Wifey B: Sort of long way around but we also want to see the rest of the path. Next time we plan on leaving the boat on the TN River two or three years so we can cruise the Ohio all the way to the three river intersection, then cruise the others as well, so we can spend more time on the TN and Cumberland, so we can cruise the Northern Mississippi and the Missouri and the Arkansas and even make one trip all the way down the Mississippi.
We got most of the summer after our arrival in Tennessee to cruise the Tennessee and Cumberland last time but then got out stay shortened as Harvey and other hurricanes hit requiring our attention.
I think coastal cruisers tend to overlook all the great rivers of the country. Now for those without locks, hard to cruise, but those with open so much great cruising up. We only hit a little of the Columbia River when in the PNW and one day want to take it much, much, much further. People cruise the Chesapeake all the time but not all the way and then they totally ignore the Delaware River beyond the canal. Philadelphia and beyond by water is very nice. People also tend to ignore the Potomac.
if we were going to have an inland home in the US it would highly likely be on the TN River. With our initial boating limited to a lake in NC, the largest in NC, but still just one small body of water, then the TN River is a boating paradise by comparison. We went there with acquaintances one summer while still in NC and fell in love. Nice days on a Sea Ray Sundancer, crammed into the second "cabin" (as I use that term loosely) and we had a great time. We cruised from Chattanooga to Columbus MS and back. I think it was about the time we cruised through the "Grand Canyon of the East" on Lake Nickajack that we were mesmerized by the beauty and when we hit Lake Guntersville and realize both it and Chickamauga were much bigger than our home lake and we were just getting started. We didn't even get to Kentucky Lake that trip, so someone could have easily said "You ain't seen nothin' yet" to us. I'm still excited by the monstrous and beautiful and so relatively underdeveloped Kentucky Lake and then it having a nice opening into a whole other river. It's like Pickwick opening to the TN Tom and then the Gulf of Mexico. Omg, I'm getting excited just typing and in the office where getting too excited isn't a good idea.
