Alabama Into Mississippi

Since our last entry, we have traveled from mile marker 216.1 in Demopolis to mile marker 335.0 in Columbus, Mississippi and passed through three more locks. The barges are getting fewer since the cut-off of Black Warrior River toward Birmingham, Alabama, where much of the cargo is headed.

We anchored Wednesday evening in Windham Landing, a small side creek on the Tom-Bigbee. Thursday we crossed the Mississippi state line about noon.  Two locks later, Mike made a very good docking in gusting wind and threatening skies at the Columbus Marina, then the weather passed with no rain.

Louis had a fun run in a large grassy area at the marina, then we freshened up for a short trip in the marina’s courtesy van to a local Mexican restaurant where we joined some friends of Linda & Fred for dinner. They are boaters, too, so we swapped stories and had a very nice meal. 

Phone booth on the rivers edge.

Chalk cliffs on Tom Bigbee River.

Our boats in Columbus Marina, Columbus, Mississippi.

FRIDAY: Spent the day grocery shopping, cleaning and catching up on email since we’ve had no WiFi or cell service for several days. In the evening, we found a back woods Mississippi restaurant for some local flavor (maybe too local) and topped it off with frozen yogurt at “Smacks.” Afterward Mike drove us through the historic section of Columbus with its many impressive antebellum houses. 

Antebellum home in the old part of Columbus.

Oklahoma’s fronts are headed our way so may stay one or two more days. Only thunderstorms are expected but it’s not fun boating in those. We’ll wait for better weather.

SATURDAY: Out for a day of sight seeing. We took the courtesy van 12 miles north to historic Waverly Mansion. Linda M. joined us.

Built in 1852, Waverly sits in woods near the river but its hundreds of acres were once open cotton fields worked by a thousand slaves. The last family son died in 1913 and the house sat empty for 50 years until, in 1963, the Snow family bought it with 50 acres and lovingly restored the structure to its original glory. Amazingly, most of the original window glass, hardware and fixtures were untouched and, being built of cypress and heart of pine, it remains structurally sound,. Even the window sashes still work freely! Only the daughter and father live there now and give tours. We thoroughly enjoyed walking through the rooms and drifting back in time. The five stories of exquisite bannisters are simply amazing. How did this amazing building survive the ravages of time? It houses many, many Civil War memories. 

Linda and I in front of the Waverly Mansion in Columbus, Mississippi.

The evening was movie night at Fred & Linda’s. We brought “Lincoln” and they provided the popcorn.

Today we’ll wait out another stormy forecast doing boat chores and leave tomorrow morning. We are having dinner at Sonics!