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