Shaking Hands
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Kismet Goes Into Storage Until After the Holidays

It was a fun trip but sometimes good things must come to a... temporary halt (I was about to say END but heaven forbid that our boating lifestyle would end when it just seems to have started). Before we headed out west we had made arrangements with the RV Park Palace, in Chattanooga, to store our boat there while we went home to enjoy the holidays with family and friends. We had a good feeling about this place just from talking with Tim Aslinger. We drove into the RV Park Palace's compound and prepared to store Kismet. Then we watched…

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Boat at Joe Wheeler, Rogersville, Alabama
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AGLCA Fall Rendezvous – Rogersville, AL

As "Loopers," we were excited to be able to tow our boat from Lake Powell to Rogersville, Alabama for the AGLCA (America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association) 2011 Fall Rendezvous. Little did we know that, not only would we make new friends, we'd run into a few Loopers that we did the Loop with back in 2005/06. Tom Conrad (above-center), here with his wife Patsy and Janice Kromer, was the MC for the rendezvous. He did a great job. Jim did a presentation on the St. Johns River. Fellow AGLCA Advisory Board members, Audrey Stehle and Patsy Conrad (above-left). Susann and…

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iPad Navonics GPS Tracker, Lake Powell
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Making Our Way Back to Wahweap Marina

Our time on Lake Powell came to a close today as we made our way back to Wahweap Marina and civilization. We would highly recommend Lake Powell as a cruising destination for adventurous boaters, whether you bring your own boat or you rent a houseboat. We enjoyed using our iPad with the Navionics app to navigate Lake Powell. Great tool, way outperformed our expectations. This (below) was our carefully saved garbage from our ten-day trip. We also stowed the extra anchor and line we used while on Lake Powell, we won't need it again for a while. We spent one…

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Kismet Beach Anchored, Padre Bay Canyon, Lake Powell
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Back to Padre Bay Canyon – Last Night at Anchor in Lake Powell

We spent our last night in Lake Powell anchored in Padre Bay, the same area we anchored our first night out. This time we found a little cove that was quite a bit more protected just over the hill from our first anchorage site. With a very clean, sandy beach off our bow the site was closely protected on three sides. Jim is an old pro at burying the anchor now. It seems like it only takes a few minutes now to get settled versus the 45 min. we started out with. Here (above) you can see how our back…

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Boat Beach Anchored, Dungeon Canyon. Lake Powell
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Dungeon Canyon Took Our Breaths Away

We found Dungeon Canyon to be quite impressive. It's another wide open area with lots of sites to beach anchor, and plenty of space between boats for added privacy. As the day progressed, we enjoyed watching the way the light changed on the different rock faces surrounding us as the sun set and the warm, gold glow in the canyon turned more to a pinkish yellow before it cooled off and finally set just before the canyon turned dark. The view at dusk off the stern of Kismet. (Above)     Jim is giving a demonstration (above and below) on how…

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Twilight-Driftwood-MntSheet-Canyon. Lake Powell
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Cruising Twilight, Driftwood and Mountain Sheep Canyons

Exploring Twilight, Driftwood, and Mountain Sheep Canyons today. We found this small arch (below) forming just inside one of the canyons. We traveled back as far as we could in each canyon, not many anchor spots available here, so we eventually headed over to Dungeon Canyon to camp for the night. Canyon cruising is very entertaining, before you know it the day is half over.

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Boats Beach Anchored, Oak Bay, Lake Powell
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Back to Oak Bay for a Peaceful Night

We would have loved to beach anchor in Davis Gulch today after our tour of it, but the only available site was already taken, so back to Oak Bay for us tonight. As we mentioned before this is a popular spot and even though it is off-season there were a few houseboats already beached when we arrived.

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Canyon Wall, Lake Powell
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Canyon Walls of Lake Powell

Here are just a few examples of the variety of wall shapes and colors you might see while cruising Lake Powell. We couldn't help but wonder what they faced to become so sculptured and colored. We saw walls with huge jagged pieces clearly pulling away from their mother rock – we imagined they might soon succumb to the elements and make their final descent disappearing below the deep, dark blue water below.

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Cruising Davis-Lewellen Gulch, Lake Powell
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Davis Gulch – A Visual Delight

We were the first boat into Davis Gulch this morning and because of that, this is what we found... eerily still waters mirroring the sculptured rocks and dark blue skies. The rock face took on gigantic organic shapes, a few suggesting arrows pointing into the canyon. Absolutely breathtaking.

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Lisa Cottonwood Canyon, Lake Powell, Utah
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Just the Two of Us in Cottonwood Canyon

Our anchorage in Cottonwood Canyon was my personal favorite. It was such a beautiful spot, we spent two nights there; I could have spent more. With so much to see, and not knowing what surprises lay ahead of us, we did eventually, but reluctantly, move on, but what a wonderful two days of solitude and peace we had in this spectacular canyon. I don't know exactly what grabbed at my heartstrings while tucked into this isolated, natural harbor, but I felt like we had been transported to another world. To climb high up the rocky shore and look down at…

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Sign at Rainbow Bridge, Lake Powell
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The Sacred Rainbow Bridge

We arrived at the bridge late morning after a beautiful ride through the Forbidden and Rainbow Bridge Canyons. Rainbow Bridge is the world's largest known natural bridge. It was once a solid wall of sandstone. During flash floods, sand-filled water scoured away both sides of the buttress. Eventually, the stream penetrated the rock and began to flow through and widen the new opening. The erosion of the Bridge continues today. Native American Tribes and Nations have nurtured a sacred connection with the bridge for centuries. Even today, the Navajo, Hopi, San Juan, Southern Paiute, Kaibab Paiute, and White Mesa Ute…

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Kismet cruising to Rainbow Bridge, Lake Powell
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On Our Way to Rainbow Bridge

This is what it looked like (above) from inside the boat as we negotiated the narrow canyons on our way to Rainbow Bridge National Monument. Each canyon, off the main river route, is marked with these buoy-type signs (below-right) that way boaters unfamiliar with Lake Powell, like us, will have a better chance of NOT getting lost. The last tour boat of the day passed us as we traveled up the canyon. We thought this was probably a good thing as the dock and trail won't be as busy when we get there. Only a few boats were tied up…

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Cruising, Dry Rock Creek Canyon, Lake Powell
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Dry Rock Creek Canyon – Lake Powell

Anchoring and Stern Tying to Shore in Dry Rock Creek Canyon We found out that sometimes you can go all the way into a winding canyon only to discover there are no beaches to tie up to. As we neared the end of Dry Rock Creek Canyon today, we finally found a spot that looked promising. Since it's only our second night on the lake we're still a little nervous about rocks lurking beneath the water by the shore. We decided to try anchoring and sterling in; this method took a few tries to get where we felt comfortable. Initially,…

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Beach Anchoring Kismet on Lake Powell
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Beach Anchoring on Lake Powell

First Beach Anchor – Padre Bay We left Wahweap Marina after three days of weather watching – glad to finally be on our way, headed toward the canyons on the horizon that teased us for several days. For east coast boaters, like us, experiencing Lake Powell for the first time is rather a daunting prospect. All we could see in front of us was rock, and lots of it – almost a foreign concept for boaters from the Great Lakes. It's really okay to be just a little nervous when cruising unfamiliar waters for the first time; being cautious and careful is a good…

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Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell
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Glen Canyon Dam

The day before we left Wahweap to explore the canyons of Lake Powell we thought it would be appropriate to visit the dam which created the lake we are soon to boat in. We signed up for the tour and learned a lot about the construction and purpose of the dam. Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona in the United States, just north of Page. The dam was built to provide hydroelectricity and flow regulation from the upper Colorado River Basin to the lower. Its reservoir is called Lake Powell, and is the second largest artificial lake in the country, extending upriver well into Utah. The…

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Launching Kismet, Lake Powell
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Launching at Wahweap Marina

Wahweap Lodge and Marina in Arizona is our spot to launch Kismet for a long, two-week adventure on Lake Powell. A cloudless sky and calm waters greeted us at the boat ramp just after we entered the resort, shortly after our boat inspection. The inspection for Lake Powell was not as thorough as we experienced with Lake Tahoe. We mostly answered questions and think it helped that we'd last had our boat in the fresh waters of Lake Tahoe. Getting the boat into the water was easy enough on the HUGE boat ramp which accommodates large houseboats and fluctuating water…

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Zion National Park
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Little Red Tug Cruising Through Zion National Park

Red Tug Alert! Zion National Park is a short cut for us to Lake Powell Who would have thought the SECOND sightseeing attraction on that day in Zion National Park was Kismet, our little red tug? Everywhere we stopped to pull over, people seemed more interested in taking photos of our boat than the scenery. I'll have to admit, we did stand out a bit driving on those rocky hairpin turns and entering a few tunnels. I'm sure the last thing anyone thought they'd see on that day was a bright red tug traveling through the majestic Zion National Park.

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Boaterhoming on Kismet, Zion National Park
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Stopping Short of Zion National Park

Finally getting into the rockiness of Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Our goal is to arrive at Lake Powell beginning of the week and we've picked a great driving route that will allow us some arid vistas and views. Although we're not really stopping to sightsee along the way we've enjoyed driving through the territory we've covered so far. We left Las Vegas this morning with much anticipation because we're heading to Springdale, a small tourist town just outside the entrance to Zion National Park. Initially, we thought we might camp out in the park but after reading a few cautionary…

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Boaterhoming on Kismet, Las Vegas
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Skirting Las Vegas

We decided to forgo activities in Las Vegas this trip because we were so anxious to get to Lake Powell and go boating. We found Hitchin Post RV Park, a nice park, for a one-night stay, on the outskirts of town, and enjoyed hot baths and a quick take-out dinner from the bar just outside. The park has great security but it makes you wonder why they need penitentiary-style gates to gain access to the site. Yes, just a quick stop in Las Vegas this time, got to get back on the water. 15 PRIME ACRES – LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION – This…

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Boaterhoming on Kismet, Lake Walker
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A Night at Whiskey Flats RV Park

Boaterhoming on Kismet at Whiskey Flats RV Park! After a long day's drive, we were happy to come across Whiskey Flats RV Park in Hawthorne, Nevada. Not a lot of opportunities to find a place to stay for the night in this wide open, arid countryside. The town of Hawthorne lies just beyond Walker Lake, a beautiful, almost mirage-like, lake in a desert setting – this afternoon the skies were dark and stormy off to the east of us, and we were happy to find a spot to rest for the night. The park was nice with all the amenities a…

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Ranger Tug Kismet Cruising, Lake Tahoe
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On the Hook for Three Days in Emerald Bay – Lake Tahoe, California

Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. At a surface elevation of 6,225 ft, it is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America with a depth is 1,645 ft, making it USA's second-deepest lake. Additionally, Lake Tahoe is listed as the 26th largest lake by volume in the world at 122,160,280 acre·ft. The lake was formed about 2 million years ago and is a part of the Lake Tahoe Basin with the modern lake being shaped during the ice…

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Kismet Boat Inspection, Lake Tahoe
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Lake Tahoe Takes Its Water Condition Seriously

Just short of reaching Homewood, California (Lake Tahoe) we visited the boat inspection site to have our boat thoroughly examined before we could launch it into Lake Tahoe. The residents of Lake Tahoe want to keep any destructive, aquatic invaders such as the quagga and zebra mussels, New Zealand mudsnail, and many other damaging species out of their beautiful, blue, mountain lake water. We weren't quite sure what the inspection involved but we found out fairly quickly, from our responses to their questions, we needed the full procedure. We were instructed to pull onto the mat laid out by the station and…

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Boaterhoming on Kismet, Cisco Grove Park
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Nineteen Years + Four and Counting…

Très Romantique! Some people may not think camping out on your anniversary is the romantic thing to do but in our case it certainly was. A beautiful spot in Cisco Grove - California's Tahoe National Forest did the trick for us. All by ourselves in a 406 site campground, nestled in the Donner Summit with a campfire, a bottle of wine, a simple dinner, and each other... priceless!

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