More Rivers (part 2)
Before we left for this trip, many people we talked to assumed we would be insanely bored on “all those rivers with nothing to do.” Well, they were wrong. The first half of the rivers from Chicago was mostly spent attempting to figure out where to go and how to not die or be run over by a barge. That was fun. Now past the stressful difficult part, it was a pretty straight and easy shot to continue south. Between creating new ways to stay warm, reading, and attempting to write blog posts and writing postcards instead, we stayed pretty busy. However, other than the frantic dash to escape cold weather, there is pretty much nothing interesting to report from this section of the trip. Sorry. Our lives turned into a series of anchorages, occasional marina stops, accidently following Dan and Donna on Syzygy to almost every overnight stop, and staring at trees for hours on end. Woo. I went through our ship’s log and wrote down every interesting event over a span of two weeks. Enjoy.
Ditch
Ran out of fuel for the dinghy, got to practice rowing across the bay
Locks locks locks
Flower winch
Locks locks locks
Columbus marina for routine mold killing
John Walton drove over from his work to take us to dinner!! Thanks John! Great to see a familiar face
Pink sunset
Just barely warm enough for drinks on deck once
“recreational vehicle,” Emily’s term for us to a lock master instead of “recreational vessel”
ALABAMA
Tombigbee Oxbow, thunderstorm
Demopolis, unsuccessful hamburger quest
Picked cotton
Early morning fog travel
“I’m on a Boat”
Highway bridge raft off- nowhere to stop, so we just pulled over to the side of the river under a bridge and rafted up with two other sailboats
Almost hit a deer
Emily danced for 3 miles worth of steps (exercise and for generating warmth)
Found Syzygy in a creek in the middle of nowhere for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Locked through with a 5 barge tow
(a bit unnerving to sit and watch as it got closer)
“Why won’t it ever get warm?”
Hamburgers on Syzygy, the most amazing miraculous burgers I’ve ever eaten in my life
Anchored in a creek that looked like the jungle
No alligator sightings :(
Always following Syzygy
Spanish moss in trees, it should be warm here!
Scummy lock walls
84 feet up
Being lit up by a passing barge, not fun
Midnight barges are like UFOs
