Alabama: Florence (Day 3)

Day: 110
No boat travel

When we woke this morning, all the other looper boats that had been docked near us were gone.  The slips were empty!  The marina went from packed full to almost empty of transient boats practically overnight.  I felt abandoned and like I had "missed the boat" for the trip to the AGLCA Rendezvous.  I told myself not to worry that more loopers were bound to appear later in the day, but it was more than a little disconcerting.  Clark of course was not phased in the least by the lack of other loopers.

Clark left the boat to make the trip up to the head by the marina office and came back in a hurry to grab the camera.  He said a huge, intimidating bird was standing on the dock.  The bird hung around the marina all day today fishing.  I never saw him catch anything.  A woman and her elderly father also sat along the docks all afternoon fishing.  She showed me her catch of blue gill fish at the end of the day.  I wonder if the heron was as fortunate as she was because she had a bucket full of good-sized fish.  She and her father threw back the little ones.

Heron fishing on the docks

 In preparation for our trip to the Rendezvous I spent some time organizing the boat.  My friend Angie on Sea Horse showed me her closet organizer which gave me some ideas for my own closets. As I was working on the inside, Clark started work applying some cleaner/wax to the bow of the boat where yesterday he had cleaned off the boat's mustache.

I interrupted his work on the boat for a quick trip to Walmart to buy the closet organizer shelving I needed.  I considered going alone, but Clark said he could stop and go with me then he could drive and I could navigate.  It seems like all these courtesy cars have some idiot light or another that lights up. Clark says he is getting used to it.  Today's car had the "check engine" light on as well as a light indicator for the automatic braking system. I was glad that Clark was driving or I may have decided not to go at all.

After we completed our shopping at Walmart, we decided to drive through downtown Florence since we had not seen it when we biked around yesterday.  

Historic Downtown Florence, AL

 As we drove down the street we found we were following purple paw prints stamped on the streets.   It seemed to me that it must be related to a mascot of some sort but I did not know what.  As we continued to the end of Court Street, we came face-to-face with the sign for University of North Alabama.  I looked the mascot up online to find that surprisingly the university has two live mascots - a lion and lioness (Leo III and Una).

When we got back to the boat, Clark went back to waxing, and I went back to organizing anxious to see how my new purchases will work out.  The jury is still out on the remodeling of the closet.  I kept all my hangers in case the shelving idea does not pan out as a match for my preferences.  I won't know until I work with it for a while if I like it or not.   I had to get a little creative to make the hanging shelves fit, so if I don't like it, I can't return it.

By the end of the afternoon, around 5:00, Clark and I had both had enough of working on the boat. The temperature had started to drop with the lower level of the sun in the sky, so we pulled out the bikes for a ride over to McFarland Park.  Just as we were ready to leave Eva, the marina manager, stopped by and snapped our photo.  She told us that if we biked all the way to the fishing pier at the end of the park, it was precisely 5 miles.  Perfect!

Ready to go for our evening bike ride

When we biked over to McFarland Park on Saturday evening, Clark took a photo of the historic marker there discussing the first occupants of the area - Native Americans.  That photo was too blurred to read, so I asked him to stop and retake the picture to capture the interesting facts of the prehistoric and historic occupants of the area.  (I think there two-sided markers are interesting.  I am used to one-sided only.)

We did indeed make it out to the fishing pier.  One person was standing out there fishing, and as we stood there looking at the view more were arriving.

Fishing Pier at end of McFarland Park

On the other end of the pier another man was fishing (he had a chair) and a  local policeman was sitting out there chatting with him.  They told us that a lot of folks come out to the docks just to take sunset pictures.  We made sure to get one of our own.  We did not have a good shot of the sunset itself, but we did get a nice view of its reflection on the bluffs along the river.

Sunset Reflected on the Bluffs overlooking the
Tennessee River in Florence, Alabama

We leave here tomorrow to make our trek to the Rendezvous.  Based on the email we received on the agenda, it will be an action-packed few days.

As expected more looper boats showed up at the Florence marina during the day.  It looks like there will be five boats, including us, leaving here tomorrow morning to tackle the locks between here and Joe Wheeler State Park where the Rendezvous is being held.  One of the captains is going to call the lock in the morning and then hold a conference call over the VHF radio at 8:00 a.m. to let the rest of us know the status on when to leave.  We might be leaving at 8:30 or we may be leaving at 11:00; it all depends on the queue at Wilson Lock. My fingers are crossed for an earlier departure time because we have a long day of travel ahead of us.