Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Final Post
Monday, October 29, 2007
Demopolis
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!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Fulton, MS
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.
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 the view cruising through the Barkley Canal.
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.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Cadiz, Kentucky
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.
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!!!!!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Farewell to our "Life on the Mississippi"
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.
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.
Tim examining the charts!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Boston Bar
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.