Day Ten...Home Sweet Home!

beckygarrison66
Nov 25, 2020
3 min read

Updated: Nov 27, 2020

11/23/20

We are Home!!

What a journey! We are so tired, excited, anxious and feeling extremely BLESSED!! We had a wonderful trip bringing our “home” to Tennessee and our home port “Fort Loudon Marina!” Having the four big kids with us for the last two days was so exciting! We have been gone almost a month and have missed them ALL so much!

We had a busy morning! We pulled up anchor at 6:00 am and the kids were up by 7:00 am. After breakfast, I drove while Pap Pap put together my bar stools and pub table that I had bought (Thanks Brittany for bringing them to me!). We had two locks to go through today. Our first was Watts Bar Lock & Dam. The kids all put their life jackets on and were very anxious at first. I think it was a little scary for them until they saw how it all worked. Mason and Jayden stayed out for a bit, but then it was back inside for Xbox games lol! Zayne and Madelyn went up on the bridge for the last part. One of the lockmasters walked by and asked Madelyn if she was driving the boat (she was standing at the helm and they were up there by themselves at that time lol). All the workers came out to wave at them and I told them it was their first lock to ever go through.

As we were getting closer to home…some of our friends got some awesome photos for us! Chris Hunt sent his drone out and captured the most unbelievable shots!! Mark Smith came out from his house to wave at us and even drove to the next bridge to get more photos!!

We finally made it to our last lock of the day, last lock (#19) of the trip! Fort Loudon Dam!! Our goal was to get there by 5:00 pm and before dark….we made it by 4:30 pm! My daughter Brittany not only planned a surprise welcome party for us, but she also contacted Fort Loudon Locks to make sure they got a picture of us locking through!

Thanks Fort Loudon Lock for the shout out and awesome photos!!

https://www.facebook.com/fortloudounlock/posts/1052615308536128

We had the most wonderful group of family and friends waiting at the docks to greet us! Our kids Brittany & Chris, Brianna & Greg…..our grandbabies Aerie & Ry Ry; my sister Shelia, our extended family/friends Josh, Stephanie, RaeLynn, Gabriel, Jody, Kelly, Mike & Gina, Gloria, and Tucker were all there to celebrate our homecoming! I hope I didn’t miss anyone! I was in shock and just so happy to be home!!

Thanks to all our friends and family who have prayed for our journey and sent the sweetest texts and messages along the way!! We love you all!!

Feeling extremely blessed!!

James & Becky

First Lock the grandbabies have ever gone through! Watts Bar Lock and Dam