We’re now in Iuka MS for several days while we have several minor issues taken care of on the boat. We had planned to leave Florence by 9 this morning, but it rained all night and was still raining at 9, so we waited for it to stop and were finally able to leave about 10:30. It only took 4 hours to get to the marina at Iuka, a trip of about 45 miles. It was cloudy all the way there so no pictures of the trip.

The captain who brought our boat from MN to us in Saugatuck when we bought it is here with his wife on their looper boat. He came over to say hi, see our improvements on our boat, and invite us for drinks on their boat. We ended up having dinner with them at the restaurant that’s at the marina. It was fun to finally meet his wife and swap looping stories. We got to tour their boat and quickly decided we would consider a trawler if we could have one like theirs. Of course we would have to win a lottery to have a boat like that, and there’s no place nearby to buy a ticket for mega millions which is now well over a billion dollars, but it doesn’t cost anything to dream 😊

Some pictures from a few days ago

This was our view from Grand Harbor Marina, Counce TN. We stayed here for 2 nights on our way to Rogersville AL. I was told we would be on the fuel dock when I made the reservation, but when we arrived they gave us a covered slip on the “boardwalk”with this great view! And it was the same price. Interestingly, we left Florence AL this morning and passed this marina (in TN) on our way to tonight’s marina in MS! Three states in one day and we only traveled 45 miles!

While we were at Grand Harbor we went to dinner at Freddy T’s. It was quite unique, with surprisingly good food.

      

A couple of of photos from Florence AL

     

We think this is a water tower????            And this is a very tame blue heron that hung around the transient dock. It apparently has appeared in some newspaper articles and has had surgeries to remove fishing hooks.

We spent 5 nights at Joe Wheeler State Park near Rogersville AL, attending a looper Rendevous. We met a lot of Loopers and attended seminars each day on how to travel from there through the Carolinas. Rich also attended a couple of presentations on basic boat maintenance and boat electronics – good info. The best part was all the people we met – they came from everywhere, including someone from Alaska! Some were on boats and some came by car because they are still in the planning stages.

We were so busy every day I didn’t get any pictures of the park or marina. I did manage to get a picture of a memorial to Joseph Wheeler and then googled him to figure out how he managed to serve in both the Confederate army and then in the US Army – a very interesting character.

We had long waits on locks from Florence to Joe Wheeler State Park, so when it was time to leave Joe Wheeler, we decided to be ready to go at the crack of dawn. This time we were able to get through fairly quickly and were back in Florence in time for lunch.

     

Sunrise at Joe Wheeler State Park                     and the cell we had tied up to just a few days earlier.