10/23 Rendezvous to Mississippi-so much to tell everyone.

Hi and sorry to be so long without blogging.  We have been busy!!!
On Wednesday, the AGLCA Rendezvous and the Rogersville, Alabama Chamber of Commerce hosted an evening of polo and music.  For a modest fee, we took school buses to the local polo grounds.

 Once there, we were treated to a hayride to see the new stables for the race horses. 

The race horses were so lovely.

Then, the grounds put on an exhibition polo match.  It was fun to see the polo ponies.

The woman who did the announcing was very good about teaching us the rules and strategy of polo while they played. 

After the match, dinner was served and the band began playing Muscle Shoals music.   After dinner and dancing, we headed back to the boat for a good night sleep.

Thursday was the last day of the Rendezvous.  The day focused on crossing the Gulf of Mexico and circumnavigating Florida and heading up the east coast.  In the afternoon, the Hydrophilic was on the Looper Crawl.  We signed up to open our boat for tours.  We were amazed at the large number of folks who came aboard to see our little home.  We had about 40 visitors.  At dinner, our friends Rod and Susie Busbee had many of us in stitches.  Some of us have Yeti coolers.  They do not.  But they don't need one; they have a full sized refrigerator.  It has become a running joke.  They made knock off Yetti T-shirts and insulated cups their Yetti knock off logo.  It was a big hit.

To leave Joe Wheeler, all of the boats have to go through the locks either upbound or downbound.  So that the lock masters would not get a call from each of the boats, boats could sign up for leaving Friday or Saturday and certain times.  John signed us up for leaving at 6 a.m.  We were with three other boats leaving in the dark.  The lock is only a couple of miles way.  As we entered the lock, I was pretty sure we woke up the birds nesting along the lock walls.  Boy, did they squawk. 

The rest of the day, we headed down the Tennessee River to the start of the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway.  At that point, you can see Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi.  Along the way, we saw this drive down a hill to the dock.  It looked challenging. 

 We stayed a Grand Harbor Marina that night in Counce, TN.

The next morning, we were up early to head down the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway, called the Tenn Tom.  The fog on the water was very thick and we opted to wait about 2 hours until we could see through the fog.  The fog was really pretty though. 

The sun burned off the fog once it got high enough in the sky.  This crane made the shape of this red marker vey unusual in the fog.

On the Tenn Tom,  the highest lock is the Whitten Lock.  We locked down 84 feet.  The back gate of the lock looks really pretty with the water flowing over it.

The Tenn Tom was manmade to make an easier faster route to the Gulf of Mexico.  The first section is very straight.

When they made the Tombigbee River straighter and deeper, the rivers that ran off of it reversed direction and flowed into the Tenn Tom.  To prevent the rivers from silting up the Tenn Tom, these barriers were placed to allow the water to flow but inhibit the silt.

Shortly after leaving in the morning, both sides of the river are now in the state of Mississippi.  We went through three locks and 56 miles for a full day.

Saturday night, we stayed at Midway Marina, which is not midway on the Tenn Tom by any stretch of the imagination.  Sunday morning was foggy but not as bad as Saturday morning.  We did get an early start because the lock master said he had tows coming and could lock us through if we could get there in 20 minutes.  So we threw off our lines and headed for the lock.  The Tenn Tom becomes much more winding in this area.

The geese are heading south and so are we.

I didn't know that Mississippi was so beautiful.

We did 4 locks and  59 miles.  We landed at Columbus Marina in Columbus, Mississippi.  Look at these gorgeous water hyacinths in the water here. 

The courtesy car was available to go to town, so we signed up and went to dinner and Kroegers. 

From here, the Tenn Tom is more rural and we will be anchoring out some. 

Lat 33 degrees 31.29 North
Long 88 degrees 28.89 West