Day 29

Today we got out of the marina at about 9am. Our goal is to be to Demopolis by Friday. We are sick of the crummy weather and we are trying to get south as fast as we can. Then we plan on spending more time in the gulf. We are going downriver now, so we should be making better time. We are cruising down a river called the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. (Otherwise known as the ten-tom) This is a man-made river that connects the Tennessee river to the Tombigbee river and then on to the gulf. The project started in 1972 and ended in 1985, and they moved 3 times more earth than the Panama Canal. One of the largest projects the United States Army Corp of Engineers ever completed. As a result they created 10 man-made lakes and require 12 locks to maintain the water level. It is a pretty impressive feat.

We are still having problems communicating with the natives. The towboat captains use different language, than those on the Ohio, who happened to be different than the Mississippi. Mostly Grant just pretends that he understood what they said. The lockmasters have been kind of unhelpful also. We can’t always understand their “southern drawl” and feel idiotic asking them to repeat themselves several times. They usually repeat themselves twice and then ignore us. So we just wing it. Not sure if they just don’t like northerners or if we need a translator. An old guy at the last marina scared the crap out of Tabbie by calling her a Yankee, but then started laughing and said, “That’s ok, I’m from Illinois.” She ran down the dock and back to the boat as fast as she could.

We just kept plugging on and made it through 3 locks today and docked ourselves at Midway Marina in Fulton. Neat story about the marina is that the couple that currently own it were just passing by and came in to stay for the night, ended up liking it so much that they bought it and have lived here ever since. It is a very “community” orientated marina. No locked gates, a lounge where everyone likes to hang out, and people as friendly as they can be. In fact they are almost over friendly. By the time that we pulled in here, there were so many people on the dock helping, bellaring, yakking away that it tends to make someone who is just looking to settle in, quite crabby. But after tying down, taking a shower and making a little diner, life was a lot better. They even had a hot tub, which we were very thankful for. I think that we are going to stay for a few days. So much for Demopolis by Friday.