Final Post

No, we are not still in Demopolis.

10/30

We departed Demopolis early and tried to get into Chicasaw Bogue, but after three bumps against the sandbar across the entrance, we gave up and headed for Bashi Creek.

Slow Dance headed out on their own and left us in their wake.

This was a nice anchorage with one other boat, but we had a devil of a time getting anchored. The Creek is very narrow, and with a single engine boat, it took a lot of maneuvering to get turned around facing into the wind. We dropped the anchor only to have the wind switch 180 degrees and blow us out past our anchor. We then tried in that direction, but the wind died and we just sat on top of the anchor without getting it set. Since it is difficult to back perfectly straight with the single engine, we mucked about quite a bit before we finally got the anchor set to our satisfaction.

Gail left a note for the Captain in the log - Happy Halloween, Captain!"

10/31

Another early departure for the 82 mile trek to Three Rivers Lake. As we passed Bobby's Fish Camp, Slow Dance joined us.

At Three Rivers Lake, Slow Dance rafted up with three other boats. There was lots of room and the anchoring was easy, so we anchored a short way inside of the rest of them.

11/1/07

Another early morning departure, and we arrived at Dog River Marina about 3 pm.

11l2

Left Dog River at first light and proceeded to Pensacola.

On the way we where overheard on the radio by Tom Conrad. He and Patsy welcomed us home.

 We were met at the Oyster Bar on Perdido Key by Marco and Virginia White and their daughter, Kim with her three small children. Shortly, lo and behold, Tom and Patsy Conrad showed up and joined the fesivities. We had a little champagne and lunch, then proceeded on to Pensacola Yacht Club. We were met at the club by more greeters, Eric and Peg , Todd and Kirsten, as well as Rhoda, Marriane, Ginger, Ernie and Janie from Gail's lunch bunch crowd.

This is how our adventure came to an end.

Demopolis

We are currently in the Demopolis Yacht Basin in Demopolis, AL. This is the last real marina we will see until we reach Mobile.

We hope to leave early in the AM and anchor at a place called Chickasaw Bogue. Wednesday will find us at anchor at Bashi Creek. 0n Thursday we hope to be able to get into a very basic, rustic marina called Bobbys Fish Camp. Friday will be another anchorage at Three Rivers Lake, Saturday at David Lake, and Sunday the Dog River Marina in Mobile. We will probably stay an extra day at Dog River, and Pensacola would be only a day away!

Weather, mechanical problems, and crowding of the marinas and anchorages could delay us along the way, but we are definitely on the home stretch. We are really looking forward to being back home!

Fulton, MS

Wow, we are finally able to access the blogger program!

We did travel upriver to Ft. Donelson, and we are very glad we did. The Cumberland River here is perhaps the prettiest river we had seen up to that point.

Here we are leaving Lake Barkley State Park.

We immediately encounter many more white pelicans.

And then even more!

The scenery soon turns from a lake into a river,

With rocky banks,

And the remains of the inundated forests below on our sonar.

This is our first view of Ft. Donelson, the same view that greeted General Grant when he came around the bend with his gunboats.

This is the Dover Hotel where General Grant received the surrender of 13,000 Confederate troops, the largest such surrender of the Civil War. The surrendering officer, a classmate of Grant's at West Point, asked what the terms of the surrender would be. Grant's answer: "Unconditional surrender," thus creating the story that his initials stood for; "Unconditional Surrender."

We turned around and entered Hickman Creek and spent a wonderful night anchored there while we watched groups of deer coming down to the shore to browse on the young grass and drink from the river. In all we saw a dozen deer.

This is "The Castle on The Cumberland," Kentucky's only maximum security prison. More than 160 inmates have been executed in the electric chair here.

Here is a view of our chart plotter showing us leaving Lake Barkley and entering the canal connecting Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake.

This is one of the clam boats which ply their trade on the Tennessee River. They drag what are called "brailles," which are arrangements of chains with soft hooks with little balls on their points across the clam beds. The clams grab the hooks and are hauled to he surface.

The fresh water clams have been eaten by indigious peoples for millenia. In more recent years they were highly prized for their shells which were turned into buttons until they were replaced by plastic. The shells, however, are still highly prized by the Japanese as the finest material used to "seed" oysters in the manufacture of cultured pearls.

This is the view cruising through the Barkley Canal.

Upon arriving at Kentucky Dam State Park Marina, we borrowed the courtesy car and made our usual pilgrammage to the Elk and Bison Prarie in the Land Between the Lakes.

This Bull Elk was kind of hanging around a large harem of cows being guarded by a very large bull that chased off all such yung bucks. We later heard him "bugling," a very impressive show.

We next encountered a large herd of bison, and got to take lots of pictures, because they blocked the road for some time.

This one was having a great time taking a dust bath.

0n Friday, 0ctober 19, we set out on a leisurely cruise up the Tennessee River [south], headed for Bay Springs Lake, formed by the first dam 0n the Tennessee Tombigbee waterway. This is a place we may use to wait out hurricane season in years to come.

The scenery on the Tennessee was really beautiful, but we were really interested to see Bay Springs Lake.

0n the way we encountered an old friend, the Delta Queen. She looks great coming and going.

When we got to Bay Springs Lake, we were not disappointed in the many delightful anchorages available to us. It is really a beautiful place, is within a days drive of Pensacola and has numerous campgrounds. A great hurricane retreat. Perhaps our most delightful encounter was when a flock of wild turkeys filed out of the woods and browsed on the lake shore for about a half hour while we followed them with binoculars.

Yep, we will definitely return to Bay Springs Lake.

We are currently tucked away at Midway Marina near Fulton, MS. A mass of warm air from the Gulf visited us with rain showers yesterday and a cold front came through today, so we will set out tomorrow. We will be stopping at places like Aberdeen, Colombus, Demopolis and various anchorages where we can find no marina. We won't be far from the Alabama-Mississippi border all the way to Mobile. 0ur goal is to be back in Pensacola by the 10th, but that is subject to the vagaries of the weather and other unplanned circumstances. We are really looking forward to our homecoming.

Cadiz, Kentucky

Sorry we have been so remiss lately.

We spent several days in Green Turtle Bay, then decided we wanted to see more of the Cumberland, and set out on the 28th.

We thought we would spend one night at Lake Barkley State Park Marina, but have been here a week. We got the dinghy motor running reliably, and have been visiting the Park Lodge on a regular basis in the dinghy, fun. The first night we were entertained by a very good Elvis impersonater.

We have had some excitement while we were here. The gentleman travelling with us that is a commercial fisherman got his ear pierced! He received a spinning rod and reel for his 60th birthday and decided to try his had fishing for large mouth bass, and prceeded to hook his right earlobe.

Luckily the other man we are travelling with is a Doctor and has his instruments with him.

While Jim grimaced, Bob shoved the hook all the way through.....

...and Elizabeth, Bob's wife, and Nuclear Medical Technician, snipped off the barb.

The reason we have stayed so long is that the weather is so good and the fact that we are in a covered slip gives us a perfect opportunity to refinish the hand rails.

Here's Gail doing the hard part.

This Cumberland River we are on is not only beautiful, but is rife with history.

In about 1699 a party of settlers, bound for Nashville set out down the Tennessee River on flatboats. Among them were Colonel John Donelson and his young daughter, Rachael. This harrowing journey included nearly wrecking on Mussel Shoals, where a Tennessee town of that name now lies, being caught in a whirlpool called "The Suck," and being harrassed and fired upon by hostile indians. As it turned out, the party on one of the flatboats found they were infected with smallpox, and held back to distance them from the rest of the party. Unfortunately the indians were able to overtake them and their screams from the torture by the savages haunted the rest of the group. It was little consolation to know that the entire tribe would likely be wiped out by the disease of their victims.

When they reached the mouth of the Tennessee, where it empties into the 0hio, at a place we passed a few days ago, they turned right and proceeded upstream on the 0hio! Flatboats are wooden barges that were designed to go downstream only. They are huge cumbersome vessels. When river men took their cargoes down to New 0rleans, they broke them up and sold them for lumber. It was unheard of to try to propel them upstream, but they did, by poling, and dragging them with huge ropes called cordelles, they travelled up the 0hio, then turned right once again and up the Cumberland, right past where we are now, to Naslhville.

It is interesting to note that the young Rachael Donelson went on to become our seventh First Lady, wife of Andrew Jackson. She is said to have carried some of her frontier ways to the White House, and was often seen smoking a corn cob pipe.

This morning we plan to venture upstream to the little town of Dover, TN where the battle of Ft. Donelson took place. The victories there and at Ft. Henry, nearby on the Tennessere River were the first major Union victories in the Civil War, and catapulted Ulysses S. Grant to national prominence. It is said that when Lincoln was exulting over Grant's victories, Grants's detractors told him that Grant drank a great deal of whiskey. "Find out what brand he drinks and send a case to all my Generals..." he said, "...that man fights."

We will anchor in Hickman Creek which was right in the midst of the hail of rife balls during the battle. We have checked with the Barkley Lock and the Lake is a little over 3 feet below "normal pool". The entrance to Hickman Creek is said to be 7 feet at normal pool. We draw 4 feet. Hmmmm... we shall see.

More about Ft. Donelson later.

We recently learned that Gail Thomas reads the blog to Aunt Eloise. So, hey, Aunt Eloise and thank you, Gail. We love and miss you both!!!!!

Farewell to our "Life on the Mississippi"

This picture is a kind of bittersweet moment for us.

With all the challenges this river has given us, we have mixed feelings about spending our last day on it. This is the sun setting while we are at anchorage just above Cairo, Il. Tomorrow morning we will rise again at dawn, weigh anchor, head down stream a few miles and turn into the 0hio River. We will undoubtedly return again to our dog eared copy of Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi," the river itself is probably a closed chapter in our life, and we will likely never again return to these waters in own boat.

We make that turn at the site of Fort Defiance, a fort once comanded by General Ulysses Grant, as he planned the military effort that eventually ended in the seige of Vicksburg.

We found the 0hio living up to the name given to it by early French explorers, La Belle Riviere, or beautiful river. It is that, but it is also very heavily populated by tow boats in places.

Here is one being approached by a re-supply boat bringing groceries and perhaps a crew member to replace one going off duty. The tows run day and night, not stopping for such activities.

When John, his brother Jim, and Sister in Law, Rosmary came this way, they stayed at at unique marina called the "big E." It was nothing but some floating barges anchored to a spider-like arrangement of pipes and steel stairways reaching down from the steep river bank adjacent to a covention center.

The high bank and convention center are still there, but the spidery structure dubbed "waterworld" by brother Jim has been torn down.

0ur planning paid off. There were reports of long delays at locks 52 and 53. 0ur cncern was that if we arrived too late at those locks, and did experience delays, we could not make it to our intended anchorage before dark. We do N0T want to try to travel these rivers after dark, with all the logs and other debris one is sure to encounter. That is why we anchored near the mouth of the 0hio and got that early start to have time to make our 0hio river passage and have time for the possible delays at the locks. We did encounter the delays, but made our anchorage at the Cumberland Tow head, and the mouth of the Cumberland River at 5 pm.

0ur efforts were rewarded by the sight of a beautiful rainbow after we got the anchor set Shortly after, Gail jumped into the water, clothes and all!!!!

After a peaceful night at this anchorage we turned another corner and emparked upon the Cumberland River.

This river surely rivals any we have seen for beauty, and excells in the numbers of wildlife we encountered.

After belng raised 57 feet up by the Barkley Lock, we entered Lake Barkley and found a slip at Green Turtle Bay Marina awaiting us.

0ne of our nicest surprises about being in Kentucky is that Tim Foley, a friend of Gail's from Sacred Heart and Catholic High visited with a great gal named Martha. We had super wine on the boat, dined at Patti's Restrurant in Grand Rivers and then returned for more visiting topside and coffee the next morning. It was a great visit. Thanks, Tim for coming. We loved seeing you!!!

...0ld friends!

Tim examining the charts!

Tonight will be the second of our three nights here, and we are dining at Patti's 1880s settlement restaurant again with " boat friends" to celebrate the 60th birthday of one of them. Patti's is definitely a tradition for us when we are in this area.

Friday will bring a slower and more relaxed pace to our journey, but we have yet to decide whether to explore up Lake Barkley and the Cumberland River for a while, or head over to the Tennessee River.

We will let you know.

Boston Bar

We were unable to blog last night, but here we are anchored in a less than desirable anchorage right on the Mississippi, about 7.5 miles north of the mouth of the 0hio River. We are downstream of a little island, so we are out of most of the 4 mph current.

This is the mouth of the Kaskaskia River as we left at dawn.....

...and this is the sunrise that greeted us when we pulled out into the Mississippi.

We found the current to be 4 mph

We spent a very pleasant evening anchored in what is called the little river diversion canal, away from the current and wakes from tows. The next morning we were off again at sunrise.

This day the river was not so straight.

In one curve like these, John called as we approached, and got no answer. When we entered the top of one very sharp bend we saw a tow coming. We called and asked which side he wanted us to pass. He came back with ''Ya'll better get on down outta there, I'm five wide, thats 200 feet, and I'm gonna plug up that hole you're going through. You can bet we pushed up the power and shot that gap!

Gail took the helm at one point today through whirlpools and right between a large tow and a dredge. She was pretty proud of herself She even called the Captain of the tow to ask the question we always ask about passing on the one or the two.

Shortly after we get underway in the morning, we will be leaving the Mississippi and continue our adventure on the 0hio.

Kaskaskia - in the tracks of Gail's ancestos

We floated down the Mighty Miss just like Tom Sawyer and Jim. We floated past St. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau, settled by the French and located where, some maintain, "The South Begins." Hurray!

Tom and Jim encountered whirlpools that spun their raft around.

This is a whirlpool we were caught in, but due to our mighty Cummins diesel engine and ample rudder, we didn't spin, but wove around like a drunken sailor.

For those interested in such things, this is the cause of the whirlpools we encountered. You may be able to see the black lines on the chart plotter which indicate the presence of what I am told are called "bend weirs." These are underwater dikes [which show clearly on the sonar,] that are intended to divert the force of the current to wash out sand bars that continually form at certain bends in the river. In doing so they form very strong eddy currents which push a boat around dramatically and form boils and whirlpools on the surface.

Gail was impressed with the beauty of the river. It sure dosen't look like the Mississippi that we all know in New 0rleans!

As we recently read:

"The song of the river ends not at her banks, but in the hearts of those who have loved her." Buffalo Joe

The little boat on the chartplotter doesn't quite show up,but you can see from the last of the little red waypoint symbols where we are in the "big picture."

We have entered the mouth of the Kaskaskia River. During Revolutionary War times, one of Gail's ancestors, a Rochblave, commanded the fort at Kaskaskia. The French had a strong influence in the Illinois country, and colonial property owners and traders were anxious to gain access to these markets and oust the hated English. 0ne of them, one George Rogers Clark, older brother of William Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame, was comissioned by the Governer of Virginia to mount a military expedition against the English and their allies, the French. Why Virginia? That colony claimed as their western boundary, the Mississippi. Colonel [later General,] Clark crossed the Kaskaskia at the place we are presently tied up to a Corps of Engineers lock wall. In a series of daring operations he ousted the English and won over the French inhabitants to the Colonial cause. Virginia passed legislation making Illinois a county in Virginia.

Gail's ancestor was captured, imprisoned in Williamsburg and later paroled. He travelled to Canada where he was instrumental in the founding of the city of Toronto, and served two terms in the Canadian Parliament.

Hoppes

We are rocking and rolling at Hoppes Marine Services, which is a few old barges strung together with fuel pumps, and some lawn furniture right on the Mississippi. No breakwater, and when a tow or big boat goes by, we feel it big time.

Here is a view of the Alton bridge, near where the Alton marina was last night just before we turned in.

Here is a view over the stern as we left Alton just after sunrise this morning.

We called Lock 27 and were told we could lock through in 15 minutes. As a tow boat left the lock, he warned us about a 70 ft. log in the lock chamber! He was right. It was crosswise in the entrance to the lock. There was a small space on each side of it. Gail said ''go left,'' John, in his wisdom chose right -- wrong. Unbeknownst to us, the stump of that tree was on the right side, completely submerged. We approached very slowly, and gently RAN AGR0UND! -- in the lock, on a tree.

We immediately reversed and backed off the tree, dragging it for a while. Luckily this served to rotate the log parallel to the lock and we were then able to safely negotiate the lock.

Miss Gail was significantly displeased about the entire affair.

This is a view back at the infamous Lock 27.

This is the mouth of the Missouri River. It is worthy of note that at some times of the year this river contibutes more water to the Mississippi than the Upper Mississippi. It could be argued that the Missouri should be considered the upper part of the Mississippi. If it were, it would be the longest river in the world

There is a twofold significance to this picture. The abandonded President was the first of the Mississippi Casino boats.

The boat lays at the mouth of the Wood River at Wood River, IL. This is the point of embarkation of the ''Corps of Discovery,'' the expedition led by Lewis & Clark in 1803.

As we passed St. Louis, we saw two important structures. In my view this is the more interesting. This bridge was designed by a man named Eads. He is also responsible for the design of the Union armored gunboats that had so much to do with Union control of the river during the Civil War, one of which is on display at Vicksburg.

The bridge was the first major bridge built across the Mississippi. Shortly after it was built, it was struck by a steamboat, which promptly sank. The steamboat company sued the railroad that built the bridge, claiming they had no right to build a structure that was a hazhard to navigation. The case was won for the railroad by a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln.

This is the other architectural feature of note in St. Louis.