Burntside Adventures: Next stop Florence

he past couple of days we've moved each day and had some beautiful anchorages. Wednesday was a longer day, and it started with what I thought was going to be a long delay. We had to get through the Guntersberg Lock and just as we were going to pull the anchor, a tow headed for the lock head of us. Normally this would be a delay of at least an hour, but the fog had rolled in and he had to pull over because he couldn't see the lock ahead of his 600 feet of barges in front of him. I called the lock and the lockmaster said he'd lock us through if we could get to the lock through the fog. I only had to see 50 feet in front of me, so with radar and GPS chartplotters, no problem. After locking through, the river remained souped in but we were able to putt safely but slowly down river until the fog lifted an hour later. We anchored in a nice bay on Wheeler Lake mid afternoon, then yesterday only moved 10 miles or so to another bay just above the Wheeler Dam. This anchorage I think is one of the prettiest we've had yet. We watched a 6 point buck come down to the water, and a couple of raccoons as well. Eagles, ospreys and kingfishers. Today we have two locks, Wheeler and Wilson, but only 20 miles of actual travel, then to the marina at Florence, Alabama for a couple of days. Our absentee ballots were mailed by Dan and Barb to the marina, and I have ordered a bunch of stuff for the boat that will be there. The other thing we have done is firmed up a place to leave the boat in Florida, at Tarpon Springs, 13 miles north of Eric and Shawn's house, and it's up the Anclote River a bit, so the boat will be in fresh water for that time, always a plus.