Saturday 10/7 Off the dock about 7:15 and 40 miles or so up the Tennessee to Florence.
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| Entrance to Florence Marina |
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| Florence Marina |
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| Night time view |
We've rented a car with the crew of Hour Plan for a week and had just enough time to pick it up today. We borrowed the marina courtesy car to get over to Enterprise. Our next task was provisioning at Publix. We also used the car to go to Odettes Restaurant for dinner (rated #1 out of 184 on Trip Advisior) and it was great. . .we might have to return before we leave.
Sunday 10-08. It rained like hell today. Observer is in a covered slip so we were able to give her a spit and shine. AC declared, and along with Jim, hosted 'Champagne Sunday' at 3 on Hour Plan. Also in attendance were the crews of Golden, Overtime and Dash Away - we had a little Prosecco, some great food and a lot of fun.
Monday 10-09 Today's filed trip led us to Muscle Shoals Sounds Studios (established 1969). It is a 'hole in the wall" where some of the great musical acts of the 70s where produced. It was started by four "session musicians" who left the FAME recording studio to start their venue and quickly made a name for themselves. Such artists as Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Cher, Bono, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Seger and others all recorded here. There was a documentary made about its history and impact on music. The story goes that the person who did the documentary was driving through town when his car broke down and spending a couple days here, he picked up on the importance of its story. Beats (the headphone co.) gave a grant to help fund the restoration of the property. While on tour, we spoke with a woman on the tour with us who had grown up in the town. At the time no one local knew off its importance. The owners kept everything low key to keep fans away.
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| Unassuming building on the side of a highway |
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| Main recording studio |
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| Percussion Booth |
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| The bathroom off the studio where Keith Richards allegedly wrote Wild Horses |
Tuesday 10-10 This is field trip week and today we headed 70 miles East to Huntsville - home of the U. S. Space and Rocket Center. It's recognized as one of the most comprehensive U. S. manned space flight hardware museums in the world. It was a great way to spend a day catching up on the history and future plans for space flight.
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| Our first glimpse of the museum from the highway |
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| Jim, Alice and Tim |
We decided to have a light meal at the bar of the marina restaurant 'River Bottom Grill'. As suspected everyone at the bar were Loopers - some we had not seen in a while. Fun night!
Wednesday 10/11 Jim and Tim threw the bikes in the car and headed over to the TVA trail system across the river. They got to see some new scenery and get in a little exercise. Alice joined Hour Plan for some more sightseeing while Tim stayed behind to get some work done and catch up on the never ending boat chores.
Jim, Ac and Alice's first stop was the Rosenbaum House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for newlyweds Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum. The house was completed in 1940 in the Usonian style meant for primarily middle class Americans to live a simplistic life allowing nature to flow freely from the outside in. These homes were of a single story, made from natural materials, usually l-shaped design with a focal point on a courtyard. The Rosenbaum house is the longest single family owned house of the Usonian design, staying in the Rosenbaum family for 69 years when Mildred Rosenbaum moved to a nursing home. At that time, it was given to the city of Florence who also purchased the entire contents of the house. What we toured was authentic to how the Rosenbaum family lived. We were not permitted to take photos inside the house, but it was very simplistic, with narrow halls, limited storage, lots of natural light and what would have been considered quite modern furnishings for that era.
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| A view of the house from the inside the courtyard |
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| A view from the outside of the courtyard |
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| The back of the house (which was actually considered the front of the house as it faced away from the street and towards a much more natural landscape). At one time, the view led all the way to the banks of the Tennessee River. |
Our next stop was the George Coulter House which we could only view from the street as it is a private home. It is historically significant as it was built in 1827 by George Coulter for his residence. During the Civil War, it was used as a command post for the Union Army. It is on the National Registry of Historic places and even though we only did a drive by, it was quite impressive to see.
Then we were off to W.C. Handy Birthplace, Museum and Library. He was born in 1873 in a simple two room cabin were his grandparents, parents and eventually a younger brother all lived. From a very early age, he showed a natural aptitude for music. Both his father and grandfather were Baptist ministers and strongly discouraged this interest. Fortunately, he persevered and made quite a name for himself as the Father of the Blues. We were able to tour his home, adjacent museum which housed many of his personal artifacts and his library.
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| The two room cabin that W.C. Handy grew up in. |
Our final stop of the day was Pope's Tavern Museum. Originally a stage coach stop, it housed a tavern and an inn at the junction of roads leading to both Nashville and New Orleans, it also served as a hospital during the Civil War. It is purported that Andrew Jackson even made a stop here. Today, it is a museum full of artifacts from the Civil War along with historical artifacts from the surrounding area, it was a very interesting little museum.
After a full day getting steeped in history and culture, we returned to the marina and Tim and I grilled up dinner on the boat.
Thursday 10/12 Today, we headed north 70 miles by car to Shilo National Park. It's the sight of one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war and ultimately a win for the Union. While it lasted only two days, over 13,000 of the 65,000 union soldiers were killed and 10,000 if the approximate 45,000 Confederate soldiers died. We viewed an orientation film at the National Park Information Center; it is really well done. Then we had hired Larry DeBerry, a Shilo Historian who took us around the battlefield in our car for the next three hours and related details about the battle. His family has been at Shilo for 180 years and he is related to four families that were there during the battle. 
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