It has been an amazing 2-month journey and we are in the last 4 days of our trip.
We left Bay Springs Marina in Mississippi about 9:30 Wednesday, October 3 and head up the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway. We will stay in Pickwick Landing State Park Marina tonight and have dinner at Pickwick Lodge -- one of our favorite places to eat on the River. From there we will head through our 16th and FINAL lock and wrap up our amazing trip by Saturday!!
Within an hour on the Tombigbee, we meet "Mr. David", a big barge. With the Waterway being only 300' wide, we have to make a quick decision whether to pass him on the right or the left. We radio the Captain of Mr. David and ask which side he wants us to pass him and he tells us to pass him on the "two whistle". That's boat lingo for us to pass him on his right side with our right side....that's one of the things you need to know when traveling with barges -- you have to know and speak their language. The other barge we dealt with on the Tombigbee was "Father Pat". We are pretty confident this was that Captain's maiden voyage because when we came up behind him, we asked which side he preferred we pass him on and he also said the "2 whistle" and as we passed him, he went aground and drove his barge into the side of the Waterway......he was able to get his barge un-stuck, but experienced Barge Captains don't move over for other boats. He has some learning to do.....
We have seen some beautiful pictures, and this Grey Heron posed for us to take his picture on top of this green navigation can.
We easily make it back up the Tombigbee and back into Tennessee by 2:30 that afternoon so we decide to float near Pickwick Lock and Dam to enjoy the beautiful day and watch the barge and boat traffic going through the Lock. This is a very busy Lock/Dam and many boats have to wait several hours before being able to go through the lock. There are at least 2 barges waiting to lock through and 11 pleasure boats (pleasure boats are like us -- just out for the fun of the day).
As luck would have it, we saw the Father Pat barge again wanting to go through Pickwick Lock. As he entered the Lock, he didn't get his barge stopped in time and rammed the side of the concrete Lock wall with his steel barge. We were listening to the VHF radio and the Lockmaster was professional, yet clearly told him that was a safety issue and he needed to ensure he didn't scrape a Lock wall ever again. Newbie.....
There were also 11 pleasure boats (these are privately owned boats like ours vs. a commercial barge) that are wanting to lock through Pickwick. It takes them about 3 hours to lock through -- and when they finally exit the Lock, it looks like a horse race -- to see who gets out of the lock first and gets in front first.....
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| 11 Boats exited the Lock and head for their evening destination. The race is on..... |
About 6PM we head for our slip at the marina and head to dinner. We see some incredibly beautiful and large boats as we enter the marina.
And there's always a sweet sunset to bring closure to a gorgeous day on the water.
Thursday, October 4
Thursday morning we leave Pickwick Marina -- head toward Pickwick Lock and complete going through our 16th and FINAL lock on our trip. We have tweaked our approach and process on every Lock we have gone through and feel pretty comfortable with going through Locks at this point.
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| Beautiful Calm Water at the Marina |
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| Clear Skies and Calm Waters as we Leave Marina Channel |
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| Leaving Marina Heading Toward Pickwick Lock |
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| Lots of Seagulls on Lock Wall Waiting for Fish |
We are now through our final Lock and have 160 miles to our home marina, Kenlake on Saturday, October 6. We see an interesting sight about 20 miles past the Lock, an Amish family playing near the water.
We arrive at Clifton Marina that completes our 49 mile ride for today. We always try to capture a nice sunset to cap off a beautiful day.
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Sunset at Clifton Marina
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Friday, October 5
We leave Clifton Marina and will spend Friday night at Pebble Isle Marina. We have a 62 mile trip today and this will mark the last full day we will travel on this journey. IT is a bitter-sweet day for sure. We are so happy and thankful we have had a safe trip not to mention the forever memories we created while living on a 34' boat for 2 months straight....we had a blast, every day was perfect and I would not trade this experience for anything.
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| Clifton Marina -- 6 Boats Staying for the Night |
We continue to see the River's beauty and am amazed at all we have seen and learned on our adventure.
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| Looper Boat Headed South for the Winter |
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| Catamaran Boat Headed South for Winter |
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| Sailboat Headed South for the Winter |
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| Rusty Barge Sitting Pretty on Land... |
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| Nice Houses on Shoreline |
We know we are getting close to home when we see the I-40 bridge. 70 miles to the East and we'd be in downtown Nashville.....
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| I-40 Bridge -- Getting Close to Nashville..... |
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| Mermaid Marina. Cool Sign..... |
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| Nice house on River |
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| Sunset at Pebble Isle Marina |
Our last night on the River was at Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, TN. The 2 sunset pictures above are the last 2 sunset pictures we took on our 1,500 mile trip. This may not be the most stunning sunset, but it absolutely has the charm, calmness, and un-dying beauty that brings closure to our sunset views but will never bring closure to the love and memories Gene and I witnessed, created and shared together.
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| Final Sunset Picture of our Journey at Pebble Isle Marina |
Tomorrow we have 53 miles to complete our entire loop on traveling the Tennessee River and arriving at Kenlake.
LOVE...LOVE...LOVE my Captain...…..LOVE...LOVE...LOVE Cloud Nine.....
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