Heading South

Oct. 30.  I choose to leave the following paragraph in place, as this blog is a record of our travels, and breaking the screen of the laptop certainly impacted my enjoyment of the trip!!!  I'm happy that all is well now, thanks to a relatively major donation to the coffers of the Computer Repair Store!
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Oct. 28.   NO PHOTOS at this time.  A few days ago, this MacBook Pro leapt from the table, made some deep gashes in the floor, and rendered the lower 1/2 of its' screen unusable.  While in Mobile, the plan is to find someone to make it whole again.  And then the box to click 'add' will magically re-appear and the blog page will be complete!   
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St. Louis, going south, is the gateway to the ‘goofy 200’.   We were told at Hoppies’ Marina that the River had crested (wouldn’t be rising any more) at 20 feet above normal.  We decided to give it a day to slow down, and so stopped at the Kaskaskia River Lock, an easy 35 or so miles from Hoppies.

We’ve never seen anyone working at that lock wall before, but this time, Charlie was pumping water out of the floating cells that make up the long lock wall.  Twice a year, he says, this is necessary due to condensation as well as rain collection and, of course, leaks. Of course.  Charlie, bless him, checked with Matt, who was in charge of the lock. Result?  We were invited to climb the ladder and visit the Visitors’ Center.

‘Twas an interesting adventure.  Made more fun by two facts---one is that the lockmaster always says  “Don’t climb the ladders” when we arrive. tee hee. The other is that we could be considered by some (certainly not us!) to be slightly less than spring chickens, and we wonder whether or not the invitation would have come, had Matt known…

Kaskaskia is a narrow lock; it only accommodates tows that are two barges wide.  Southern Illinois coal was its’ major shipment out before federal regulation sharply diminished the use of high sulfur content coal. Now, limestone goes into Southern Illinois via the Kaskaskia Lock, and is used to remove the sulfur dioxide from the emissions at the local power plant, where the local coal is burned.  Business and industry are very complex.

Later, we were joined at the lock wall by Brian and Terry aboard POSH.  They quickly left us in their wake the next morning when we both set out for the debris-filled scoot to Cairo.   And a scoot it was.  High speed (for us) and hand-steering (vs setting the autopilot and watching...) as the logs and

trees coming at us were constant.  We reached the turn into the Ohio River at Cairo, IL at 5:05 pm, and 8 miles (at a sudden speed drop to 8 miles per hour) later were peacefully anchored for the night.  We averaged 10.5 mph for the 11 hours we were underway! 

Two days later we tied up once again at Green Turtle Bay, and caught up  with CAROLYN ANN,  Joe and Punk Pica. 

 Concern about the deluges of rain became a thing of the past, as we’re now in waters whose levels are managed by dams with locks for us to pass through.

Funny sights along the Tennessee River---a Cyprus tree growing several feet from the shoreline (today, at least—shorelines are quite movable!) whose knees make it appear to be sitting on a table. 

  We marveled at the difference in housing on the two sides of the river.  On our left (the Right Descending Bank—rivers are so designated as they do not run cleanly from north to south.  But they are always flowing downstream, so we are ‘upbound’ on the Tennessee, as it is hurrying toward us as fast as it can go, so it can spill into the Ohio and then add to the fun on the Mississippi) is a manicured, high maintenance, lovely home with multiple garages and a multi boat boathouse.  On the opposite shore, a flood-protected dwelling---built on very high stilts, also with outbuilding--for an RV, not a BMW. 

 After pausing at Aqua Harbor, a few miles from the Shiloh battlefields of the Civil War,  we entered the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway for our seventh excursion to Mobile.

The morning was misty at first, then downright foggy,

but we were able to proceed with confidence as we were motoring (with radar) up the 20+ mile long Divide Cut---the largest undertaking to date by the Army Corps of Engineers.  The cut is just that. A chasm sliced through the land and dug to a water depth of at least 9’ to accommodate towboats.  A major project where only land had to be moved, a huge undertaking to allow the trains to continue on their tracks…

This Waterway changes every time we traverse it, and the 12 Tenn-Tom locks (the “Not-so-dirty-dozen” according to Fred Myers’ guide book) seem like a breeze after the 27 'less user friendly' locks of the Mississippi!

We made the ‘usual’ stops at Columbus, MS—once again spoke with but didn’t see Jan and Dan Barnett, my Aberdeen, SD classmate and her husband-- and Demopolis, AL, where the new Kingfisher Marina was pretty full of Loopers, and those hanging out above 32 degrees of Laittude until the hurricane season ends on Nov. 1.  (Our insurance allows us to be wherever we dare to be).  The phase two portion of the Marina is also well underway!  

Rafted 'gate to gate' with CAROLYN ANN

Marinas don’t happen much in the 216 miles between Demopolis and Mobile.     We found two great anchorages before the  Mobile skyline appeared on the horizon. We covered about 80 miles per day!  Fast for us!  

In Mobile, the Austal Company has the usual big, ugly boat out in front, but close inspection showed it to be number 6, not the number 4 we photographed a year ago. 

Guess they are working!  Work is progressing on the new Maritime Museum, and the Cruise Ship dock.  We'll have to be tourists and go see!

So here we are at Turner Marine in Mobile.  Will again leave YOUNG AMERICA here for a few days while I have a reunion with Nursing buddies Maureen and Freddie in Albuquerque.  Fred will go to Newburgh to hang out with daughter Linda, who is recovering at home from a knee replacement.

Until we talk again, be well, and do continue to breathe!