Wheeler Lake and Decatur Alabama

Absolutely a great day today. I spent last nnight at the Riverwalk(?) Marina across the river from Decatur Alabama. A couple mile upstream for Decatur, a jetski passed by and circled back to talk to me. Kevin, the owner of the jetski was out cruising around and was curious about me sohe stopped. We floated along and taLked for awhile enjoying the slow current and late afternoon sun. At least he was enjoying it. I was ready to be done. Another very hot and humid day with about 26 miles behind me. I was grateful for the rest, but wanted to be done. Anyway, Kevin and I were talking for about 5 minutes when he offered to buy me something cold to drink. Of course I said sure. I still had a couple miles to go so he offered a tow. Of course I said yes. It was funny,he asked me if it would be breaking any rules or something. No way came out of my mouth before I could stop it. No records trying to be made here and I'm not the first one to do this so off we went with me in tow. At 5 mph,it wasn't much faster than what I was paddling.
Kevin,it turns out, is in the steel business. I imagine Decatur would be part of the "Rust Belt" in Alabama. He also turned out to be just an all around nice guy. His wife, a former elementary teacher was on a trip with the kids and Kevin was bach'n it. He towed me into the marina and from there we headed to the restaraunt, a nice beachy place on the water called the Hard Dock. A cold drink and catfish poboy later, I was feeling much better. Spent the rest of the evening talking about everything from kids, to work, to river travel. Nice. Slept on the end of the boat dock, in the tent, right next to the boat. Thanks Kevin...
My routine has settled into somewhat of a pattern. Awake at 4:30, make coffee, pack and load up the boat. Shove off around 5:00 in the dark. A couple photos today are of Decatur industry lights as I left. Played around with moving the camera as I took the shot. Couldn't get a steady one so I went the other way. I thought they looked pretty cool. I've got a headlamp on and another little lantern that I put on my back deck so other boats can see me. The best part is when the sun comes up. Glorious every morning. Best part of the day.
I usually paddle slowly at around 3.5 miles and hour and stop every so often to sip my coffee. I also have a sort of silly guage for how I'm doing. If it's an 8 before 8 morning, its good, meaning I've paddled 8 miles before 8 am. A 9 before 9 morningis average. A 10 before 10 isn't great and means I'll be paddling later in the heat. Today was a 7 before 7 morning. I had some big lake crossings that I needed to get across. In fact, pretty much all day I was out in the middle probabaly 1/2 mile from shore most of the days. Most of the time I can paddle close to shore and get some shade as the sun and day heat up. Today, I knew, wasn't one of those days. One good thing about today, was I didn't have any natural stopping points. No trees for shade...no bends or points in the river to stop. Instead, just kept paddling and keeping a 50-55 stroke pace. The dam at Wheeler lake was 30 miles away. My hope was I would get there early and take a long nap, recharge and rest was needed. Wheeler State Park was just before the dam so I was also looking forward to the marina there and seeing what the park was about.
No lunch today, but constant grazing. I have a bag of peanuts, cashews, almonds, raisins and such that I munch on all day. I also had found my beef jerky a couple days ago. I also still had some tortillas that were good. Eating the tortillas and the beef jerky was sorta like a burrito if I used alittle imagination. Good!
Surprisingly, I made it to the state park by 2:30. I killed that 30 miles today! Also, the park had a lodge/hotel with a room for incredibly reasonable rates. So, tonight, I'm sitting in a room, watching tv and resting. What do you think I did first when I checked in? First, ordered a burger and fries. Second, shower...loing and hot. Ihadn't grown a beard in a long while. Not surprised to find it mostly white on the sides. It made me laugh. I'm now sporting a goatee. Next was a long nap. A good 3 hour, dead to the world sleep. I'll sleep again in a couple hours, once I update all this.
Tomorrow, through the locks at Wheeler and on to the turn at Pickwick onto the Tenn-Tomm. Not sure what to expect as I head south. The pattern here on the Tennessee has been lakes with varying amounts of civilization such as houses and marinas.That followed by the tailwaters with little or no civilization for a day or two. Then the next lake. I think the 15 locks on the Tenn-Tomm will be just another part of this that I'll get to see what its all about. Looking forward to it. I'm probably close to, or just over 400 miles of water between me and Bryson City. Hard to believe that I'm just about 1/2 way. I can't look ahead too far though. It's just too large of a distance. I just take one mile at a time and one day at a time. If I let myself leave the here and now, it gets too daunting and demoralizing, but I can always paddle one mile. Seems like there's a message there I believe.
Enjoy the pics..I'll get up tomorrow and start again, but for right now, I'll enjoy the moment.