Burntside Adventures: At Anchor Guntersville Lake

We left Ditto Landing Marina yesterday morning after 3 nights there. The trip to the Space Center in Huntsville was amazing. It is well done and really went over the history of the rocket development program and the Apollo program. There were two Saturn 5 rockets on display, one inside and one standing vertically outside. They are huge! We didn't move very far yesterday, up river 15 miles or so, through the Guntersville lock and into a bay on the north side of the river a mile up from the dam. It's a great anchorage. We are into the Cumberland Plateau, and there is a lot more relief to the geography. Last night we witnessed something really fascinating. There is a cave on the river about a half mile from our anchorage that is a home to the protected grey bats. Estimates are that there are 40-60,000 bats that make the cave home. They leave the cave at dusk and forage for the insects along the river. No shortage of food supply for them. Never seen so many bugs. We took the dinghy to the cave entrance and watched thousands of bats exit the cave at dusk. I got a video of that turned out pretty good but our bandwidth here is going to limit my ability to upload it. Pretty amazing site, especially with a full moon as a backdrop and halloween coming. We are sort of stuck for a few days as far as going up the river. The next lock and dam up river is Nickajack 75 miles upstream, and as I mentioned before, it is closed. A barge damaged it a couple of weeks ago and it is being repaired. Initially it was to open today October 1 for 5 days, but due to weather, they are behind schedule and it won't open until the 5th and then only from 4 pm to 6 am, remaining closed during the day for the welders to work on repairs. The weather is favorable for varnishing, days low 70's and clear, so we are going to sit tight and varnish the rails and doors for 3 days then move up river. The boat needs 2 coats annually, and last time it was done was when we were in Duluth. Everything looks good because the boat was under cover for the summer but will be facing saltwater and Florida sun in a month or so.