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Show RTVER Occasionally I'd see small towboats lock through the dam. There weren't many other craft out on the water, except for a couple of truly dedicated fishermen who clustered in the shadow of the dam. It felt good to exercise after being cramped up in Stockdale's truck for so long. It was afternoon before I made it to the lock. There was a green light at my end of the structure. I signaled to the lockmaster to let me through by pulling on a rope and soon the wide gates swung open. I rowed into the concrete box and grabbed a rope the lockmaster dropped down to me. He was looking down at me from the rail on the lock. "What the hell are you up to?" he asked. "Going downriver," I said. "How far?" "I dunno," I said. "Baton Rouge, maybe." "Well I'll be damned," he said. The water dropped out of the lock and my boat dropped with it. Soon the gates at the head of the lock swung open and I rowed out onto the Tennessee, now free of the dam. I caught the current and spun downriver. I didn't get far before night caught up with me. I put into shore and made camp on a sandbar. I suddenly felt lonely as hell, but at least I was lonely in the right place, on a river. It didn't take me long to reach the mouth of the Tennessee. For as long as it lasted, the Tennessee was a pretty river, but it was full of surprises. I'd round a deserted bend and suddenly be confronted by an industrial behemoth sprawled out along the bank, as ugly as a prison. One such enormous structure was devoid of any sign of human life: I found out later that it was a nuclear power plant. -146- |