We spent Friday doing some shopping for a new collapsible wagon from Sam’s (ours got blown off the dock and disappeared into the water while we were in Fulton MS), buying some gloves and a hat for Rich, and more socks for both of us – such excitement that we could hardly stand it! We were able to have lunch at a great oyster house – one of the perks of being in Mobile and having a car.

Popcorn Indiana – at Sam’s in Mobile!

We spent the rest of the day packing and getting the boat ready to be unoccupied for a couple of weeks. It felt strange to be thinking of leaving the boat and yet looking forward to long showers, being able to flush the toilet without worrying about how full the holding tank is, being able to go places by car.

This is a view of Mobile Bay from the bridge by the marina. Can you see the markers in the bay marking the channel we were supposed to take to get under the bridge? It looked so different from up above as we headed out for Indiana on Saturday morning.

Did you know that I-65 starts in Mobile? It only took 10 minutes to get to it from the marina and then we were on our way. No worries about what road signs to look for – just follow the signs for I-65 all the way to Lafayette. These bridges go over Mobile River on I-65 and we passed under them on our way down the river toward Mobile Bay. They looked much different from the river, especially because it was pouring down rain.

One thing we noticed in Mobile was the preponderance of ads on TV and billboards for personal injury lawyers. More than 50% of TV ads and billboards were for attorneys, many of them touting how much money they have recovered for their clients.

     

We made it to Nashville late Saturday afternoon and used Marriott reward points to get a room at Gaylord Opryland Hotel. What an amazing place it is! It has 2882 guest rooms, 16 restaurants, bars, and cafes, and is like several separate areas all somehow linked together. We felt like we needed to leave a bread crumb trail to find our way back to our room after dinner.

Sunset view from our room

And now we’re back in Indiana. We’ll be here for a couple of weeks, so I won’t post much during that time.i’ll plan to be back to more regular posting at the beginning of December.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! 🦃

 

 

I finally have reasonable internet so I’ll try to catch up on the past few days.

We got up at 5 Sunday morning with the intention of calling the lock at 5:45 and leaving the slip at 6:15. As we made our way up to the marina bathrooms we noticed one boat with engines running, getting ready to pull out. We were quick in the bathrooms and realized as we got back to our boat that a second boat had just pulled out. While Rich unplugged our power cord and started the engines I called the lock, said we were leaving the slip in 5 minutes, and would they hold the lock for us. The lockmaster was very nice and said it wouldn’t be a problem. We made it to the lock in record time and were through it and on our way to Bobby’s Fish Camp by 7. It was a quick trip down and when we got there, there was only one boat tied to the far end of the dock, so after fueling up we were able to walk the boat back to a spot directly in front of the sailboat. Bobby’s restaurant was open from 12-6 that day and we were starving, so it was time for some catfish. Lots of Loopers claim the catfish there is the best they’ve ever had – and they’re right!

     

Bobby’s catfish filet dinner on the left – and the fish Rich found in a strainer later that day.

     

     

This is exactly what I was expecting – and I wasn’t disappointed!

We stayed at Bobby’s for 2 nights. The sailboat that had been behind us left late afternoon Sunday and 2 more Looper boats pulled in soon after. The river was filled with branches and water hyacinths, many of which got caught under our swim platform. We cleared out a lot of it, only to have more get caught. When we got ready to leave Tuesday morning it took Rich and 3 people from the other 2 boats to pull out branches and huge clumps of water hyacinths that had collected around our boats.

This one was under Rejoice and was 8-10 feet long.

We had one last lock after Bobby’s and of course there was a tow that had to go through before us. All three boats were up at 5, getting ready to leave the dock at 6:15,only to find out it was going to be at least 7:30 before the tow got through. Time for some warm oatmeal!

By the time we finally got to the lock it was raining, and the temp was about 40 degrees. I handle the lines when we go through locks, so by the time we got through I was cold, wet, and downright miserable. Thank goodness I had purchased some lovely black rain boots with very pretty green soles when we went to Walmart back in Columbus – at least my feet were dry! I forgot to take a picture of them before I finally took the tag off the top of the right boot – I called them my Minnie Pearl boots😄

There was a good current pushing us along as we headed to Mobile, but there were so many tows that it seemed like every few miles we had to slow down. We got to the top of Mobile Bay and thought we would be able to get to our marina by 4, but that turned out to be soooo wrong. There was a small craft advisory with north winds 15-20 and waves 1-2 feet. We were headed south so we didn’t think it would be that bad. We somehow missed the markers for the shipping channel (how does one miss big 15’ tall markers??) and discovered the water getting very shallow. We eventually made it back to the shipping channel after a call to the marina got us back on course. We got really slammed around during this time and the rain was coming down, making it difficult to see (windshield wipers would be nice). We found the first set of markers for the channel going to Dog River, where the marina is located. But it was still raining, the wind had picked up, and the waves were growing higher. Our chart plotter had somehow lost our tracking and channels markers, so we were relying on visually seeing the rest of the markers. But we weren’t seeing them so we headed for the bridge we knew we had to go under. We eventually saw a set of markers off to our right, so Rich turned the boat in that direction, only to find a low spot that stopped us cold. After trying for several minutes to get us off, we decided it was time to call TowBoat US. At this point it was 5:00 and the sun had just gone down (too much rain and clouds to actually see sunset, but the weather on my phone said sunset was 4:55). They have a towboat right next to the marina, so it took about 45 minutes for Capt. Billy to get to the boat and out to us. It seemed to take forever to get us pulled into deeper water, and then back to the channel and into the marina. Capt. Billy said several of the markers are missing (no wonder we couldn’t see them!) and apparently lots of boats go aground in that spot. By the time we got into a slip and tied up we were so tired, cold, wet, and mentally exhausted that I can’t even remember what we had for dinner.

We spent Wednesday recovering from Tuesday, putting things away, drying out wet clothes, and checking out the engines. Luckily, nothing seemed to suffer any damage from running aground. Strainers had sand in them, which Rich was able to clean out. Engines run smoothly, no overheating, and no shudders, so no apparent damage to props. Phew!

Today we picked up a rental car from Enterprise – they really do pick you up! When I called to confirm the pickup time, the lady asked if we would be okay with a Dodge Challenger – seems they had no full-size cars available.

We certaainly won’t look like a little old couple in the typical white rental car 😀

After getting the car, we went into downtown Mobile and found a very good restaurant for lunch. (Actually, Rich decided we should try this restaurant because there were 4 well-dressed ladies sitting at a table by the window having lunch and wine and he figured they wouldn’t be there unless it was good. How’s that for choosing a restaurant?) It was nice to find food that wasn’t fried.

     

Deviled eggs with bacon and roe – and bacon, egg, and pimiento cheese sandwich – so tasty!

Did you know the first Mardi Gras was in Mobile? It is still a huge celebration here – there’s even a square block park with statues of various Mardi Gras kings, queens, and other Mardi Gras figures.

     

     

     

Dauphin St looks like New Orleans!         And this house was a doctor’s office from 1858-1954! I love the history and the plaques everywhere.

 

 

 

We were up by 5:15 this morning – who gets up that early voluntarily??? Loopers who want to get to Demopolis AL before sunset, which occurred at 4:58 p.m. It was 118 miles and 3 locks, more miles and locks than we had ever done in one day. The challenge was on! There were eight boats going through the first lock , but not everyone was going as far as us, so by the third lock there were only 4 boats. We were able to go fast some of the time, but numerous fishing boats and tows really slowed us down for seemingly long stretches. It was freezing cold out and we couldn’t understand why so many guys were out fishing – surely there must be better things to do – it’s Alabama – shouldn’t they be watching ‘Bama football?

We made it into a slip at the marina in Demopolis just before 4 – we did it! There of course is no restaurant on the premises, and no way to get to one in town. Marinas on the Tenn-Tom have been lacking those amenities.

Tomorrow is another early morning. We’re headed to Bobby’s Fish Camp, which is another iconic place you have to stop at because it’s the last fuel stop until you get to Mobile, 120 miles away. It’s another long run(97 miles), but only one lock. We plan to be there 2 nights because of heavy rains predicted for Monday. We’ll either be tied to a dock that runs along the river bank or rafted to a boat that’s already tied to the dock – should be interesting. I don’t know if we’ll get cell service and I’m pretty sure there’s no internet, so there not be any blog posts for a couple of days.

When there are lots of leftovers in the fridge, I pull them all out and we have “dibs and dabs”for dinner.

So tonight is dibs and dabs from my photo album – no theme, just some interesting pics.

      

We have seen so many different birds on this trip. The coot on the left was on a pond by the marina in Columbus. And the great white egret was standing on the end of the dock next to our boat in Columbus. We’ve seen blue herons, bald eagles, and birds we couldn’t identify – we need to get a bird book!

We need a book to identify flowers as well – these were all along the banks as we headed to Columbus.

We couldn’t see this house until we were almost past this little creek. What a beautiful setting!

     

There’s a controversy among Loopers about whether leaving stickers/writing on bollards or lock walls is okay or if it’s defacing public property. We haven’t done it, but have found it fun to see stickers or boat names of people/boats we know. One day we went through three locks and in the first two discovered as we were tying up to a bollard that  a friend had tied to the same bollard a couple of days before and left his sticker on each. There are 10 bollards in each lock – what are the odds we would tie up twice to the same bollard he had tied to???

In my last post, I mentioned how we were rocking and rolling on the boat. That turned out to be just the beginning of a very bad storm. Rich managed to fall asleep but every time I was almost asleep the boat would get slammed with an extra large wave that would make so much noise I would be wide awake again. About 11 I thought I heard a siren, so I got up, stuck my head out, and realized I was hearing a tornado siren. We had heard a forecast earlier that said there would be a possibility of tornadoes in the area overnight, so I had put passports, cash, jewelry, wallets, iPads, cell phones, and flashlights in a backpack in case we needed to get off the boat in a hurry. I woke Rich up, and we quickly got dressed, grabbed the backpack, and headed to the marina lounge building. The wind was really blowing and the rain was coming down almost horizontally – by the time we got to the lounge we were drenched, but in a safer place than the boat. There were about a dozen of us, plus 4 dogs, gathered there. The sirens continued for the next hour and a half. One of the people there was able to pick up some ongoing info about a tornado that had touched down in Tupelo, about 20 miles away. Fortunately for us, the tornado stayed on the other side of the Tenn-Tom. It was 1:30 a.m. by the time the wind and rain had died down enough to get back to the boat – and the rocking and rolling had finally stopped.

This marina had the most interesting variety of vehicles in the parking lot that we’ve seen thus far, including the red Honda sitting on blocks with all four tires removed.

The bottom floor of this building is where we stayed while the tornado siren was going off.

We awoke at 5:30 to find that the rain had stopped and there was no wind. We left at 7 and headed down on perfectly flat water. We started in a flotilla of 4 boats for the first lock, where we had to wait for 10-15 minutes while the lockmaster powered up all the equipment. It seems the storm had knocked out the power at the lock and the electric company had just restored the power. Another boat joined us at the second lock, where we had to wait for half an hour while a tow went through the lock. On to the third lock, where we got right in. And finally the fourth, and final, lock of the day, where we had to wait while it was filled. Oh how we love locks – not!

     

Water over the dam at the second lock. There was a lot of debris in the water for the first part of the day because of the heavy wind and rain the night before. The first lock was a long drop, but the rest had a much shorter drop. We could see the waterway on the other side of the gate. You can see how straight and narrow the waterway was here.

We arrived at Columbus Marina in Columbus MS just before 3. We got checked in and got a courtesy car to go into town to get dinner. There’s an Air Force base about 10 miles from here, as well as Mississippi University for Women (which is now coed), so there are lots of goods and services here that we weren’t expecting. We had a great dinner at a restaurant recommended by another looper, with plenty of leftovers for another dinner. We started the meal with broccoli bites, which according to the menu had won the best appetizer award from MS magazine. Rich declared that in spite of having broccoli in them, they were quite delicious (broccoli, cheese, bacon, onions, and jalapeños and deep-fried, of course – we’re in the land of deep-fried food!).

Sunset is just before 5 here, so by the time we got back from dinner it was bedtime dark. Since we had not been able to get much sleep the night before and we had spent 8 hours on the water, we were  exhausted and went to bed about the same time our grandchildren go to bed.

We woke up to a gray morning, looked at the forecast which is calling for more rain for the next couple of days, and decided to stay in Columbus until the weather clears up. The plan is to leave Saturday morning. It poured rain all morning, but finally let up just before noon, so we went up to the marina office to get the courtesy car. We went to enterprise car rental to see if we could get a rental car for a couple of days, but they had no cars available and didn’t know when any would be returned. They thought they might have some coming in later in the afternoon, but didn’t really know. Apparently nobody pays any attention to when they say they’ll bring the cars back. I thought it was a very strange way to run a business. I plan to call in the morning to see if any cars have come in. Unfortunately it’s the only car rental in Columbus. It seems there are at least 3 agencies at the regional airport, which is at least 20 minutes away.

While we had the courtesy car, we decided to go to the visitors’ center which is in the first home of Tennessee Williams. There was a lady there who gave us a tour and pointed out interesting things about the furnishings, as well as background on Williams. She also told us all about how the home had been moved to its current location in 1995 from its old location next to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, where it had been the rectory. It was put on two flatbed trucks, side by side, and moved in tandem over a gravel lot to its new spot 1 block away – that must have been quite a sight to see! There were some damaged floors, 25% of the plastered walls had to be replastered, and fireplaces restored, a new roof put on, and new foundation. It was quite an undertaking.

An interesting tidbit from the tour – Williams’ original name was Thomas Lanier Williams. When he was a student at the University of Iowa his friends nicknamed him Tennessee because of his southern accent. He liked the nickname and eventually had his name legally changed to Tennessee Williams.

 

We are tied to a dock that’s right on the Tenn-Tom and we’re getting rocked and tossed around tonight! There’s a lot of wind that’s pushing the water up behind our boat so not only do we get the noise of the water slapping against the boat, but we also are getting bounced up and down. I don’t think it’s going to be a very restful night. I think we’re going to be very glad when the alarm goes off at 5:30 tomorrow morning and we pull out of here. The next marina is much more protected from the river.

My internet connection is very slow tonight, so this is all I’m going to post tonight. More to come when I get faster internet.

We had intended to leave at 7:30 this morning, but there was fog over the water that looked like steam coming off the water – very eerie looking, like a bad horror movie. It started clearing pretty quickly, so we pulled out of the slip about 8:15 – goodbye Iuka! Unfortunately it cleared and then reappeared after we had gone about half an hour. It was really bad for about 15-20 minutes, then finally cleared for good and turned into an absolutely gorgeous day.

We had 3 locks to go through today. The first lock was open so we were able to go right in – how lucky, or so we thought. There was one other boat in already, but then we found out there were three more boats a few minutes behind us, so we had to wait on them. Eventually they got in and down we went, about 80 feet!

Looking back at the lock, with a bridge we had just gone under. I wonder what the lock looks like from the bridge.

We knew that once you go through a lock with a group of boats it does no good to go speeding ahead to the next lock – the lockmaster will just wait for everyone to get there before letting you lock through. So we followed 4 other boats to the next lock, like little ducks in a row.

When we got to the next lock there was a tow already in the lock, so we idled for a while until he got through. Once we got in, it went fairly quickly since the drop was only 30 feet. And then it was on to the third lock. Because of delays at the first two locks, five more boats were able to catch up to us within a few minutes of us getting into the lock. So there were 10 boats in the third lock! It was only a 20 foot drop,, so it went quickly.

Nine of the 10 boats were stopping at a marina just 4 miles after the lock. The dockmaster called us in to our assigned spot by the order in which we were coming in – we were  boat #3. Docking went very smoothly and soon we were at the marina office checking out all the amenities – the laundry facilities look phenomenal! And there’s a courtesy car so we can make a quick trip to the local Walmart for some groceries.

Because of our boat length and the fact that we’re a transient, we ended up as a side tie up on a dock exposed to the river. After being in a covered slip for nearly two weeks with nothing to look at but other boats, and not able to see more than a sliver of the sky, we were actually glad for this spot. We put our folding seats up on the bow, popped open a beer, and enjoyed the warm sun and fresh air.

And then there was the sunset –

Today was a very frustrating day. Our mechanic promised us yesterday that he would be done by noon today, but when he hadn’t shown up by 10:30, we knew he wouldn’t be done by noon. I headed to the service office to find out what was going on and met another guy who had worked on our boat last week. I talked to him about how I was ready to scream and yell and he explained that the general manager of the marina had suffered a heart attack on Monday and was going to have quadruple bypass surgery, the service manager was out with a broken rib, and two or three guys had called in sick today. He reminded me that you catch more bees with honey than screams so I went to the service dept. and politely asked if they knew when Michael might be coming back to work on our boat. Turns out he was in the shop finishing up some work on our engine cover and he was back on our boat with it 15 minutes later – I’m glad I didn’t get obnoxious with anyone. He put a couple of things back together and by then it was time for lunch. At that point we were still hopeful we would be able to leave tomorrow.

While Michael was at lunch, we took the boat to the fuel dock to get the holding tank pumped out. Rich decided to take the boat out a little ways to make sure all the instruments were working properly. We quickly discovered that the depth finder, speedometer, and autopilot were not coming up -@*%($# was all we could say. We didn’t want to leave if those things weren’t functioning, but we didn’t want to stay at this marina any longer either. Back to the slip and Michael was there to finish up. We told him about the problems with the instruments and he said he would see if he could get ahold of the electronics guy. At that point I was so frustrated I was ready to cry. Rich said it was like the song “Hotel California” – you can check out whenever you want, but you can never leave. I was feeling like we were going to have to change our address to Iuka MS and our boat would turn into a floating condo.

We’ve been here so long the leaves on the trees are beginning to turn.

Eventually the electronics guy and two others showed up – one guy left after half an hour, but the other two guys kept going through all the electrical systems, battery chargers, and anything else they could think of. We were sure there was going to be some major part that would need to be ordered and would take days to get in. We were ready to drown our troubles in adult beverages (it had to be 5 o’clock somewhere) because at that point it was cold, it was raining, we had no car to be able to get away, and it seemed like we were going to be stuck for who knows how long.

While the guys worked, Rich and I snacked on a regional cheese spread. In the Midwest we eat bar cheese spread – down here it’s pimento cheese spread.

Finally, about 6 o’clock they decided that the new AIS transponder that had been installed yesterday was causing the problem. As soon as they unplugged it, everything was working the way it should. Fortunately it isn’t something we absolutely need to continue the trip, so we’re going to leave tomorrow and get it figured out when we leave the boat to go home for Thanksgiving.

As my father would say, “God willin’ and the creek don’t rise”, we’ll be out of here tomorrow morning and in Fulton MS by mid-afternoon!

Long story on how we came to check out the lyrics from an old Jimmy Buffett song, but bottom line is we realized there was an even better name for our boat. But since our boat is already named and documented with that name, we’re not going to change it. However, we could name our dinghy with this name. What do you think?

The lyrics are from “The Pascagoula Run”and the lines that are applicable are

“It’s time to see the world

It’s time to kiss a girl (that would be Rich kissing me 😊)

It’s time to cross the wild meridian

Grab your bag and take a chance”

So should we name the dinghy Wild Meridian?

 

 

 

 

Someday we will get to leave this marina and continue on the loop, but it won’t be tomorrow or Thursday. If the stars all align properly, and parts come in when they’re supposed to, we might be able to leave Friday, but I’m not getting my hopes up. It seems like every time we think everything has been taken care of, we discover something else that should have been replaced earlier and wasn’t. I’m afraid to see how many boat units our bill will be!

We got the courtesy car late this afternoon and drove into Iuka to do some quick grocery shopping and pick up some BBQ for dinner. The courtesy car is actually a Dodge minivan with a key instead of a remote fob (how quickly we forget that cars didn’t always have fobs you could keep in your pocket) and the shifter on the dash. Yesterday they gave us an extended cab pickup because the minivan wasn’t available. You never know what you’ll get to drive!

We stopped at Lil Smokies, a popular local place, to get takeout BBQ for dinner. The inside was filled with coca-cola memorabilia, including this old cooler that they used for the counter where you pay.

And then there was the cackling broom that moved around like it had been mounted on a rumba!

Rich wanted to pick up some 3-in-1 oil and a special sealant and I wanted to pick up some salad greens and fruit, so we were looking for a hardware store and a grocery store. We saw a sign for Piggly Wiggly and Ace Hardware and thought how convenient that they’re next to each other. Turns out that Ace Hardware was INSIDE the grocery store! Again, not something that was on my bucket list, but definitely something I can say was a first time seeing.

As we walked through the produce section, I noticed a bin with pecans – and a sign that said $3.99/lb. Who can pass up pecans at that price? Certainly not me.

You pass over the Tenn-Tom Waterway on the way to Iuka from the marina. On the way back to the marina I made Rich slow down so I could take some pictures of it, which I hope we will actually be boating down in a few days.