Top of the world

It was a long, much needed, peaceful night’s sleep thank goodness.  Even though I was up a little after six o’clock this morning, we didn’t pick up anchor until just after eight.  Mom and I enjoyed scrambled eggs with ham, onions, green peppers and cheese first.

A little more than an hour later we were in Rankin Lock and at 10:45 we were in Montgomery lock each with a 30 foot lift and taking 15 minutes per lock.  At 12:30 it was Whitten Lock after a short delay waiting for a tow to finish locking up and then a pontoon boat locked down.  That pontoon boat sure looked small in a lock with an 84 foot lift.  Even though this one is about three times the lift of the others on the Tombigbee, it still takes about the same amount of time.  They sure do pump the water.

Once we exited our last lock before the Tennessee River, we finally discovered where the dock is for the Bay Springs Resource and Visitor Center.  Been looking for it all these years on the wrong side of the cove.  It is actually on the river side.  We took a ride through the cove wondering if cell phone service would be any better than where we usually anchor.  We found no better cell service and the water was too deep and narrow for the amount of anchor scope we would have to put out.  Therefore we went with our old reliable anchorage at Cotton Springs around 1:30 p.m.  For some reason the GPS malfunctioned and recorded that we traveled double our 21 miles today.  It seems I remember this happening one time before.

Once we were secure mom and I had a sandwich for lunch, then played a game of Triple Yahtzee.  Soon after Bill and Patty picked us up in their dinghy.  Our intention was to ride around the Bay Springs area and see if there was a better cove with cell phone service.  Not much was to be found with our Verizon phones, but everyone else’s ATT seems to be better.  We stopped by “The Bar-B” on the way back for some evening refreshments.  Now that dinner, dishes and blogging is done, it is time for a shower and book reading in bed.  With no cell service, what else is there to do?

“The Bar-B” plans to continue to Aqua Yacht Harbor tomorrow.  The rest of us are going to check out the visitors’ center in the morning.  Some phone calls need to be made, so we’ll try to get that figured out.  We might move north into another cove for that reason and just to get that much closer to Iuka, Mississippi where we will probably spend a few days taking care of things needing to be done, but playing too.  Tuesday night is planned to stay at the marina with “The Bar-B” as storms are predicted.  We’re hoping we can get there before they start.