Nashville

Starting to see hills of Tennessee

Start to see hills of Tennessee

We departed Midway Marina at 9:15 am this morning. Three locks and fifty + miles and we arrived at Aqua Marina in Iuka, MS which is only two miles from the entrance to the Tennessee River. We have finished the Tenn-Tom Waterway. It is 450 miles from Mobile to Tennessee River. We started to see hills of Tennessee today. The countryside has sure changed since we left Gulf Breeze. No palms tree, few pines along the rivers. Some trees are just starting to change color. Fall is really going to look great along the river in October- we hope. We plan to stay here until Sunday watch football, go to church, and rest up. We then will be moving on to Tennessee. Clifton City Marina in Clifton, Tennessee will be our first stop. Then we will stop in Waverly, TN, New Johnsonville, TN, Buchanan, TN on the Tennessee River and Grand Rivers, KY on the Cumberland River. Things are going great: food is good, bed is soft, companion (1) is great, engine works and boat floats.

Nashville

In a Tenn-Tom Lock going up

Floating Bollard

We had another great day on the water. We toured Columbus, MS yesterday.  It is a pretty old southern town with many old homes and buildings in the historical district. We visited the 1850’s Waverly Plantation Home and drove around town. It is the largest town on our trip between Mobile and Nashville. We departed Columbus at 8:30 this morning and moved north to Fulton, MS to the Midway Marina. We arrived about 2 p.m. We had to go through four locks today. They are all the same—600’ long x 100’ wide with floating bollards. They each lifted us up 30 feet more above sea level. Tomorrow we depart for Aqua Yacht Harbor in Iuka, MS and the last of the Tenn-Tom locks. Three locks tomorrow with the last lock having a lift of 84 feet. We plan to stay most of the weekend at Aqua and see the start of football season. Go Vols and Tide. Tonight we met a couple (Kaleen and Dave Dixon) from Destin who are about to finish the loop. They have been traveling 7 months and are now on there way south to Destin to finish their great loop trip. They are excited. 

Nashville

Pirate's Marina Cove

 Mississippi University for Women

Tennessee Williams Home

We had a restful day yesterday at Pirate’s Marina Cove. Cooked breakfast, went to internet church- Calvary Chapel Gulf Breeze, did laundry and planned next legs of trip. It rained all day off and on. The cook was off last night so we had peanut butter sandwiches and watched CSI Las Vegas on the internet. We went to bed early. Only travel 30 miles today. We are now docked at the Columbus Marina in Columbus, MS. Columbus has over 200 antebellum homes. It was not destroyed during the Civil War because both sides had hospitals there and the local residents took care of them. This, also, is the site of the first Memorial Day celebration in 1866. We went downtown this afternoon to the Columbus Visitor’s Center which is housed in the house where the playwright Tennessee Williams was born (March 26, 1911). Columbus is also the home of Mississippi University for Women. The first public college for women in America (founded 1884). Tomorrow we are going to Waverley Plantation Mansion (Built 1852) and some others homes if time permits. We stopped by Wal-Mart for some food and water. We had Wendy’s for dinner. You can have fast food on a slow boat to Nashville.

Nashville

Sumter rec Area

Snagboat montgomery

Friday, August 27, we departed Demopolis and anchored out at the Sumter Recreation area.

http://www.recreationparks.net/AL/sumter/sumter-recreation-area-gainesville

Again we had no cell or anything. Had a brief thunderstorm – mostly wind and lighting, very little rain—anchors did fine and held. Wake to the sound of woodpeckers and crows. It was a very beautiful anchorage. We departed about 10:30 am Saturday ( August 28)  and got to Pirate’s Marina Cove, Pickensville, AL – about 20 miles south of Columbus, MS-- around  1:30 pm. The marina is near the Tom Bevill Lock and Dam. It is a nice small marina about a mile from the visitor center and snagboat.  We were in luck that we got here today. The reason we stopped here was to see the Snagboat Montgomery (http://montgomery.sam.usace.army.mil/ ) at the visitor center. The center is closed on Sunday and Monday. We borrowed the marina’s car and hurried over and got to see the boat and visitor’s center which is built like and old antebellum home. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Multimedia.jsp?id=m-2937  .  Tomorrow we will be leaving for Columbus Marina and are planning to stay a few days to see the city of Columbus, MS.

Bluff Hall Built 1832

Demopolis Marina

Gaineswood --built 1843-1861

Today has been a relaxing day- book reading and naps. Our family came and got the car (what a blessing-we really enjoyed it-- Thanks Ila) about 10:30 this morning and took it back to Linden. It has been Hot Hot all day. Yes, A/C is great!!! I finished planning our next leg of trip and programmed our GPS’s with the routes. We are ready to leave in the morning August 27th.We will be anchoring out at Sumter Recreation Area, docking at Pirate’s Marina Cove in Pickensville, AL, and Columbus Marina in Columbus, MS. Football season starts September the 4^th. Hope we can either see some games on the internet or the marina’s/our TV. We may have to call Columbus Marina to find out about their football TV schedule!!! Jo Ann has cooked chicken breasts, green beans, and mac and cheese and cookies with drink. We cook with a microwave, toaster oven and an electric skillet which will run on our generator or shore power.  Yesterday we toured the town and ate in Demopolis at Mister G’s. They have great pizza. After dinner, it will hopefully cool off a little. We can then fill our water tank (26 gallons) with water and give Adventure a bath. She still has some Gulf sea salt and mud from anchoring on her. I also post pictures on Facebook (Carl Woodall) - Gulf Breeze. Sometimes there are more pictures there then here on the blog. You will have to become one of our Facebook friends to see them however. Up early tomorrow and off we go. There is a good map of Tenn-Tom which may help with some of our locations at:

http://www.tenntom.org/MAINPAGES/ttwmaps.html

Nashville

We had a good day off. We had lunch here at the marina with our sister-in-law (Ila Wallace) and her niece Joan. Then went to Linden, AL to Ila's home and visited awhile. She have been really gracious and loaned us a car while we are here. Did laundry, went to Wal-Mart and had ice cream. Jo Ann  loves ice cream. For you that haven't been to a marina, they are like little towns on the river. They have fuel, pump out sewage service, electric service, water, store, showers, laundry, courtesy car, TV room, wifi, motel, restaurant etc. Not all marinas have all this. Bobby's just had gas. Cost to dock is from $.60- $2.00 a boat foot per night. Today we will become tourist of Demopolis. Also, need to work on what we will be doing next week.  We are planning to leave Friday (Aug 27) going north. For sure we want to stop at Tom Bevill lock and dam visitor’s center and tour museum. It has an old paddle wheeler on display. Oh no!!! We have ants. They came in over the dock lines. A new thing to learn --getting ants off the boat. 

Nashville