Day 365
Today marks the completion of our 365th day since we left on our journey one year ago September 14, 2015.
Another milestone reached today is that we locked up for the last time to our highest point on our trip down the inland rivers, Pickins Lake on the Tennessee River. All of our locks from here to Mobile, AL would be "going down".
We left our serene Wolf Island anchorage about 8:00 am and started for the Pickwick Lock. Another Looper boat hailed us and told us that they had been in touch with the Lockmaster and that the earliest we could lock up would be about 10:00 am because there was currently a commercial tow and barges in the lock on the way up. Since the lock was only about 12 miles from our anchorage we slowed down to save fuel and kill time until the lock was ready for us. Arriving too early would mean a long time "holding station".
Once we were in Pickwick Lake we saw a number of mansions on the rocky cliffs overlooking the lake.
About six miles from the lock we turned off of the lake, crossed from Tennessee into Mississippi, and into the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, a series of canals, rivers, and lakes that form a waterway to Mobile Bay, AL. I expected the waterway to be very commercial and boring, but the first few miles were on an arm of Pickwick Lake and had some pretty scenery. Soon we entered a 25-mile "cut" which was the commercial waterway I was expecting. We only met one tow on the whole 25 miles, so it was just boring levee walls on each side of us for 25 miles.
The picture below is a baffle that is installed at the mouth of creeks that enter the waterway to slow down the flow of water entering the canal and to catch some of the larger debris that would otherwise enter the canal.
While in our first lock down we were almost the whole 84 feet deep in the lock when a rain storm came up. Not usually a big deal, but the rain washed all of the dirt and scum off of the lock wall to which we were tied and onto us and our boat. What a mess! Even driving through another rain storm later did nothing to wash the mess from the boat. After three more down locks and a total of 78 miles, we came to our stopping point, the Midway on the Tenn-Tom Marina near Tupelo, MS. We spent a couple of hours cleaning the boat and finally ended a long day.
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