'x1,000'.
This is one of the original carbon steel turbines. They were replaced during a 1982 upgrade. The blades are 24' in diameter and it is 13' tall. It weighs 125 tons.
I drove around to the downstream side and was amazed at all the people fishing. Standing where I was I counted over 70 people fishing from the bank and 13 boats. Before I walked away 6 more people were walking down to fish.
They were pulling fish in regularly. The guy in photo below had two hooks on his line and I saw him pull in two fish several times.
This guy also was fishing with two hooks. I was told they were catching "shipjacks".
There were more people along the shore well down past the bend in the river.
I walked down the upper area of the riverbank until I saw a "path" leading down to the water.
Looking back up.
I'm not sure why someone cut up these fish but they took a filet off the side of one of them. There were people with grills set up. Maybe they cleaned the fish down at the water and took them up to cook for lunch.
More people fishing along the bank.
Once I was back up top I continued walking towards the campground. What a nice place.
This unit was parked in a handicapped slot. It was on a concrete pad and there was a sidewalk to the nearby restroom and shower facility.
I was surprised that there were vacant sites. The rock/gravel sites were 70' deep with lots of space between them. The sites had water and electricity but no sewer. At the entry to the campground there was a dump station. The two lanes were set up so that you could dump your tanks on the way in and then on the way out.
I was over a mile from the car at this point and did not walk down to look at more of the campsites.
Driving back home I saw a sign for a marina and drove down to take a look. This is one of dozens of marinas in the area.
There must be thousands of boats with 15 miles of where I am parked. I also bet that more of them cost over $100,000 than cost less than $10,000.
After I left the marina I drove by a boat storage place. It had a rack storage building, open on one side, that had boats stacked 5 high. I was driving and the road was winding. I didn't go back to look to get an idea of the length of the building. Where do people get the money for them? This place is over 2 hours and 125 miles from Memphis, 2.5 hours and 150 miles from Birmingham, AL. almost 3 hours and 160 miles from Nashville & 3.5 hours and 210 miles from Chattanooga.
Back home I fixed myself a nice salad for lunch. I sat outside some while I did a couple of loads of laundry.
God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.
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