The Tenn-Tom

This is where we were the first night at Midway Marina. We were next to the boat lift as the transient dock was full. Check out the trees. I was told the cypress trees are living and the gum trees are not. They sure looked strange to me growing in the water like that!

Ginger says "HAPPY HALLOWEEN"! Someone at the marina brought their dog around in a pumpkin costume with human and doggie treats so that was our Halloween excitement!

On Monday AM we left Pickwick Lake on a beautiful sunny day. Very shortly after we turned onto Yellow Creek which is the connection between the Tennessee River and the Tombigbee Waterway, commonly called the Tenn-Tom. This ended our travels on the Tennessee River and we're now in the northeastern corner of Mississippi. The Tenn-Tom connects 12 rivers into a single navigable system. It was originally proposed back in the late 1700's. Many proposals were made to the U.S. Government but none were approved until much later. Work finally began on it in 1972 and it was completed in 1985 at a cost of 2 billion dollars.

The first section is the Divide Cut which is 25 miles long. This waterway opens up into the second section, Bay Springs Lake which has many excellent anchorages. We anchored there in Cotton Springs and took the dinghy to the visitors center. There we learned more about the Tenn-Tom such as we will be locking down 341 feet over the distance of 450.4 miles to Mobile, Alabama.

The last 52 miles is the Canal Section. On Tuesday we went through the first of the six locks in this section. The first one, The Jamie Whitten Lock, is a drop of 84 feet but we had NO trouble with the mast this time. The second lock was down 33 ft. and the third was 31 ft. Our first (but not last) 3-lock day. We've decided we like locking down better than up!

We spent that night at Midway Marina near Fulton, Mississippi. It's a real "back home" kind of place, very laid back and the laundry is 75 cents per load (best laundry deal so far). It's not in a bayou but it sort of has that feeling to me.

On Wed. we borrowed the Jeep Cherokee courtesy car and did Wal-Mart again. They seem to be the biggest deal going in these small towns. In the aft. we took a bike ride to the Jamie Whitten Historical Site located at the bridge of the Natchez Trace Parkway over the Tenn-Tom. Whitten was a congressman from the area for 53 years, from the terms of President Roosevelt to Clinton! We also did a little hike in the park, it was about 76 degrees. Hard to believe tomorrow is November; we could get used to this weather! We plan to anchor out the next couple of days and stop at Columbus, Miss.