Travel Stirs the Blood

BOBBY'S FISH CAMP--NEXT MORNING!!!

Getting a free ride on the floating tree . Lots of wood all the way down river.

We stayed at a beautiful anchorage Three Rivers Lake with three other looper boats. It was a great anchorage and highly recommended. "Travel not only stirs the blood...it also gives strength to the spirit" Kahn. This indeed is true. We are now in Mobile at Dog River Marina. Our friends from Smugglers Cove are picking us up tomorrow Wed. Nov. 18 to spend a few days with them at their condo on Orange Beach. We will then be going back to Ky for 3 days with Tansy and the kids. Captain John and I are planning on getting haircuts etc. We are getting a little fuzzy after 2 months on the water. I think a nice pedicure would also be in order! We'll then drive my car to Atlanta to see Cait and her boys then back to Mobile and tally ho! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Free At Last

Mobile Skyline

It's hard to describe the feeling of reaching Mobile Bay from the lower black warrior-tombigbee water way. Those of you who've done it may know the feeling, but I felt so free. No locks to hold us back. No shores to confine us. Everything is open and wide and the world is now available to us. Then again, it is wide and open and awesome with large ships and small markers that you often can't see pointing the way.

Large tanker on the Bay

Navy stealth ship due to take maiden voyage the following day!

But I shouild tell you about the trip down river first. We finally left Demopolis Friday, Nov. 13!! The day wasn't as bad as we were concerned it would be given the date. The dock owner and others were still recommending that folks wait a little longer given the flooding conditions,debris and current. But Captain John and I felt we could handle the situation since our boat has two cummins 370HP engines and we have eagle eyes due to swarovski binoculars. Even though we were held up due to fog, we made the lock through the Demopolis lock at a reasonable hour and were on our way. The current was very swift adding approximately 5MPH to our cruising speed. The amount of large trees going our way made it interesting and the lack of red and green buoys intriging. Were they misplaced or lurking under water ready to attack the first prop ? We met up with three other loopers and really had an almost pleasant trip. We made it to Bobby's Fish Camp by 2:00PM our preferred stop time. All our other partners anchored north of us. I had been hearing about Bobby's for the last two years and wanted to partake of the "best fried catfish ever" I did and it was!! More river trip to follow

BOBBY'S FISH CAMP

Sittin' at the Dock of the Bay

White Bluffs near Demopolis

Midway Marina--Fulton, Mississippi

Columbus, Mississippi

Interesting!!

Sittin' at the Dock of the Bay Waitin' for the wind to go away!! James Taylor might not like this new version of his song, but it's exactly what we have been doing for the last several days. The reason is Ida, the hurricane that hit the Gulf last night and is spreading rain and heavy wind up the lower Tombigbee where we are located.

We had a nice cruise down river from Grand Harbor Marina to Midway to Columbus in Mississippi along to Demopolis, Alabama. The town of Demopolis is very interesting and I have become VERY knowledgeable about it's history. The town was founded primarily by French supporters of Napoleon Bonaparte who fled France when he was defeated at Waterloo in 1817. They had planned to grow grapes and olives here but it didn't work and the history moves on from there. Lots of neat houses from the 1850's. The town is situated in the heart of the Black Belt, a wide band of fertile black soil stretching across central Alabama that is home to great cotton plantations and, therefore, a concentration of black slaves. With an economy based on slaves and cotton, Demopolis was a hub of support for secession from the Union. It is also located on two navigable rivers leading to Mobile and the Gulf of Mexico. It's very cool, but with the economy today it has been hard hit like many other small towns across America.

Captain John decided ( and I hardily agree) that we will stay here until the winds and rain calm down. We are not familiar with cruising in this kind of weather. I'm not even familiar with sitting in this kind of weather. The wind has been blowing since 9:00 pm last night and is still strong. Hurricanes unlike tornadoes last a long time with relentless wind and rain. Tornadoes seem to strike more quickly. Anyway I can finally catch up with the blog. As I stated previously ,if the sun's shining I WON'T BE BLOGGING!! Actually, I am getting quite tan and my bones are finally warm. We have a few more pics to send along so I'll do a couple of pages of those. Until next time!