Monday continued.

We made it thru the harbor and were to go onto Mobile Bay - yeh, the Gulf of Mexico! Whoa, was this a big body of water! Here we are in our pontoon from Deer Lake going onto Mobile Bay! Salt water and all. The depth ranged from three to six feet deep. Very shallow for such a big area. We were very lucky with no wind, no traffic and about an hour of time to get over to where we were staying. Yay, we were heading to the Mariott Grand Harbor for the night. Day and night from Bobby's Fish Camp.

At 7:09 we arrived at our destination. This was so beautiful. Well the next blog will be about going over to Pensicola, Florida. Bye for now, love to all

Monday, August 31, 2009

Hi Everyone, hard to believe it's month end again. August flew by.

Well, we made it to Pensicola, Florida. That was our goal and WE MADE IT!!

I'll go back here to Friday a.m. We left our swanky accomodations at Bobby's Fish Camp Friday before sunrise and we were getting the boats all ready when coming down the river came the bright, sweeping search light of a towboat with barges. We had gotten up really early to hopefully beat them to the last Lock and Dam three miles down, that we had of the trip. Dang, commercial takes priority and the lockmaster will take those barges, then what comes around the corner but a second tow of barges. We could have gone back to bed but the place was so disgusting! And since we were up we just stayed up. It was Jan's Birthday, so we had a little diddy for her and Well, we finally got thru our last Lock and Dam at 8:30. That makes 43 Lock and Dams for the whole trip.

We had a good 130 miles to go and didn't want to arrive at Mobile after dark so we really had to push. Our boat only has that 50 hp Yamaha on it, and the poor dear really got pushed that day, 5200 rpm for 10 1/2 hours. The highest we ever ran it. Full blast would have been 5600 rpm, so it really ran hard. Good Motor. The last 118 miles of the Tenn-Tom Waterway was the windiest river ever. It was never boring, just a little long.

Thank the Lord we came into the Mobile Commercial Harbor after working hours. Going thru this was incredible. There were sea-faring boats all over. They build battleships there and other very, very large boats . It was hard for little ole pontoons to pass thru that harbor, so we were really lucky not to be there when everything was moving. I'm going to split up our blog so I can get more pictures on, otherwise three is the max. onto the next

Sunday, August 30, 2009

We are in Pensicola, Florida!!!!! It is so gorgeous here. When we crossed the 'line' we stopped at a beautiful beach and made a toast and sat on the bottom of the beach in the water - it was sooooo blooming hot and it was so good. More to come later!!!! Having too much fun. Love to all - WE MADE IT!!!!! We're compiling facts and figures to share with you.

Friday evening at 7:09 pm

Hi everyone - WE MADE IT TO THE GULF OF MEXICO!! It's so beautiful and we're staying at the Marriot Grand Hotel here on Mobile Bay. More details tomorrow. Love to all.

Thurs., August 27th

My, what a day. Met more barges than we have all together on this trip. Got held up at the lock and dam this morning for three hours. Met some people here at the swanky Bobby's Fish Camp that don't like Yankees, nor Obama, nor Bush (either of them), nor anything to do with Government, or anything from up north. Don ended up being a 'farmer' in order to get out of the conversation he was in. He has 1,000 acres you know. Rich was o.k. with being a telephone man. Oh, boy, there are some radical people around, spitting snoose into their beer can. Bobby's Fish Camp is old and very run down and not swanky at all. We've heard from numerous people that we have to stop here. I think we have to stop because it's the only place, and I mean the ONLY place in 216 miles. We needed gas. Oh, well, make the most of each and every day! On to Mobile, Alabama tomorrow.

We did have the catfish dinner, with french fries, coleslaw, hush puppies and it was very good. I have to admit, I sort of wish I was sleeping on the boat. This room is the height of tacky. Really tacky. And there's a pounding on the side of the building......I made Rich check it out but he said no one is there. It's hard to believe because about every five minutes it pounds again. It will be a long night til 5am comes in the morning. OH, this place is bad. I'm so glad this is an 'adventure' because if it it were a 'vacation' there is NO way I would be in this place. I don't care how good their catfish is! Did not have phone nor internet service today and I have no idea how we have service tonight but we do. Until later, take care and love to all.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Hi everyone, it's hard to get internet service around here so there will be some lapses. We are in Demopolis, Alabama and have hit the 1350 mile mark. Beautiful white cliffs along the river. Having a great time - staying at a Best Western, which has really beautiful rooms. The boats are at a very nice marina, the Demopolis Yacht Basin, (which is much better than Pirates Cove Marina we were in last night. I don't think even Pirates would stay there, teeth optional!) We are in the deep South and there are 36 churches in this town (literally) one of which is Catholic.

We are having a blast - taking a day off of the water and will be back on it tomorrow morning at 6am. Bye and love to all.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Lock and Dam to the left

Rich and I above, Jan and I
below with hat's Kelly gave us

our boats

This is definately the trip of our lifetime, each day is different, it's never boring even with being on the boat several hours a day (usually 8, 9 hours) we look somewhat 'weathered' don't we. We have met more nice people here in the South, more than I ever imagined. Tennessee was very beautiful. We are now in Amory, Mississippi. It is a run down little town, with a very run down Marina that was written up to be a great place. Jesse, the owner, was a very nice 83 year old with the typical Mississippi accent, with one ear chewed off, he brought us for a mini tour of his little town. I'm glad the hotel he picked out for us a really a nice new place. We asked where we could get some dinner. Tiffany, the front desk girl said her sister would be back soon and she could take us whereever we wanted. So, the four of us piled into her car. Amber is a large person of color who is very nice. We're joking around with her, and laughing up a storm. First we ate dinner at Wendy's then Don asked her to go to the KFC so he could get chicken for on the boat tomorrow. (we're sort of sandwiched out) We went through the drive in and all the staff came to the window to check out who Amber had in her car (small town, they recognized her voice) you could see their jaws drop. Amber had a car full of white folk!! She just said, yeh, I'm a taxi driver tonight. We laughed so hard - she'll be the talk of the town for two days.

In the last 24 hours we've experienced the most gorgeous Marina - the Grand Harbor Marina on the line of Counce, TN and Iuka, MS. This place was superb with great customer service, beautiful buildings, gorgeous spot, slips full of million $ boats to Jesse's Marina, the Smithville Marina, with all rundown boats, a building ready to fall down and I could go on but.....Anyway the best and the worst.

The Grand Harbor was the most beautiful we've seen, the second best was the Green Turtle Bay Marina on Barkley Lake/Tennessee River. The third best was the Alton Illinois Marina on the Mississippi and fourth was Catfish Charlie's / American Marine at Dubuque (Iowa) Yacht Basin on Mississippi. Great helpful people at all Marina's in general and we haven't met a bad townsperson yet.

The trip has not gotten boring in any way, shape or form. How could it? It's beautiful on all the rivers. Around each bend is a new experience, a new place to check out. This trip is awesome. It's so hard to believe we've been gone since the 5th and here it is the 23rd.

So far we've traveled 1200 miles by river, averaging about 9 1/2 to 10 miles an hour, we've used 300.41 gallons of gas, used 275 pounds of ice, gone through 32 Lock and Dams the lowest elevation change being 5 feet, and the largest 84 feet. Double the gas and ice to include Don and Jan's boat.

We are now on the Tennessee - Tombigbee Waterway, more commonly known as the Tenn-Tom. It runs for 470 miles. Telephone coverage is spotty at best and the wireless internet is about the same. That is why there are a few days where the blog is not done. We will keep in touch and we send love to all. Bye til later. Patty and Rich