12/2/08 to 12/5/08 Grand Harbor to Columbus, Ms.

You know you're in the South when the commercial playing on the radio ends with the narrator saying "Tell em Pork Chop sent ya". I think I hear banjos in the distance!

Tuesday dawned with sunny skies and 24 degrees. A great boating day!

We travelled with River Gypsy, a 40' Sea Ray Sundancer from Scotsboro, Alabama. Our first lock was the Whitten Lock which dropped us 80'. Quite impressive as you can see by the picture.

We did 2 more locks before completing a nice day of travel arriving at Midway Marina around 3:30 p.m.

One little bit of excitement came as we neared the Rankin Lock. Our third of the day. If you have ever travelled on Tourist with us you know that I scan the channels on the VHF to monitor commercial traffic as well as lock chatter. (Pam says I'm just nosey!) While scanning I picked up a conversation between the Rankin Lock and the Chippewa, a commercial tow who we had just spotted ahead of us much closer to the lock. They were talking about us locking through with the towboat since he was only 85' wide and the chamber is 110'. When a lull in the conversation came I jumped in and spoke for both boats saying that we would be willing to lock with the tow if it was OK with them. It was, and after the Chippewa got secured in the lock River Gypsy went in followed by us. We went past the tow to the front of the chamber where we rafted off of River Gypsy. We had a smooth ride down and exited without incident. Except for just missing being hit by the lock gate opening. It missed our bow by two feet!

While at Midway we went to dinner with the folks from River Gypsy at Pizza Hut. It was kids eat free night...need I say more! We also went to Wally World while in town. Is that living the high life or what!?!

We had hoped to see Gary and Erlene from the Wildcat who used to boat out of Midtown and now keep their boat at Midway. Unfortunately they were back in Illinois but expected back any day.

The time came to continue our travels and after slipping the dock lines and heading South I got a call from Gary on the VHF. They had gotten in late at night and heard me talking to the lock and recognized the name Tourist. We had a short visit before we had to get set up for the lock. Hopefully next time we can see them.

It's days like this that I like being Captain. Cold, windy, and raining. Pam put on her foulies and PFD and went out on deck to loop the bollard. What a trooper! We spent the night at anchor and on Friday we continued on to Columbus. http://www.columbusmarina.com/ Tourist is now safely tucked into a 60' covered slip between a Viking sportfisherman and a vintage Chris Craft Roamer. We'll get her ready to sit for a month and head back to the real cold!

Stay tuned in for a special about two veterans travelling with us...