First, I'd like to say how much we enjoy and appreciate emails, comments and support from friends. So to all of you who have followed our successes and foibles, thank you. Staying connected means a lot to both of us.
Our friend Mike Maglione suggested we visit Florence, and we are glad that we did. With a population of 38,000 it seems like a big city after Hoppies, etc. We probably like it so much because we can stock up on things that we can find in Chicago, i.e., after a dry spell, Les was thrilled to find a store that sold Le Croix. (Les drinks 3 or 4 a day with lime.)
Florence is also along the beautiful Tennessee River, which is a pleasure to see every morning. There is a rythym to the day .. the fog hangs heavily over the river in the early morning, then burns off to sunny skies, and ends with gorgeous sunsets over the river.
Lisa C. suggested reading Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi as we cruise along, and it is indeed a wonderful companion to traveling the river systems. M. T. has actually helped me to think about "reading the water", navigating around shoals, etc. He found a romance in it that is rather contagious.
Both Saturday and Sunday the marina let us use the courtesy car. We went to Pope's Tavern which was once a real tavern, but later used as a field hospital during the Civil War. Florence has the distinction of having changed hands 40 times during the war. They had some neat stuff inside. Les loves all the Civil War history. One of our boat mechanics (we've had a few!) told us that you can still find mini balls in fields.
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Then we went to a Frank Lloyd Wright house that was commissioned in 1940, the Rosenbaum house. While we've seen many FLW homes over the years, this one was occupied by its' original owner until 10 years ago when the city purchased it. Therefore, it is mostly original. The woman who gave the tour knew Mrs. Rosenbaum, which made it more personal.
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Catfish seems to be the predominant item on most menus these days, but we were able to find a good Italian restaurant. We missed the UNA football game Sat. night at the stadium - OMG - it was 30 degrees!
We've noticed a few other local things, such as the number of pick up trucks. I hear they call them "Mississippi Cadillacs".
Having enjoyed our stay in Florence, Monday we headed back to Grand Harbor to start our trip down the Tennessee Tenn-Tom Bigbee on Tuesday. I'm crossing my fingers that we won't have to anchor out more than once. We'll keep you posted.
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P.S. After all these years, I am finally able to remember how many s's and p's are in Mississippi and the same for all the e's and n's and s's in Tennessee. (I wonder if they have trouble spelling Illinois!)
Written by Diana
Isn't MT the best? I felt the same thing about his descriptions of "reading the water"--anyone who travels the rivers learns it in spite of himself. (I use the masculine form in a generic way!) Of course, we do have the benefit of modern charting, and those wingdams and weirdams did eliminate a lot of the changing that old MT had to deal with.
ReplyDeleteAs always, your posts are making me wish we were making the trip. There is a rhythym to life and traveling on the rivers that just does not exist any other place. Keep on blogging!