Woke early to contact Fulton Lock, who told us to be ready to enter his lock by 6:30. He closed his gates with all 6 boats traveling today at 6:40 and dropped us down 26 feet into the next canal section of the TennTom.
The shoreline is forested with an occasional barge loading area and boat ramp park.
Of interest is the number of flooded timber areas along the canal. When the dams were built the trees were cut down and the area was flooded, leaving stumps. This is what the flooded timber areas looks like.
Also when we pass a town, homes appear along the shoreline, but there aren’t too many towns. We passed two towns over our trip today.
We got to Wilkins Lock and waited 15 minutes to lock down 25 feet. A Bald Eagle greeted us atop a light pole as we entered the lock.
Our next lock, Thad Cochran was five miles further downstream and he was waiting for us with open gates to drop us another 25 feet. While in the lock the lock master shared an interesting fact- one barge full of material would fill 134 semi trucks, so a small tow with four barges would fill 536 semi trucks and a large tow with 12 barges would fill 1508 semi trucks. Kind of puts in perspective the volume of materials these tows and barges move.
As we left the lock, we contacted the next one, Aberdeen, and got bad news. The lock was waiting on a tow and barge to enter the lock and it would be 1 1/2 - 2 hours before he would be ready for us. So we drove real slow for the next 8 miles!
Here we also entered the river section of the TennTom, where the water flow follows the natural course of the Tombigbee River.
Finally got through Aberdeen Lock. Our slow speed made us only wait 15 minutes at the lock before he opened his gates. We then dropped 28 feet to continue down river to our destination of Columbus, MS.
We ran into a traffic jam as we left the lock with the barge that just left the lock needing to pass a upstream tow and our five boats adding to the confusion. Well the smaller barge coming up stream, beached into the bank and let the bigger southbound barge ahead of us go past and told us to follow him. Other than having to deal with quite a bit of turbulence from the tow engines we managed okay. Bill earned his steering badge for negotiating us through. As you can see in the pictures below, the channel is narrow and a barge can fill most of the navigable waters in the tighter areas.
The rest of our trip was uneventful as we finally turned into Columbus Marina, took on fuel and made it to our slip.
Bill had enough energy to tackle part of an oil change, while I did wash, made dinner and worked on the blog.
Day 174. November 13. Lay day in Columbus
We slept in and then each of us took on the tasks of the morning. Bill to finish the oil change and I to finish laundry, plan out the tentative schedule for the rest of the trip, and pay some bills. Always something to keep us busy.
At noon, we stopped and borrowed the loaner car to grab a quick lunch, pick up supplies and drive through the historic part of Columbus , MS.
The town of Columbus was incorporated in 1821 and grew up and prospered into the mid 1800s due to the fertile land supporting farms and plantations. Some of the old manor houses are open for tours today. The town was not a military target in the Civil War, but it served as a major hospital due to its location to nearby railroad lines. Even today a group of women place bouquets on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers buried near here in Friendship Cemetery. This event, called Decoration Day, was the original Memorial Day.
The town is famous for its Columbus Air Force Base, the first home of the Pulitzer Prize playwright, Tennessee Williams and the Mississippi University for Women ( founded in 1884), the first public college for women in America.
We were invited out to dinner with General Fun, Fred and Kathy. Split an Uber to go to Harveyw a well known restaurant and enjoyed a delicious meal and great company.