A Little Tennessee River Time

In September, we made a quick trip to Tennessee to meet up with Jack & Middy for 3 days on their boat which is docked in a marina on the Mississippi / Tennessee border.  For those of you that don't know, Jack is Geo's brother, and we love getting together with them!

~~~ THE OUTPOST ~~~

Before venturing out of the marina onto the river the first morning, we drove up the road for breakfast at a rustic and very cool place.  

The Outpost Pickwick Dam

John Wayne eyeing the buffet.

Can you hear him saying in John Wayne style,  

"Hey Pilgrim, I'm hungry!"

It looks like they have entertainment here.

Middy and I absorbing the 

sun on this slightly chilly morning.

Cute little outpost shops 

in the building next door.

It's off season now so the stores 

are only open on the weekends.

It was Thursday so we missed out.  

After breakfast, we wandered the grounds.

A cute water wheel next to a creek.

Can you see the crocodile that's been

carved out of this fallen tree limb?

There's a lovely little wedding 

venue on the grounds!

Middy and I peeked in the window.

It sure is cute!

The back of the wedding venue.

Bigfoot is hanging around here too!

~~~ THE BOAT ~~~

Geo engaged the drone off and on 

during the trip to nab some pics.

We cruised to Pickwick Dam the 1st day. 

The weather was perfect the entire

trip with cool nights and warm days.

On the 2nd day, we left out of the marina and took a peaceful, easy voyage down the Tennessee River to Florence Harbor Marina in Florence, Alabama.  We would spend the night on the boat at the marina.  

Middy and I are on the front.

Gentle whitecaps leaving 

a trail as we cruise along.

Brothers enjoying the laid-back ride!

I'm sure there's a nautical term 

for this side view of the boat.

I call it: 

"A side view of the boat."

We're having fun along the way too!

We're here! 

Florence Harbor Marina. 

And docked on the very end.

 

From this view, the marina is behind us.

McFarland Park is on the other side of the harbor.  

We took a nice walk over there one afternoon. 

The walk led us between 

these gorgeous, tall trees!

The marina has a courtesy car 

which we took advantage of one evening. 

We drove across this bridge 

which is next to the marina.

Our destination was 

The Old Railroad Bridge.  

It's a walking bridge these days.

It doesn't go all the way across the river 

but we meandered our way to the end of it.

 

On the way back, we caught a stunning

sunset behind the bridge next to the marina.

We also went into downtown Florence where residents were busy partaking in all that the quaint town has to offer on a Friday night. 

I forgot to grab some photos of it though! 

 

Geo captured some drone pics before we left the marina to head back. 

Waving bye!

Thank you Jack & Middy. 

It was good to see y'all, and 

as always, we had a great time!

Still Smilin', 

D~~~~

Much Progress = Gigantic Smiles

A lot has taken place on the house since I last blogged. In addition, we took a quick but lovely and peaceful trip to Tennessee to visit family but that's for another post.

When we left off last time our home 

build looked pretty much like the below pic.  

It went from that to this...

...and this.

Not the best photo but the best I could 

do with a bunch of workers out front.

From there we moved to protective plastic on the roof.

And onto the real excitement--a shingled roof!

Woo-hoo!

As soon as that was completed, the

plumbing was done and electricity too.

The dining room sliding glass door was in place as well!

This is where we took a trip to Tennessee.

After being gone for six days, we were beyond 

delighted at what we found when we returned. 

 For one, scaffolding had been erected on the 

front of the house which means they're preparing

 to start on the stucco and flagstone facade.  

Drywall was stacked in various rooms inside the house.

The master bedroom for one...

...And the living area below.

But look closer.

Behind the stack of drywall, the big 

sliding glass doors have been installed.

There's the sliding doors on the left, and the 

dining room sliders on the right.

 

The four glass panels in the living room door slide 

all the way into the wall so that the living area 

can be completely opened up to the outside patio. 

We are both very excited about those doors!

I'll close this post with a drone pic 

that Geo took of us standing in the garage.

On Tuesday, October 5th (4 days from now), we have an appointment with our Superintendent to do the pre-drywall walk through.  Once that's done, they'll insulate, then it'll be inspected by the Energy Efficiency officials.  I don't know who they are but they sound very important!  Once that's done, the drywall will go up.    

The outside stucco and flagstone can start at any time.  We hope it's tomorrow! 😁

Gigantic Smiles,

Donna

Correction~~Geo says it's stone, not flagstone on the outside of the house as I mentioned above.  That made me curious so I referred to our paperwork for the exact name:  It's a stone called White Austin Chalk.