SMELLIN da ROSES, Part 2-u.
Saturday , 6 September. We decided to stay another day at Bird Song Marina. This little rustic marina and campground resort is most friendly and accommodating. We have the use of their courtesy car again today and went to see the Civil War Museum - the marina even called the museum to be sure it was open!
A few loads of wash were done, Judy defrosted the freezer, John worked on organizing Howard's digital photo's and some of his own on the MacIntosh G-4; John vacuumed the Two J's V and Howard did some vacuuming on the Marge's Barge (debug the place).
After lunch we took the marina's courtesy car and drove out to see the Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park which is the site of the Civil War Battle of Johnsonville on the Tennessee River - one of the few battles won by the Confederates and the only Naval battle won by a Calvary and Artillery force against a Naval force. The victory to destroy Union supply lines did not mean much because Union General Sherman had already decided that he no longer need the Kentucky-Tennessee supply line and could live off the land until he reached the East coast.
If it sounds like we are learning a bit about American history while cruising, you are right. We are also learning lots about our wonderful country and its people. The folks in Kentucky and Tennessee give new meaning to the words Southern Hospitality - they simply can't do enough to make our stay enjoyable.
Since John has been learning their new HP Computer and has gotten somewhat brave, he decided to try to download Howard and Maggie's digital photo's onto the HP IBM format and burn CD-ROM's all of which worked fine. The objective is to free the Marge's Barge computer of valuable memory and/or the number of floppy disks to store photo's as well as transfer the digital photo's onto the Two J's computers. The CD's worked fine on the Two J's new HP - Windows XP; their old IBM clone - Windows 98; their new MacIntosh G-4; but did not work at all on the Marge's Barge IBM computer - Windows 98 - it would not even recognize the named CD in the D drive! (if any of the computer geeks on our log list have any ideas, please send us an Email). The best guess at this point is that there is a problem with the CD-ROM plug in unit. He finally got it to load but it was slow - thinks it may be a hardware vs software problem???
Sunday, 7 September. Enough computer frustrations - we are having fun boating again. We left the wonderful hospitality of Bird Song Marina at about 8:45 AM and continued up bound on the Tennessee River which is mostly South on our boat compass. But, according to river navigation is considered North bound by the lock masters and bridge tenders, because all rivers flow South no matter what direction the boat is actually going therefore going upstream is always going North bound. Distance traveled today was 38 miles - against a minimal current. We arrived at the Mermaid Marina in Decaturville, TN at 12:45 PM. The guide book said that the restaurant here (second floor of the barge store and office) had a seafood buffet dinner on Saturday and Sunday nights, so we planned on eating at the marina's restaurant - no buffet on Sundays (out of season) but we ate here anyway. Very good catfish, boiled shrimp, cowgirl chicken and lemon-pepper chicken - no room for dessert! Today was a beautiful day - warm, a bit humid and hazy, but with beautiful scenery. We are now below Kentucky Lake and into the actual the Tennessee River (river narrows to about 400 yards wide) for another 75 miles plus or minus.
Monday, 8 September. We set the alarm clocks to get up early because we have a 68 mile, plus one lock today because the Clifton marina we planned on stopping at was closed for complete dredging and reconstruction. Upon opening the blinds knew we were not going to get an early start because we were completely fogged in. We finally got underway at 9:05, but the first hour was a little challenging going in and out of heavy fog patches - some reducing visibility to less than 50 yards - thank heavens for radar and GPS-computer navigation. After the fog finally lifted, we had a beautiful cruise although by the last hour it was starting to get tiring with the heat and fighting a strong current. By the time we arrived at the Pickwick Landing Marina at 5:15 PM it was unanimously decided to take the shuttle van to the Pickwick State Park Conference Resort for their buffet dinner, complete with salad and dessert bar (very good and only $7.45). Tuesday, 9 September. More fog this morning but fortunately we had only planned a 10 mile day to the Grand Harbor Marina (mm 449 of Tenn-Tom Waterway) so we did not mind leaving at 10:00 AM after we fueled up. We decided to stop here because it shortens tomorrow's trip from 47 to 37 miles. This marina is considered a 5 Anchor marina by the cruising guide (5 star). We are docked under a shed, built on floating docks with finger piers on both sides, 50/30 AMP electric, water, cable TV, pool, rest rooms, laundry, restaurants, grilling area, courtesy car to go to grocery store, etc. -- all for 85 cents a foot.
Near the end of toady's 10 mile trip, we were in a part of Pickwick lake where making a wide circle put our boats in three states - TN, MS and AL (where are we???). Right now we are in Mississippi, but right up the hill from the marina's driveway is Tenn - their phone number has a Miss area code, their mailing address is Tenn and across the river 200 yards is Alabama.
Wednesday, 10 September. There was little or no fog this morning and we got underway at 8:20 AM to start our trek down the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (commonly referred to as the Tenn-Tom). The first three hours (25 to 28 miles) was spent cruising down a dug out channel called the Divide Cut which is about 300 feet wide with rip-rap (rock banks) on both sides (as they say in the guide books, just plain vanilla). At the end of the Divide Cut, the waterway opens into the Bay Springs Lake which is quite beautiful. We arrived at the Bay Springs Marina in MS at 12:30 PM. After lunch, we took the courtesy van to the Jamie Whitten Lock & Dam visitors center which has a huge topographical map of the Tenn-Tom and loads of information about the geography and habitat of the area.
Tenn-Tom Trivia: The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, completed in 1985, remains the largest building project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It is over five times longer than the Panama Canal, and required the moving of over one-third more earth!
We have been without a digital-data cell phone signal for more than two days now. We will send this log at our first opportunity and start another one so as to not make them too long.
TWO J's V -- John and Judy Gill
MARGE'S BARGE -- Howard and Maggie Daniels
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