Flying Time

Time Flies

As cliché as it sounds – this saying is both literally and figuratively true for our looping adventure.  We are finding it hard to believe that in less than a month we will have completed our loop which began back on January 5^th. Somehow eleven months have disappeared in the haze of new places and friends. And, yesterday as I was deploying the fenders for docking, a rope grazed my wrist on its way down and my trusty Timex flew out in a graceful arc to disappear in the waters of the Tenn-Tom. It seemed an apt metaphor for our year – this time of wandering has gone by too quickly.  We vow to treasure these last weeks, and without a watch it will be easier to ignore the passing of time.

Before we left Midway we exchanged books and videos at their well-stocked library. Most marinas have a space devoted to books and other media that transients and residents use to share materials.  This marina had an especially large and varied selection.  With the Blues we discussed favorite authors and were lucky enough to find some of those recommendations on the marina shelves.  Much as we love the Kindle books for easy access and built-in reading lights, there is nothing like a paper book for us dinosaurs. As a bonus, we also picked up a couple VHS tapes since our DVD is still recalcitrant.

After our leisurely morning,  we finally left the dock – well after our overnight fellow boaters – and headed down through three more locks to spend a quiet night on the hook in the actual Tombigbee River – where the manmade canal ends and the canalized river begins. The previous night was not so quiet. About halfway through the fourth quarter of Sunday Night Football, a storm blew through, rocked the boat safely tied to the dock, and took out the power.  We are pretty sure Peyton Manning managed to hold on to his lead without our help, but it was a reminder of how close we live to the elements.  It was also a night we were grateful to be tied to dock (with or without power) while the winds blew and the sky cracked.