Columbus MS

 I will try to catch you up on our travels by giving you the short version.  I have to be honest - after my mom died my concentration has not been the same and I haven’t had the mental energy to blog every night.  There have been lots of arrangements to be made, details to attend to and loose ends to tie up.  I have been in constant contact with my brothers in MN and FL and last weekend I flew up to Minnesota to meet them and begin sorting through her things and emptying her apartment. We made a lot of progress and will finish up when I get back there mid-November.  We have to have her apartment empty by Nov. 30.

We have continued to travel down the river system and are now in Columbus, MS at Columbus Marina and will stay here until Saturday. One of the highlights along the way was our stay at New Johnsonville TN at a marina 2 hours from Nashville.  Johanna and Ben drove over Saturday afternoon and stayed on the boat, leaving Sunday morning. We used their car and drove into town and toured the Gutter Bound Moonshine Distillery.  What a hoot! It is family owned and operated and is a small, but efficient operation. They make all sorts of moonshine flavors and have developed cocktails to be made with them, so the tasting party was a long one! We came home with 3 different bottles and have had fun making mixed drinks for docktails.

We have gone through more than half a dozen large locks, anchored out a couple more nights and stayed in a few more marinas. Anchoring out continues to be a little scary for me, but we haven’t floated away or gotten run over by a barge yet!! We also have been really lucky in that our wait time for the locks has been  negligible.  We hear stories from fellow loopers of 5-7 hour waits and then trying to enter a marina in the dark or worse yet, anchor in the dark.  Yuk!

We anchored in a wide part of the Tombigbee River last night, rafted to our buddy boat (Steve and Kathy) and there was a storm that passed through with lots of rain and strong winds.  Was I up at the window from midnight until 2 am watching to see if we were dragging anchor or the barges coming down the river would miss us??  Yes I was! We had a short trip today (3 hours) to get to Columbus, and after hosting docktails on Orion, we are calling it an early night.  I know I’ll sleep tucked into a slip in a marina.

Tomorrow we are borrowing the courtesy vehicle to go into town and provision at Kroger and then go out to dinner at Huck’s - the place you don’t want to miss while you’re here.


                                                    Elvis’ birthplace - Tupelo MS





                                    A record-breaking 14 boats rafted together in the Pickwick Lock


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