Happy Ducks!

We're hunkered in at Goose Pond Marina near Scottsboro, AL.  It's 42 degrees, cloudy, gray, and dripping with rain.  The weather report indicates this is the way it's going to be for the next couple of days.  The many ducks around here are having a holiday!

Velsignet cruised 47 miles yesterday down the Tennessee River from Shellmound Recreation Area's dock (right next to the Nickajack Lock and Dam) to Goose Pond Marina.   Our desired 9 am departure from Shellmound Recreation Area was postponed by 2.5 hours due to a large tug pushing 2 football field-lengths of barges traveling upstream through the Nickajack Lock.  With this substantial delay, we SHOULD have changed our float plans for docking or anchoring for the evening.  Instead, we kept on cruising and docked at 5 pm....in the dark. Mike had a high-powered spot light (which we promptly purchased after the last time we found ourselves cruising in darkness) to help identify the buoys which kept the boat in adequate water depth into the harbor.  The spotlight also allowed us to safely dock the boat without incident.  Whew!

So what to do on this rainy, dreary day?  We started the day with coffee and homemade fresh bread (Brenda makes our daughter Allison's recipe for crusty bread) with homemade raspberry jam while starting a "The Great Courses" video class on "Learning French."  We will use the marina's courtesy car to go into Scottsboro and tour the area and complete errands.  We'll report to you what we discover!

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There was no one on duty last night when we arrived at the marina.  No problem.  We'd been here before, knew where the power hookups were and would check in the morning.


Unclaimed Baggage Center
We visited Scottsboro before and visited the Unclaimed Baggage Store.
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You can see by this photo the surrounding water; it's a great recreational area for fisherman and boaters.  The city of Scottsboro has developed Goose Pond with a golf course, swimming pool, restaurant, camping areas and marina.

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