We've made it to Demopolis, Alabama, 32° North Latitude

Saturday, October 31

We’ve made it to Demopolis, Alabama, that all-important town that marks 32° north latitude on the Tenn-Tom Waterway and the beginning of the Tombigbee River. It’s the spot that we have to stay above until November 1 when hurricane season ends - and that’s tomorrow. It’s the insurance companies that make this rule, but we could have paid another $1,000 to be on our way. No thanks.

Daylight Saving Time also ends tonight. So sad. I do not like Standard Time and would abolish it if I had the power, keeping us on Daylight Saving Time year round.

Halloween is tonight and there’s a party in the marina. There are lots of boats here, partly for insurance reasons and partly because it’s supposed to rain for the next two days. We are on a dock that was built just this year. It’s beautiful, especially when compared to last Saturday’s dock in Smithville. It’s fascinating to be in this out-of-the-way place but to know so many of the people we see here. We met most of them in other places along the Loop.

Photos at Rattlesnake Anchorage

"Docktails" on top of Pearl.

Melinda on the Melinda B

Leaving the anchorage for the Tenn-Tom Waterway

This was our anchorage. With a name like Rattlesnake,
you don't really want to go swimming!

Photos of Columbus, Whindman and Rattlesnake

This shows how bad the floating plants are.
We had to navigate through them into the lock. 

Melinda B passing a tow "on the one" whistle. That means
"I am putting you on my port/left side when we pass."

Clouds by me, not Georgia O'Keeffe,
but similar to her painting in the Chicago Institute of Art.

Alabama 

Alabama

White egret

It is not a straight shot down the river !! 

White cliffs near Demopolis, Alabama

White cliffs

White cliffs

Attention, attention - I am caught up!

Hello everyone -

I have spent a whole day with good internet service and I have caught up from September 26 through October 28. Tah-dah! It only took me five months, but now that I have figured out the steps and technology of posting blogs, I think I can stay current.

Here's our third Statue of Liberty.
This one's on Main Street in Columbus, Mississippi

Photos of Columbus, Mississippi

Mrs. Snow poured her heart into renovating Waverley Mansion.

The front hall

View of the garden from the back porch

Alcove for weddings and funerals

The entrance hall

Looks like four stories, but really only two with an attic and a cupola

View of the front garden

One of two identical staircases

Brian made a friend

Brian and friend in front of Waverley Mansion

Possibly the oldest magnolia in America

An antebellum house in Columbus

and another 

and another

Beautiful but invasive hyacinth in the marina

Southern Plantation in Columbus MS

Still raining. We saw a movie yesterday, “Bridge of Spies”, starring Tom Hanks, about the US and the USSR trading a Soviet spy for the American airman, Francis Gary Powers, while weaving in the stories that led up to it. It’s very good.

We also visited an old 1852 plantation house, Waverley Mansion. It had fallen into ruin about 50 years ago, but a couple bought it and put it back in order. The man still lives there, but unfortunately, it’s starting to fall into ruin again because no one is keeping it up. It’s still an interesting place to visit. Possibly the oldest magnolia tree in America is in their front yard.

Chased by Hurricane Patricia

Chased by the Rain from Hurricane Patricia to Columbus MS

It’s raining here, as you can imagine. We’re in Columbus, Mississippi, in the middle of that straight border shared by Mississippi and Alabama. The Tenn-Tom makes a long S from the top of Mississippi to Demopolis, Alabama. We’re in a nice, calm marina with a roof over our boat! Many marinas here on the Tenn-Tom have covers over them, to keep off either the sun or the rain, or maybe both. It’s nice in a way, because we stay dryer, but we miss the wonderful sound of the rain falling on our boat.

For two days we made a bee-line to get here, knowing that the rain from Hurricane Patricia was coming. We stayed in the most awful marina in Smithville, MS, between the Fulton Lock and the Wilkins Lock. “Squalor” was the word that came to mind. But it was the only marina between the two locks, so that was it. On the other hand, however, we had one of the nicest “docktails” so far. Three other couples joined us on Pearl for snacks that made a meal, and we visited for about three hours. Our three tugs had been traveling together all day, and the fourth boat was a sailboat with its mast down for the river segments of the Loop. They were a young couple, the age of our children, taking a year off to do the trip. Most Loopers are retired and a few are taking time off like we are, but these were the first young couple we had met.

We’re staying here a couple of days until the weather settles down, then continuing south. Hurricane season ends on Sunday, November 1, when we will be free to go south of the 32° latitude. In Columbus, we plan to visit some antebellum houses, see a movie, do the laundry and some odd-jobs on the boat, and restock the groceries. If the weather clears, some guests might join the Melinda B to travel with us for a couple of days.

We’ve all agreed that fried food doesn’t really agree with us any more, and we’re all a bit tired of visiting Walmart.

There’s an invasive hyacinth growing in this marina that completely fills the empty slips and clogs the waterways. If we go through it, it can get tangled in our prop, but we have a cutter on the prop that would get it off.

It’s a good day for the captain to sleep in.

Photos of Smithville and Fulton on the Tenn-Tom

Straight sides indicate it's a man-made canal

Fatty Knees dinghy, tow with barges, Nordic Tug and American Tug

Drink a bite to eat at 10, 2, and 4.

A beautiful oak, but I can't name it. 

Brian watching a baseball game on his iPad
in front of the ice cream store in Fulton.

Fulton at 5 p.m.

Worst marina

Ugh

Clash of two cultures

Photos of the Tennessee River to the Tenn-Tom Waterway

Three weeks later, there's more color in the trees. 

This shows where the water from the dam lands in the river.
We are in the canal in the center of the screen; it leads into the lock. 

Melinda B in the lock

Old steam boat

Bob rows the dinghy.

Good morning!

A coyote?

Jet!

We share the river.

Turning off from the Tennessee River into the Tenn-Tom Waterway

Joy riding.

Spillway

At the top of the lock

At the bottom of the lock