Mississippi Meandering

It's been 8 days since my last posting, so I'll be brief to keep this from being a novel. We have traveled 215 miles southward in those 8 days, on the Tennessee River in TN, and then on the Tenn-Tom Canal in Mississippi. The scenery, friendly people and adventures continue to be fabulous!!

The picture above is typical of the beautiful scenery along the TN River in the south part of the state. The banks of the river have limestone cliffs and occasional estates or modest homes. This time of year here is perfect, with the trees changing colors and the weather warm during the days and cold at night.

We anchored all by ourselves behind an island at the town of Clifton, and dinghied a few miles to the city. It had an historic old downtown, but gosh, no pubs. We enjoyed the walk and old buildings, but soon traveled back to Breaking Away for happy hour and a grilled chicken dinner. What a peaceful site we had that night!

As we continued south on the TN River (which, by the way, is upriver since it flows northward from the MS/AL border to the Ohio River), we continued to relish the views such as these cliffs. We had the river virtually to ourselves. A tug/barge passed perhaps once a day, and there were quite a few fishing boats, but that was it. We are late in the season here.

Then we reached Savannah, and look at this mansion on the river bank! We anchored just past the city, again in a secluded spot behind an island. We dinghied to a landing at the city, and did some sight seeing in this historic Southern city. I visited the TN River Museum while Rick tended to some personal matters. We then had a scrumptious dinner at a grill where we were the only patrons. We made it back to the boat just before it was pitch dark.

The next morning, Rick and I biked 6 miles to the Shiloh Battlefield National Park. We had to load both bikes into the dinghy, and once we found room to sit, we puttered up the river a short ways and unloaded for the ride. This was a famous 2-day battle in April, 1862, with 23,746 casualties. Basically, the Confederate Army won the first day and drove the Union forces back and captured 2100 soldiers. Overnight, Gen. Grant's forces were reinforced with arrivals from the north, and they reversed their losses and the Confederates retreated. So, in one sense, nothing changed other than 23,746 tragedies. I know, there were more strategic consequences that resulted, but....

We rode our bikes around the 4200-acre park to see some of the places we'd seen in the descriptive video at the Visitor Center. They have put cannon and monuments at all the spots where forces fought during the two days. There are 217 cannon, 156 monuments, and 650 historic tablets scattered about. It was sobering to see and read what happened.

Ironically, "Shiloh" means "House of Peace". The battle was named for the Shiloh Church which sat in the middle of the battle arena.

One happy part of the battlefield park was the Shiloh Indian Mounds National Historic Landmark. They have preserved the remains of a native village from 800 years ago, the highlights of which were the mounds. The pre-historic town was the center of a society that occupied a 20-mile stretch along the TN River.

Rick and I took the 1-mile walk through the remains of the old village. This picture shows one of the many mounds still there. They served as platforms for important structures like a chief's house or a religious building.

Rick and I rode back to the dinghy (and stopped at a classic southern biker bar for lunch), dropped the bikes off at the anchored boat, and then went on to tour Savannah. This had been a crossing spot for the shameful Trail of Tears saga in 1838 when the government forcefully displaced over 16,000 Indians from their homelands and made them march hundreds of miles to their new reservations in Oklahoma. Nearly 4000 died. An American tragedy in all senses.

We walked the Historic Homes tour and this picture was one of 21 sites. They were all really cool! We then walked to a grocery store and a liquor store and hauled all of it back to the dinghy and boat. (Note: Most grocery stores don't sell booze. Certain stores sell beer, but only separate liquor stores can sell wine. So, we have to shop at three different stores to get our "food". Those who passed these laws weren't thinking of us who must walk and carry our bags.)

So last Thursday we continued south. Not every residence along the TN River is a mansion. Pretty interesting site, huh?

We soon reached the Pickwick Dam and Lock, right above the border to Alabama and Mississippi. We lifted 57 feet into Pickwick Lake. This was my final lock going up. All remaining locks (12) would descend back to sea level. We immediately went to a dock to fill the fuel tanks. For the first time I could calculate my exact miles per gallon since the rivers all have mile markers. Other than the fact that the generator uses the same diesel fuel, I got 3.0 mpg. (So, it would have been more without using the generator.) Considering Breaking Away weighs about 25,000 lbs, maybe that's not so bad.

We then cruised a few more miles and entered Mississippi, and almost immediately tied up at a fancy marina, Grand Harbor. We used the courtesy car to go shopping (we asked ahead this time to learn that most of the counties we'd be cruising through to the south were dry, so we needed to stock up on important items). I then changed, for the first time, the fuel filter on the engine. It was successful, but I did get fuel all over me. The usual fuel filter changes are completely clean, but this one is messy.

The next morning Rick and I performed one of our REALLY THOROUGH boat cleanings. It took a long time, but whoa did Breaking Away need a deep scrub all over!! Then, we installed the new horn that I'd ordered a week earlier and had delivered to this marina. It's hard to believe, but when we were done, the horn actually worked!

We departed late, at about 1:30, and went all of three miles to anchor out in the "middle" of Pickwick Lake. We decided to go explore nearby Goat Island. Who should immediately come to greet us but these four furry beasts! They stayed right with us, watching our every hand movement, for about 15 minutes until they were convinced we were not going to pass out any Halloween treats. Then we never saw them again...and the island was pretty small. What we DID see, however, were two more armadillos! These were shy, and didn't let us get close enough for a photo. In fact, they can really sprint when they want to. We saw one go into his underground tunnel to escape.

This picture is trying to show how deep the cut is in this part of the Tenn-Tom Canal. When we headed south from Pickwick Lake/TN River, we first took the Yellow River, but quickly entered a cut canal. This initial 25-mile section is called the Divide Cut, and it cuts through the hills that divide the TN River basin from the Tombigbee River basin. The deepest cut was here where I took this photo, 175 feet down from the natural hills.

The Army Corp of Engineers removed 150 million cubic yards of earth from this section of the canal, more than was removed for the Suez Canal. The entire Tenn-Tom Canal (connects the TENNessee River to the TOMbigbee River) excavated 350 million cubic yards, twice that removed to make the Panama Canal. Construction began in 1972 and it was completed in 1985. Before this, anyone doing the Great Loop would have to take the Mississippi River all the way to New Orleans. Yuk. This new route is SOOO much better, with the Ohio River, Kentucky Lake, the TN River, Pickwick Lake, this new canal, the Tombigbee River, Mobile, AL and tons of scenic beauty and waterways and people compared to the industrial MS River.

Every day Rick makes THE BEST sandwiches for lunch!!

After cruising through the Divide Cut section of the Tenn-Tom Canal, we ended up at Big Springs Lake, just above the first dam and lock of the canal. We anchored all by ourselves in this beautiful cove, with the changing autumn leaves reflected in the glassy water. Rick and I kayaked, we dinghied to the (closed) visitor center and took a nature hike, and then had happy hour.

The only problem with this spot was it had no cell phone or computer connection, so I dinghied out into the lake and drifted a long way north in the wind for a conversation with Janet. Luckily I was able to get the dinghy up on a plane to return the long distance quickly, by tying the gas tank to the front of the boat to shift weight forward. (Normally with the gas tank at the rear, one person cannot go any faster than 1 mph since the boat tilts backward when you give it any throttle.)

That night Rick grilled juicy steaks for dinner, to go with baked potatoes and a garden salad! YUM!

The next morning we loaded the bikes into the dinghy and went to shore for bike rides. After three miles we came to the Natchez Trace Parkway!! This is a bicyclist's paradise just as the Blue Ridge Parkway had been for my "comeback triumph" ride in 2008. It too is a National Park roadway, 444 miles from Nashville, TN to Natchez, on the MS River. It originally was a Native American trail and later a trade route. Now it is a 50-mph scenic roadway with no commercial stops the entire distance. I rode 14 miles north and into Alabama, then came back. Rick went the other direction. I loved it, and someday hope to do a group ride the entire length with Paul Wood, who led the Blue Ridge Parkway ride.

Rick and I showered up and headed off for the day, first going down this HUGE James Whitten lock, an 84-foot descent! That was the highest lock I'd been on yet of the 90 or so I'd been through. Can you believe how high those lock walls are?? This time we were not alone; another cruiser joined us for the mighty drop.

After that first lock, we dropped through three more during the day, anchoring out for the night just above the lock at Smithville, MS. That was last night, and boy, did we have a wild and crazy thunderstorm hit us for two hours in the middle of the night! I don't sleep well when we're anchored and we get nasty weather. I'm up a lot checking on our position and everything. We were swinging in big circles, but at least we did not drag anchor. We survived.

We pulled anchor early and immediately went through the lock we were next to. We had two more lock-downs today, and got to enjoy the river scenery to ourselves. This picture is another "Bridge to Nowhere", but nearly all of the river was beautiful and natural. There are wide "lakes" all along, but they are very shallow and we must cruise only in the marked channel right down the middle.

We have ended today at the Columbus Marina, at the town of Columbus, MS. We plan to stay two nights. We used the courtesy car to go shopping and eat at a Mexican restaurant in town, and tomorrow I have several things on my to-do list: change alternator belt on engine, bike ride, see the 200 antebellum homes (Columbus was not hit during the Civil War), hair cut, dinghy ride around Columbus Lake, and sleep in since I'm finishing this blog posting at nearly 1:00 am.

On Wednesday when we leave, we will quickly enter Alabama and continue down the Tombigbee River toward Mobile.