We spent Halloween touring Florence AL and learning about the history of music production in the area and visited the birth home of Hellen Keller.

Muscle Shoals is famous for music production back in the 1970’s and produced many number one songs. We thought we had pulled into the wrong place when we got dropped off, but this little building was the sound production studio for artists like Lynard Skynyrd, Cher, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Paul Simmon, Aritha Franklin, and many more. Here are some pictures of the facility inside and out!

Once inside, we got a 45-minute guided history tour of the facility. They still produce music in this building today!

Then it was off to the birth home of Hellen Keller. She had an amazing history and was so intelligent. The property was incredible, but her life was even more impressive.

This is the famous well where she first learned her teacher was spelling words in her hands. Two months after this, she knew 600 words. She was only 6 years of age at that time!

Then back to the marina to relax and have some lunch. We really did have a great spot to tie up at Florence Harbor.

Notice the barge going by the mouth of the harbor!

Today brought our next challenge on the Loop. We had two locks to go up bound through. The Wilson Lock was a 94′ lift and The Wheeler Lock was a 72′ lift. The only catch was we had to lock through the first one, Wilson Lock, before sunup. There has been some damage to the lock, so commercial traffic has all day light hours!

Amy was not very happy to get up at 5:30am today, but she has been a real sport on the early mornings so far.

We pulled out in the dark, and I was able to use my new Scionyx night vision instrument. It worked great. It is pitch black outside, but the view on the left of my screen is the night vision.

We approached the lock and were told to come right in, a nice change. There were three boats traveling together this morning to help us lock through quickly.

We received some great pictures of us this morning from a buddy boat, Idaho Red! (or as I call them, Red Hot Potato)

As we exited the lock, we got to enjoy a great sunrise over Wilson Lake!

So today we traveled in Lake Wilson and Lake Wheeler. These are all part of the Tennessee River, but all separated by locks. We will travel through several more lakes over the next few days before reaching Chattanooga.

It was a short travel day, and we locked right into the second lock today as well. This allowed us to arrive at Joe Wheeler State Park Marina just before 10:00am only traveling 21 miles today.

Turn off the Lake to the State Park on the left.

We will enjoy the property this afternoon if it warms up, as it was 29 degrees this morning when we left Florence and we had ice on the boat and lines!

I hope to write more tomorrow as we move up river, just not sure how far yet!

Have a great Wednesday!