August 31, 2012

This is a picture I got off a friends Face Book page.  This lightning strike is on the last ore dock in my home town, Ashland, WI, on Lake Superior.  This is the last of many ore docks that I knew growing up.  Sadly, this one is also being torn down.

August 24 through 28, 2012; back on the river

August 27 and 28, 2012; Monday, Grand Harbor Marina to Bay Hill Marina, Athens, AL:

Got going about 07:00 again this morning. We had 2 Locks today; Wilson Lock with a 93' lift and Joe Wheeler Lock with a 48' lift. We got to Bay Hill Marina and gassed up and into our slip by 17:30. A long, hot day. It was good to get here and visit with our friends Roy and Elvie. Elvie cooked and we had a nice evening.  Stayed for a 2nd day.  We got together with the other boats to plan our trip down the Tenn-Tom in October.


August 25 and 26, 2012; Saturday and Sunday, Grand Harbor Marina, Iuka, MS:

We got going about 07:00 as we had 63 miles to get to our marina. It was another hot and muggy day and again the breeze saved us. We had our first Lock this afternoon. The Pickwick Lock and Dam with a 55' lift.   We waited 40 minutes for a tow and barge to complete the lock and then went through with out a problem. By the time we got gas and into our slip it started to rain. Their transient slips are right next to the channel with "No Wake" signs all over but no one obeys them. We had a rocky night.  We stayed a second day and looked at boats.

N34 59.547
W88 12.932


August 24, 2012: Friday, Pebble Isle to Beech Creek anchorage, Mile 153.5, Tennessee River:

We said our Good-byes and left Pebble Isle this morning about 09:30. We are about 6 weeks behind schedule because of the fire. It was sad to leave but we are excited about finally finishing our Tennessee River cruise as far as Chattanooga. It was especially hard to say good-bye to River, as he has become a very special dog to me.

It was a really hot day getting as high as 100 degrees on the bridge. We did have a nice breeze, so that helped. We tried anchoring at Jeter Towhead at Mile 153.0 (just before Clifton, TN) but after 30 minutes of trying we gave up and went to Beech Creek Island anchorage about ½ mile up river. It also took a while here to get a good hold but after 20 minutes we had success. The river bottom must be very hard as we could feel the anchor dragging across the bottom. Wow, that was the hardest part of the day. We went 59 miles today.

N35 25.331
W88 00.151

Sun rise 8-25-2012, leaving our anchorage at Beech Creek Island

Grand Harbor Marina

Leaving Grand Harbor

Entering Wilson Lock, 93' lift

Locking up in the Wilson Lock

August 10, 2012; Friday, Pebble Isle Marina, TN

After about 3 ½ weeks in Montana, we finally left on July 23^rd and got to Don’s house on the 24^th.  As much as we love Montana, it was good to get to Wisconsin.  We had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends and we both feel we are on our way to recovery.

We left Wisconsin on August 4^th and got to the boat on Sunday the 5^th.   We decided we will continue our plans to explore the Tennessee River as far as Chattanooga and then head south down the Tenn-Tombigbee Waterway to Mobile Bay.   From there we plan on going west as far as New Orleans for a while and eventually head back east and end up in the Fort Myers area for the rest of the winter.

Next spring we will head back to Montana and by then our electric and our well will be in working order and we will take it from there.  We are hoping some green grass will have grown by then and it should look better than that ugly, scorched, land we left.   I guess time will tell.  In the mean time, Keith is looking at bigger boats!

Not much else to say other than thank you to all who sent their thoughts and prayers.   We appreciate you kindness.

CO's comments:  I hope to never have another June and July like this year again.  We saw some people that just completely lost it and were in terrible shape both mentally and physically because of the fire.  It was wonderful to have a strong XO like I did.  What doesn't kill us, will make us stronger.  Together we will make it. 

Humming bird in our daughter-in-laws garden

Grandpa Keith and Sara at the County Fair

Grandson (top-middle) and friends at his first job-Cub Scout Councilor at Camp Fort Rice

A tear full reunion with my siblings

All 5 siblings together-it was good to see everyone.

July 15, 2012, Roundup, MT

Well, where do I begin.  Our summer started out really good with a wonderful trip up and down the Cumberland River.  But, our wonderful summer ended on Tuesday, June 26, 2012. 

It started with a call from a friend in Roundup telling us there was a wild fire in the mountains by our place but she did not know just how bad it was.  We tried calling our neighbors but couldn't get through.  We left early on Wednesday, June 27th, and headed for Montana and about 10:00 we got a call from our neighbor telling us that the wild fire totally destroyed our place along with almost every other house on Buckskin and Short Cut roads.  Although we knew we lost everything, it did not really register until we were able to go up to our land on Saturday, June 30th.  There was nothing left but ashes and metal.  Keith's sister Karen drove over with her truck and the 3 of us sifted through the ashes for 2 days looking for something we could salvage but did not have much luck.  On the 3rd day it took the locksmith all day long to open our 2 safes (supposedly fire proof) only to find more ashes and metal.  That did it, we gave up looking and called a salvage company to come in and clean up the mess.  Now we are hassling with our insurance company.  After almost 3 weeks, we are still itemizing everything we owned.  It is a very  hard and frustrating thing to do and we both just want to settle with insurance and put this behind us.  The fire burned so hard it just scorched the land and all the trees are charcoal.  It is very hard to look at.  We lost our home, our cabin and out buildings, 3 vehicles, a dune buggy, and 2 hunting trailers, as well as all our personal belongings.  We don't know what we are going to do next other than go the our son's house in Wisconsin and we will regroup there.  We are doing our best to look to the future; some days are better than others. 

CO's comments:  Who would have ever thought that any thing like this would happen to them at this stage of their lives.  I guess the old saying "Shit Happens" is true.  Bobbie and I will grab our boot straps and start a new adventure.  We will go see our grand children and then head for the boat after our visit and put this all behind us.

Where our home was.

Where our cabin and trophy room used to be.

Hunting Trailer was here.

What is left of one of our out building.

Generator out building was here.

This is where our hot tub and well used to be.

Keith's Yukon

Bobbie's Geo Tracker

Keith's truck with tempered glass windshield melted over steering wheel

Tractor, fire so hot it deformed the rims

Dune Buggy and Cargo trailer, so hot it bent the steel frane on cargo trailer

Our freezer was half full of elk

Keith by safes

Fire Storm Freeze; force of fire and wind
(wind that day were sustained winds of 60 mph and  gusts to 80 mph)

Only green tree left on our land

Last load of salvage

We lost all our 4 wheel drive vehicles so Woody, our friend and Sheriff, took us out to our land to see the clean up.