August 11 & 12, 2017

I was up around 4:45 this morning and looked out into the dark to see dozens of bass boats coming into the marina.  As it turned out there was a bass fishing contest.  Wow!  What beautiful bass boats! Talk about money!  All the contestants had southern accents and were real friendly and were curious about our boat and our trip.  It was fun.  There were about fifty bass boats at the start of the contest. 

This has been a slow process this morning!  We fought a current which is running up to two knots which slowed us down significantly, plus there were many small boats on the river and houses and docks along side the river which made this section one long no wake zone.  These conditions sure eat up our time, engine time and fuel.  We are now tied up to the small lock wall (Pickwick Landing Lock has two lock chambers) because only one chamber is being used.  We have been told our wait will be at least an hour and a half, which means between two and three hours.  At least our engines are not running.  The Tennessee River is mostly one big lake.  It is really beautiful country with all the trees and the sandstone (or limestone? granite?) cliffs.  We've not seen wildlife like I thought we would.  

Now more thoughts about our Mississippi and Ohio Rivers experience:  I cannot imagine just how much money and effort are necessary to keep this whole infrastructure going.  Locks, bridges, docks, piers, dolphins, mooring fields, dredging, erosion control, flow control, sea walls, wing dams, jetties, and who knows what else need constant attention.  The banks of the rivers were in a great many places twenty to thirty feet above the water level and in many places covered with rocks.  (At Hoppie's Marina on the Mississippi the water level rose to the roof line of a big metal building which was sitting at least twenty feet above the docks!  Tree limbs and other debris were in the trestles of a railroad bridge which was at least seventeen feet above the water.)  I will never complain about taxes again!  And on top of everything else, everyone along these water ways wants something from the government, and their desires are in conflict with what other people are demanding.  I'm glad I don't work for the Army Corps of Engineers!  They can never make everybody happy.  

There were many times on this trip I've wished that my sister's present husband, Doug, could be with us.  It would have been interesting listening to him explain the whys and hows of this vast infrastructure.  He sure was a wealth of information as we progressed up the intracoastal north of Charleston.  (I'm still wearing his hat, but his beer ran out.). We're lucky to have people of his caliber working for the Corps of Engineers.  He is knowledgeable and he cares.

Flood Levels at Hoppies were 20 Higher Than Where I  Took This Picture

A Few of the Bass Boats

Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama,
and the Bailey's all Meet At Pickwick Lake

As we were going down the Mississippi attempting to stay in the channels and out of the way, I got to thinking about Huck Finn and Nigger Jim.  They were on a raft in the Mississippi River and were apparently able to navigate to where they wanted to go.  I wonder if that is true!  I'm envious!