Day 34

We woke up this morning at 5:30 so we could break at dawn to begin another day on the river. Unfortunately it was so cold overnight (28 degrees) that it was still bitter cold at sunrise which caused significant fogging over the river. We decided to try and realized once we got on the main channel that seeing logs and not being able to see the buoys was a bad idea, so we turned back to wait a couple hours for the fog to clear. We left again at 8:30 only to find we had another problem, the starboard engine was hesitating ever couple of minutes as though it was not getting fuel. Since there was no marina south for over 100 miles we decided the best decision would be to head back and try to diagnosis the problem. Grant determined it was likely either the fuel filter or the water separators (both part of the same unit), so he called Cliff (the marina owner) and told him of our problem. Cliff told him he would stop by Napa and pick up a new filter on his way to the marina to try that. Grant replaced the filter, and we took the boat out on the river to test the fix, and yet again, we were lucky and the problem appeared to be fixed. The only problem is that it was already early afternoon, and there was no way we would be able to make it to Demopolis, so we were stuck for another day in Bumbleweed (Columbus), Mississippi…

Well, Cliff came through. He told us he had a courtesy vehicle we could use to run into town for dinner if we liked. Tabbie needed a few things at Wal-Mart, so we headed into town later in the afternoon to grab supplies, and a bite to eat at the local Pizza Hut. There is one main drag that has all of the retail for Columbus that we could tell, and it seemed every other shop was a “Cash for Titles” store. And the crazy part was the vehicles you saw on the road. They are either worth less than $3,000 or over $30,000… (must be the $30,000 vehicles are owned by the Cash store owners! Seems to be a bit of a discrepancy between economic classes down here.

Back to the marina to check the forecast for tomorrow. Uh oh, calling for rain all day…