Nashville

Adventure at home for a rest

Thank you God for your love and protection

We are home from Nashville. We departed 09-18-2010 for Nashville and arrived home11- 10-2010 @ 3:30 p.m. What a wonderful trip. We got great service on our fuel filter problem. We just needed to change the fuel/water filter and the engine ran great. This is a must spare part to carry. Also, I will have the filter changed every time we have the oil changed. We got great service at Dog River Marina by D & D Marine. I would call them again for outboard service. They met us at the dock and were out the next morning with the part. We departed Mobile, AL at 9:30 am and arrived at our house at 3:30 pm (low tide—we cross a 2.5 foot bar coming into the canal). It looks like we averaged about 12.5 mph on the trip from Mobile. We had to get up at 1 a.m. to move the boat into lift at high tide. The next few days will be getting the house ready for Thanksgiving and we have lots to be thankful for. Also, we will have to get use to our old bed and being in a house. It does not have the same feel, smell, or sounds as the boat. We thank you God for your love and protection. Also, thanks to all of you who followed our trip and prayed for us. This will be our last Nashville post. We are planning another trip for the spring and will be letting you know its details soon. Thanks again everyone for your support. Jo Ann and Carl

Nashville

Yesterday was our 30^th  wedding anniversary. What a wonderful day. We did not even forget it. We have been known to the next day look at each other and say “You know what yesterday was?" For our anniversary we were anchored at Alabama Cut off on the Tombigbee River about 50 miles north of Mobile, AL. Last night for our special meal we had special tuna fish with nuts and grapes and apples sandwiches, potato chips, Chips Ahoy white fudge chunky cookies and Riunite Lambrusco wine. It was great. We had to run the generator last night for heat. The generator stopped about 4:30 am when it ran out of gas. It was a little cold this morning - 42F outside; but it was only 53F inside. Makes you get up and move. It is foggy outside and we will have to wait until about 8:30 or 9:00 am for it to burn off. We are at Dog River Marina in Mobile tonight. Repairman met us at the dock. It looks like we have water in the fuel. We will try changing the main fuel/water filter and see if that fixes our problem. We have low power and engine hunting for rpm 500-1000 rpm mainly above 3000 rpm after 1.5 hours of operation. Tonight we had blackened grill cheese sandwiches and soup. I know they would be a hit in New Orleans if they only knew about blackened grill cheese. We have 75.8 miles to go to our house – no more locks. It depends on the repairs when we can leave Dog River Marina in Mobile, AL.

Nashville

Our little Heater

We are still setting (11-6-10) at Demopolis, AL waiting for the winds on Mobile Bay to calm down. It is forecast to be good weather (wind) Monday- Wednesday in Mobile. We are planning to leave early tomorrow (Sunday, 11/07) and go to Bobby’s Fish camp.  A boat had a fire at Bobby’s last week but they are still pumping fuel and have dock space. The marina here has put a one day stay limit on new transits. They just got too many big boats to handle. The temperature has been forecast to be 29 F but we only got down to 44 F. Our little heater is doing the job. Also, we have a heat strip in the A/C unit. We have not had to use the A/C for additional heat. Our boat is so tight that we have to leave a window open to let the moisture from our breath out. The walls and windows sweat if we leave all the windows closed. The temperature was another factor in us deciding to stay in Demopolis. Here we could use their AC current and not just have our generator to power the heat. It is forecast to warm up this coming week. Also, another big factor was today is game day. Alabama vs. LSU. At 2pm we will be going to the restaurant to see the game. Tennessee and Memphis is on pay for view. Nothing really exciting has happened here at the marina since the Coleman’s left. The boaters meet each day at about 4:30 pm to tell stories, drink beverages, and ask questions about where they are going. We have met some interesting folks and heard some great stories. We have lost our little camera again. We left it in Columbus going up and now it is on the boat somewhere we hope. It is lucky for us we brought the old camera as a back up. It has served us well. Sad day -- ALA 21 LSU 24. A first Jo Ann could not finish her bowl of ice cream last night!!!! They give a very large bowl at Demopolis Yacht Basin Restaurant. We are now docked at Bobby’s Fish Camp –Bladon Springs, Alabama (11-07-10). Tomorrow Ala cutoff—anchor out.

Nashville

Dinner at Demopolis Yacht Harbor RV Park

Marina Restaurant Turtles

Downtown  Demopolis, AL setting on white cliffs along river

We are now at the Demopolis Yacht Harbor. Looks like we will stay until Thursday, the weather is forecast for rain Tuesday and Wednesday. We have 2 more locks, 2 anchor outs, Bobby’s Fish Camp and one or two dockages before home. Our next major stop will be at Eastern Shore Marine in Fairhope, AL. The Coleman’s arrived in Demopolis today around 12:30 with shrimp, chips, pumpkin pie, and candy. We ate all of it. We had a great time visiting. Monday, we had lunch at the marina restaurant. Everyone had a great meal- salads and sandwiches. Jo Ann had a large bowl of cinnamon ice cream. Surprise! Surprise! They came in their camper and will be able to park here at the marina campground. Scout and Mary and their cat friends are with them. We had great grilled hamburgers and a picnic by the river for dinner. Great fun! A large tug pushing fuel barges came by last night with all its lights lighting up the night. It was very pretty. We could here the low powerful tone from the diesel engines as it went down the river. They sounded even better than a v- automobile or an old airplanes rotary engine in the still river air. This morning we all sleep in. It was an 80% change of rain today and tomorrow. We have had very little rain so far. The Coleman’s left Demopolis about 10 o’clock. Thanks Coleman’s for coming to see us we really enjoyed it. Hope to see you in Fairhope. This afternoon we went to Wal-Mart to get water and stuff for the rest of our trip. We are stocked up. I am posting a picture of all the river turtles that hang out below the walkway to the restaurant. We learned we had to save some of our french fries so we could feed them. They expected it. However there is not turtle on the menu. Tomorrow is a rain day so there will be lots of naps, reading, and planning going on. We are planning to stop at Bashi Creek- anchor (Thur.), Bobby’s Fish Camp- dock( Fri and Sat), Alabama cutoff ( our gator stop)(Sunday) and then Fairhope at Eastern Shore Marine (Monday). Mobile Bay is calling for light chop Sunday. We will have to watch the weather forecast for Mobile Bay.

Nashville

Deer swim

White cliffs around Demopolis, AL

Adventure on short dock Sumter Rec Area

Sumter Rec Area 

Our first bad weather has been this week. We had hail and thunderstorms at Midway Marina (Sunday) and at Columbus Marina we had wind, rain and thunderstorms (Mon, Tues, and Wed.).  However, today (Thur.) we have another beautiful day on our trip. We departed Columbus Marina, MS at 9:50 a.m. (10/28). It was later than planned because we had to wait 1.5 hours for the Stennis lock. We had two commercial tows in front of us. We locked with 3 other boats. We saw more tows today than we saw on our whole trip up-7 carrying coal, fuel, mulch, sand, and scrap metal. We  docked(10/28) at a little short dock at Sumter Recreation Area about 3 miles north of Howell Heflin Lock or about 50 miles north of Demopolis, AL. It helps to only need 11 inches of water to float. However, we do have 3.8 feet here at dockside. This is one of the prettiest anchorages on the Tenn-Tom. The temperature is going down into the 40’s tonight. It was cold last night. Today, (Friday 29) down from our anchorage at Sumter we had 3 deer swim across the Tenn-Tom in front of us. I have never though of deer swimming that big of distance before. We also, passed the white cliffs in the area. We are now docked at Demopolis, AL for a few days. The Coleman’s are going to visit with us a few days. It is going to be great fun. We only have 2 more locks to go. We are looking at Mobile Bay weather and tropical storms as we get closer to home. They both will determine our return home date.

Nashville

Pre -Civil War Church use a stable and blacksmith shop

T S Stribling Home and Museum

Ice Cream Time in Linden, TN with Jimmy and Eunita

Clifton Marina with yacht Door Prize coming in

Tonight we are in Fulton, MS at Midway Marina. Rain and thunderstorms are around but have not happened yet.  We have had a great week. We had a fun stop at Clifton Marina. Thursday our cousins Jimmy and Eunita came over and showed us around the area. What a fun day. We had lunch, ice cream, and happy hour on the dock the other seven boats that came in.. Also, talked- Woodall’s don’t have much to say when they get together. I am sure we solved the entire world’s problems if only someone would ask us. Did you know there was a 1933 Pulitzer Prize winning author T. S. Stribling who lived in Clifton? He won the prize for “The Store”. They have a museum and library in his old home. Also, there is a golf club, pre-Civil War Presbyterian Church and a pretty little town. We drove to Linden, TN for lunch at the Commodore Hotel. So, so food at hotel but the Dairy Bar in Linden had great food. Alabama had a good game Saturday. Tennessee had a good first half. Oh! Well there is always next year. The trip has been going excellent with only a few problems. We got some bad gas along the way and have been cleaning the filters and putting in Star-tron and getting new gas at each stop. Hopefully this will fix the problem. We will need to change the engine gas filters when we get home. The engine is currently losing 500-1000 rpm intermittently at 3200 rpm and then comes back to it original setting.  It starts good and runs ok at low rpm. It worked great all day yesterday and today until about a mile from Midway Marina tonight. Hopefully tomorrow it will run good and we will get all the way to Columbus Marina.

Nashville

Houseboat- just looking for a lot???

Just out for a little roughing it!!!

Adventure and friends!

Well here we are at Paris Landing State Park Marina on the Tennessee River. Bye, Bye Cumberland River. We had a great time at Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, KY. If you can not have a good time there you must be dead. They have condos, a health spa, boat rentals, golf and a great little town. We went to the playhouse twice and saw Smoke on the Mountain and a Varity show. The same cast did both productions. They were both good but the Varity show was better. The Varity show had music from the 60’s, Motown, disco, gospel, and more. We, also, ate at Patti’s twice. Both meals were great. When we left home we were sure we would lose weight on the boat trip. Wrong. We have eaten our way across the south. Tonight is a buffet at the park lodge with, roast beef, catfish, pork loin and fried chicken with dressing, vegetables, salad bar, rolls, hushpuppies, assorted desserts and ice cream. All you can eat $8.95. No weight loss tonight. The weather has been great in the 70’s during the day and upper 40’s at night with no rain. Leaves are starting to become orange and red however; there is still a lot of green. Green Turtle is the land of big boats and I mean big like hotels. We have a few pictures.  Jo Ann had a good football weekend Alabama won. Tennessee took the week off to rest up for the game this Saturday. Tomorrow we go to Pebble Isle Marina and then to Clifton City Marina, TN. Our Friday and Saturday stop will be at Aqua Marina in Iuka, MS for the game of the year Tennessee vs. Alabama. One of us will be a winner or a loser.