November 15 - In the morning I replaced the pressure regulator on our water hose and put a new end on another hose. Around noon I headed up to the Pickwick Dam. It's in Tennessee, about 20 miles from where I am parked. Previously I had not stopped at Pickwick Landing State Park, on the south side of the river. I took these photos from there.
If you strain your eyes you might be able to make out the highway above the dam.
There is a lock at the dam. That might be why the roadway was elevated.
Then it was on to the Outpost for lunch. It was busy when I arrived at 1 PM.
Do I look hungry?
My prime rib sandwich. It was good, but not great. I got wild and crazy and let them put their horseradish sauce on it, a mistake.
After leaving the Outpost I rode through TVA Pickwick Dam Campground. There were only a few people fishing along the bank of the river, nothing like the last time I was here. For some reason the RV campground area was closed.
Sunday, November 16 - As we wandered around the area during previous stops here we noticed a little church about 1.5 miles from us, on the other side of the Northrop Grumman plant. I attended church there this morning. Folks were friendly and the Pastor had a good message. The songs we sang were good old gospel, including I'll Fly Away. What was interesting is that they had no musicians. The Pastor led the singing. He started the first song by playing several bars on his phone and the rest was acapella. He had taped music for the remaining songs.
There was a beautiful mural behind the baptismal. I inquired about it. A church member, one who I assumed had passed on to the new life, had painted it many, many years ago. As an aside, the facility was kind of a plain old country church. It was in IMMACULATE condition.
There were maybe 20 people in attendance. One young lady who is a college student, 2 or 3 people in the 30-45 range and the rest old farts like me. At least 10 people made sure to tell me that today was there early Thanksgiving dinner and they wanted me to stay. Meat was a huge turkey and a huge ham. Lots of sides and deserts. Everything looked homemade. I sampled a lot and everything was good. I doubt that half the food was consumed.
My motorcycle was quite a conversation starter. Lots of inquiries about it.
Several people at the church mentioned that I should check out Eastport. Eastport was an important town during the mid 1800's and an important port during the Civil War, until the railroad when through Iuka instead of Eastport in 1857. The town dwindled and then, in the 1930's, when the Pickwick Dam was built on the Tennessee River the old town was submerged. It still exists as a small community with a marina. According to Google Maps its only 10 miles from where I am staying. I GOT LOST! Google Maps seemed to go nuts. I found my way to Iuka, which was not on the planned route, without to much difficulty, and without the "help" of Google Maps. Tomorrow I may give it another shot. I did get to see some wonderful scenery. Leaves are changing and there was some nice color.
A rabbit trail. It was my understanding that there was a nuclear plant very near here. I had driven around some during previous trips, trying to get a glimpse of it. The road that goes by the Northrop Grumman plant has a big gate across it, a short distance past the church.
From Wikipedia: The Yellow Creek Nuclear Plant is a canceled nuclear power plant project near Iuka, Mississippi. It was originally planned to have two 1,350-MW (output) reactors operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The steam turbine-generator sets were provided by General Electric.
The reactors were System 80 pressurized water reactors built by Combustion Engineering. Three similar reactors were installed at Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station near Tonopah, Arizona.
The site, as of 8 November 2010
Construction on the reactors began in 1978 but stopped in 1982 before the TVA officially canceled in the project in August 1984 due to dramatically rising construction costs and lower electricity demand.
Following TVA's cancellation, the partially completed site with infrastructure already in place underwent reconstruction as a site for NASA to build solid rocket motors. Construction was about 80% complete when Congress pulled funding on the site in 1993. The cancellation of this project led to a poor economy and high unemployment in the area.
Today, some buildings remain on the site including what was to be a reactor, the accompanying turbine building, and a circular base for the plant's cooling tower. The site is close to the tripoint of Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee, on a peninsula surrounded by Pickwick Lake. The site's namesake creek, whose original outlet comprised the western arm of the lake, was almost completely captured by the lake or channelized into the uppermost reach of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway by the time plant construction ceased.
Parts of the site have been leased for several years by Flibe Energy to investigate pursuing their molten salt reactor designs.
God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.
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