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.

 

 

 

 

Down the Tenn-Tom with Company

Down the Tenn-Tom with Company

With the Grand Harbor courtesy car, we met Rob and Sue Blue in Fulton, MS and brought them back to Erben Renewal for a couple days of cruising. The Blues drove up from our home port of Panama City and came loaded with yummy treats. Although we are now heading south, we are still not close enough to the gulf for easy access to fresh seafood. Sue’s shrimp jambalaya and crab West Indian salad provided the perfect taste of home. As a bonus they also brought us mail including some current magazines! On a foggy morning we started down the Tenn-Tom. This is the newest man-made waterway and offers a short cut of more than 700 miles on a trip from Chattanooga to Pensacola.  (Technically this waterway is divided into two parts and two chart books.  The first connects the Tombigbee to the Tennessee and the second the Tombigbee to the Black Warrior and out into Mobile Bay. – Informally it is all referred to as the Tenn-Tom.) Our guide book reports that more dirt was moved in the 1980s to build this waterway than in the construction of the Panama Canal, but it remains unknown to most Americans – including us before we started planning for this trip. Our first day out, we traversed the ditch which was cut to connect the Tennessee River with the Tombigbee River.  The boring levee and straight stretches were hardly noticed as we caught up on almost a year of family and hometown news. When the canal opened up into Bay Springs Lake, we found a peaceful and secluded anchorage for the night.  There were supposed to be eagles living nearby but we didn’t see any – maybe it was the clouds, fog and rain that drove them away?  In the morning we pulled the anchor – with Rob doing the anchor washing gymnastics, and headed to the first of three locks.  The Whitten Lock is the largest on the Tenn-Tom at 84 feet.  Then we were on to two more locks where our luck and timing held up.  The tow coming out of the last lock exited a few minutes after we arrived so we and three other boats locked down before the tow waiting to lock up.  Commercial traffic has priority over pleasure craft like us - missing this kind of perfect timing can cause hours of delay.  We didn’t even mind the rain and wind – much.  The dock master hauled us on to the dock as the last of the rain and wind squalls tossed us around. With great sadness we said good bye to the Blues who faced a long drive back to Panama City while we were able to enjoy a cable hookup and some NFL football :) Although their visit did not include perfect weather, it was perfectly wonderful to see such good friends – even if they had not come laden with bounty. We hope to see them onboard again before too long.

 

 Local artisan on the way back to Grand Harbor

 

Paying our respects in Shiloh

Paying our respects in Shiloh

Before moving on I need to digress for a brief moment to discuss “Fighting” Joe Wheeler. General Joe had quite a career which accounts for all the dams, parks and roads named after him in this area.  Although he was born in Georgia, he later lived in and represented Alabama in congress.  A West Point graduate, he is one of the few Confederate soldiers buried in Arlington Cemetery having served in both the Confederate and United States armies. He got the nickname “Fighting Joe” early in his career as a young Lieutenant fighting in Indian skirmishes in New Mexico. During the Civil War he served as a General for the Confederacy in Tennessee and Alabama. After the war he served in congress and then as a General in the Spanish American war. A hero for all Americans, it is fitting that his story is remembered.

On to Shiloh…….

We probably picked the coldest day this fall to make our visit to the National Battlefield at Shiloh.  This was just fine with Steve who didn’t want to go anyway. Thankfully most of the tour is by car so we could limit our exposure to the freezing temps and avoid lingering.

Shiloh was one of the early massively bloody battles in the civil war.  The Confederacy would have won this battle and seriously dented the Union and Grant’s forces, but they decided to rest for the night feeling confident that the enemy was in retreat. While they were definitely retreating – (or some might even say – deserting) – there were thousands of reinforcements on the way.  The night of rest gave these more seasoned troops time to cross the river (the Tennessee at Pittsburg landing) and turn the tide of the battle in favor of the Union.

Over the three day battle both sides suffered losses and injuries numbering more than 23,000. On a sunny if chilly day it was hard to make real the hardships endured by all the combatants.  We drove the tour and watched the film and mourned the many lives lost wondering if any lessons have been learned from all this sacrifice.

Slightly subdued but hungry we visited the Catfish Hotel – which is really a restaurant –In the early days most visitors came by boat , the story goes, and if they stayed too late in the day, they had to remain overnight since travel on the river after dark was dangerous. Although the restaurant came highly recommended – the meals came out fried, fried and fried.  We managed to quell our hunger and take home dessert for dinner.

 NOT!