Where's Al Gore?

44 inches of snow in Dubuque so far this winter and still coming. Record cold. Even down here in the heart of Dixie it's expected to get down into the teens tonight. Thank God Al invented the internet so I can vent my frustrations with him!

Speaking of Dixie we finally cut the dock lines and left Columbus. We've gone though 3 locks so far getting to Demopolis, Al. The second lock near Pickensville, Al. is where we left Sandy Beach this past summer when we had mechanical problems. Pickensville is in the middle of nowhere just off the Ned Beaty memorial highway. They do have the USS Montgomery (www.montgomery.sam.usace.army.mil/) near the lock as well as a beautiful visitor center which resembles an old plantation. Too bad no one can find it. Have you ever heard of Pickensville? The water is above flood stage due to recent heavy rains. Makes going South a bit faster and easier on fuel. Just need to watch out for a few logs. We've been travelling the last two days with 2 other boats. The lockmasters are in touch with each other via computer and will hold the lock until all boats arrive no matter what speeds each are travelling. The river is narrow and it never fails that you meet a barge when you get to a ninety degree corner. Makes your heart flutter a little when all you see is steel and river bank coming at you. The barge captains are all friendly and will tell you to pass on the 1 or the 2 whistle side. That is if you can understand them ya'll.

For awhile today we thought we were approaching the White Cliffs of Dover. Turns out they were the White Cliffs of Epes. Still pretty cool! Oh yeah. We saw this little morsel on the deck of a houseboat 3 slips down the dock from us here in Demopolis. Not quite big enough for a meal!

That's What I Like About the South

One of the boat projects to get done in Columbus was to have the valves adjusted on our generator. I scheduled this through the marina and was told "Smitty" would be here first thing Thursday morning. I got up at 6:30 and prepared for his arrival. After a full pot of coffee and even after Pam got up Smitty was not here. A walk to the marina office and a phone call resulted in "He'll be there right after lunch". More waiting. Another walk to the office. Another phone call. And more BS. Finally at 5 pm T. Caldwell, the marina manager comes down the dock to report that Smitty won't be here today but that he will be here first thing Friday morning. Promise! Well first thing Friday turned out to be 10 am. Smitty was all apologies, very polite, and relatively neat about his work. He performed the task and left. Or at least that's what I thought. About a half hour later I see him over on the next dock talking to another boater. He stayed there, not working, about 45 minutes. I'm sure he was supposed to be somewhere else, first thing! Makes you wonder.

Once Smitty left Pam & I spent the rest of the day washing and cleaning the boat from top to bottom. That is until cocktail hour which came around 3:30 on the dock. Friday was a beautiful day with bright sunshine and 60 degrees. The pictures show a couple of boats on the transient dock. Our dock. And Pams' favorite boat, a 53' Marlow.

We're Back!!

We're back at the boat after a month long orgy of food, family, friends, and more food! Our 750 mile drive back to Columbus had us leaving town Monday at 12:30p.m. (1 last hair appt.) Lunch at Hy Vee. (Wanted to give condolences to Moonbeam on the Vikings loss but he was home sulking!) Being passed on I-55 North of St. Louis by my brother in-law. A stop at White Castle for dinner. An ice storm at Dyersburg, Tn. Heavy rain from Jackson, Tn. to Columbus that lasted all day Tuesday. And a stop at Elvis Presleys' birthplace in Tupelo, Ms. (Sorry no picture, the camera was buried in the trunk!)

We arrived to find the Tenn-Tom at flood levels due to all the recent rain they have had down here. They say it may be a week before it drops back down if there is no more rain. Looks like a few boat projects will get done.

Remember in an earlier post I mentioned the two veterans travelling with us? Well, we left them to safeguard the boat while we were back home. And overall they did just that except for the tell tale signs of a party on board and the pictures from the marina security cameras which you can see. Notice the remnants of their costumes. Allow me to introduce Piglet and Shiny Nose! Piglet is the one with the French Maid head piece and Shiny Nose has his Pirate do-rag on. These photos are obviously from the morning after.

Piglet and Shiny Nose are on loan to us from Aqua Villa. They are veterans because they have been over this route this past summer on board Sandy Beach (aka. Aqua Villa) from Ft. Lauderdale to East Dubuque. They have been on station for over 50 lockages between the 2 trips, each time leaving a little bit of their hide on the lock wall to protect the boat without ever complaining. In fact the only time they show any distress is when it gets cold outside. Being originally from South Florida they have not acclimated themselves to the colder weather. Maybe a hot bath will get them ready for the next leg of the journey or perhaps a little Furr of the Kitty (Hair of the Dog). I'll keep you posted!

While crossing a set of RR tracks near home I see the pictured locomotive parked on a siding not far from the crossing. Do these railroad guys spend that much time away from home that they would have to have such a warning posted on the front of the locomotive or do they just have a warped sense of humor?

12/7/08

It's been pretty quiet here at Columbus Marina. Friday night being the busiest. Five boats came in after dark with the last two arriving after 10 p.m. None stayed too long. They started leaving at 5:20 a.m. Saturday and were all underway by 8 o'clock. That wouldn't work in Pam's world! No boats came in either Saturday or Sunday.

We spent Saturday and Sunday cleaning and getting the boat in shape to sit for a month.

I thought I'd give a little recap of our travels to date:

1303.8 miles travelled

166.4 engine hours

155 generator hours

7.7 mph average

1.1 mpg

35.2 average miles per day travelled

28 locks passed through

1218.6 gallons of fuel purchased

Monday morning we'll pump out. Drain the water system and head home to the cold!

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...

11/28/08 to 12/1/08 Clfton, Tn. to Grand Harbor Marina (Counce, Tn.)

Friday morning we pulled out of Clifton Marina and continued North on the Tennessee River. Our day presented 2 options for distance to travel. One was to go all the way to Grand Harbor. The other to anchor half way, before Pickwick Lock and Grand Harbor. Since we have time to kill we chose option #2. We anchored outside the channel at Diamond Island which was just downriver from Shiloh Battlefield. We were amazed to see several fish surfacing and then rolling back under water all around the boat. They had yellow bellys and were about 2' long. No swimming tonight!

Saturday we travelled past Pittsburg Landing (Shiloh Battlefield) which was the Union headquarters during the battle and also the landing area for steamboats bringing in Union reinforcements. At 12:15.m. we arrived at Pickwick Lock just behind a towboat. We tied off to the long wall of the lock after the Harley Hall pushed into the 1100' chamber. Harley locked through and they lowered the water back down 55' for our lockage. You can see by the picture the force at which the water comes out of the chamber. It sends out a series of waves a mile back down river. We locked through and continued around the corner to look for the junction of the Tenn-Tom Waterway. We left the Tennessee and entered the Tenn-Tom @ 3 p.m. arriving at Grand Harbor Marina @ 3:05. Grand Harbor is a 1st class Marina with friendly staff and connected to Grand Harbor Resort. You can check them out @ http://www.gograndharbor.com/.

Sunday brought drizzle and temps in the upper 40s'. After a relaxing morning (BS'ing in the Marina with Chip Lucas the harbor master for me and checking e-mails and sleeping in for Pam) we borrowed the courtesy car and headed off to tour Shiloh Battlefield. Just to keep our priorities in order we decided to have lunch before touring. At Chips' suggestion we went to the next road past the entrance to Shiloh and turned right. We followed the road until it ended into a rock parking lot beside the river with an older looking structure set back from the water. We could see no signage but took a leap of faith and went in. What a pleasant surprise! We were at the Catfish Hotel Restaurant. Nothing fancy, but great food and Southern hospitality. You guessed it, we both had catfish. It turns out we got there at the right time because by the time we were finishing the line to get in was stretching out the door. http://www.catfishhotel.com/

With full stomachs we headed back to Shiloh.

The Battle of Shiloh. April 6 & 7th, 1862

Union forces led by Gen. U.S. Grant defeated the Confederate troops led by Gen. Johnston in a bloody 2 day battle that went back and forth with heavy losses for both sides including Gen Johnston who as it turns out was the highest ranking Southern officer to be killed in the Civil War. Because of the heat at the time the dead were buried in mass graves by the Union forces following the battle. The Union dead were later transfered to individual graves in a cemetary on a hill overlooking the Tennessee River near Pittsburg Landing while the Confederates were left in the mass graves which can still be seen today while touring. It gives you an eery feeling to travel over the same ground that claimed so many lives, so long ago.

If touring Shiloh I would reccomend seeing the movie at the visitors center (you have to stop there anyway to pay the $5.00 admission fee) before touring the site. You can get out and walk throughout the tour to see the various memorials and cannons that dot the battlefield areas. Just watch out for the deer! They're everywhere around the grounds.

Monday dawned with a mix of rain & snow and temps in the 30s'. Since we are still in slow motion we decided to spend another night at Grand Harbor where we have internet access and cable tv. Could be a Monday Night Football night!