Back in Mississippi

We are back on the boat after a very nice trip to Florida with a diversion to Georgia to see our friends Jim and Trudy. Prior to leaving, we had very cold weather and the water around the boat got a coating of ice on it.

 Even the water in the woods had a thin slither of ice on it.

 We had a lovely two day stay with our friends and enjoyed a walk around their property. We saw what was left of a cotton crop.

This is a photo of the seed contained within the cotton boll. I would love to have seen the cotton gin that separates the seed from the cotton, maybe on our next visit to Jim and Trudy. Trudy is a self taught oil painter and will paint pictures from photos for you. If you would like to see some of her work, here is her web site:
 https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=415876544AF661FA&id=415876544AF661FA%21478&v=3I also took a photo of a reflection we saw on our walkabout:

We had a good drive from Georgia to Florida where we met David who was going to run his first marathon. We had rented a very nice house so we had a comfortable home to return home to after a busy day.
There were 23,000 people running the marathon - old, young adults (not children), fat people, thin people, people dressed in costumes. David completed the race with very sore feet and knees. He ran through 4 Disney Parks - Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios (the old MGM). At each park there were Disney characters ready to have their photos taken with the runners. I think David must have had his photo taken with all of them. The next photo is of the entrance to Disney World. Please note the time on the clock - 6:30AM - and I had eaten a cooked breakfast.

David waving goodbye when leaving us to go to the starting point of the race.
David on the teletron entering the ESPN Wide World of Sports stadium.

 

David after completing the marathon with his medal and knees iced.

The following photos are of runners dressed in costume:

 There were several men dressed as Tinkerbell - hmmmm!! I guess only real men can dress as a fairy!!

This man was awesome - sorry I mean Incredible!!

There must be a clause against wearing this costume!!

 

This man dribbled the two balls for the full 26.2 miles - he must be a basket case!!!
There was something fishy about this next photo!!

Guess who is the "Beauty" and the "Beast" in this photo.
Gary and I were SO proud of David. Neither of us are runners or have ever been a runner. I was always a big disappointment to my PE teachers in High School as I would not run for anything. I did play field hockey but was a full back and relied on my arm strength to hit the ball (my nickname was Hercules!!).

David wearing his Marathon Shirt with Disney Characters.
Well, if you have 23,000 runners and each runner has at least 2 supporters, a lot of loos are needed -

and a lot of loos there were. This was just one area, there were many others.
Well, I will stop here as I have a lot more to tell you about our Florida Trip. So as Arnold says "I'll be baaacck".

Brrrrr!!!!

We are now in warm, sunny Columbus, Mississippi!!! Not!!! Last night was 10 degrees F and the water pipes on the boat froze so we had to unfreeze them with my hair dryer.  Yesterday morning I went to the Marina laundry room and ran two machine loads of wash whilst I took a shower. When I left the shower to return to the laundry room I saw water pouring out from under the laundry room door. When I opened the door, water poured out. The pipes were exposed under the laundry room floor and had frozen. What a mess. I had to go and tell the manager of the marina, who was most understanding and not at all angry with me. I offered to help clean up the floor but he said he would do it.
Our trip down to Columbus was uneventful but very cold.

This is me all wrapped up for going through the locks. My neighbour, Michele gave me the hat for Christmas and boy, was that well used that day.
We passed through 5 locks in one day which was a record for us. Frequently on the river (The TennTomBigbee Waterway) we saw these strange looking side walls to the river.

 

They are called baffles and were built to contain the flow of the water into the river. This was the first river on which we had seen such a construction.
We passed a couple of osprey nests - one on the lights at the lock and the other on top of a very thin tree. I wonder how difficult it was to place the first stick/twig on the top of the tree without it falling off.

As I mentioned earlier we are in Columbus, Mississippi at the moment. It is an old town with many old antebellum homes. We drove around them yesterday in the frigid weather with the heater in the car turned up high.

This one dating back to 1833 had an interesting entrance way. It had steps either side of the front door making an arch covered in some type of vine and revealing another entrance down below. Gary thought this was quite unique.

This house was where Tennessee Williams was born. I wonder if it was this colour when he was born.
Well, that sums up today's blog. Tomorrow, we are off to Orlando, Florida to cheer David on in his marathon. I looked up the temps in Florida and saw that Orlando was 46 degrees today. However, for the day of David's race (Sunday) the temperature is supposed to be near 80. It seems like I shall have to pack both shorts and jeans for the trip. We have rented a very nice home in a golfing community. It has its own pool and will sleep 8. David found it for us and wanted a place with a hot tub for soaking his aching muscles after the race. It does not have a hot tub but it does have a jacuzzi. It looks very nice and includes linens and cooking utensils.
So, keep warm everybody. If you have elderly neighbours, check on them to make sure they are keeping warm enough. Keep pets inside until the big chill is over.
 

Happy New Year

If you are reading this blog due to interest, mistake or curiosity, I wish you the happiest of New Years and hope that it is a peaceful one for everyone no matter the colour of your skin or religion.
As you can see, we are back on the boat after spending a quick visit back home. We spent Christmas with our son who we wish the very best for 2014. He so deserves it.

                  I think David looks like a young Chuck Norris in this photo.
David has two parrots, Natty and Bo (named after beers!!!!). Imagine explaining their names to David's future children!!! Natty, the sun conure took a bath and ended up with a bad hair day or should I say bad feather day!!

She is a lovely bird but does not get on with Bo who is smaller but more protective of David as he has had him to himself for 4 years before Natty arrived on the scene.

                               Sorry, this photo is not phocused well!!
 Whilst at David's we went to a real nice light display in Vienna, Virginia. I tried out my new (cheap used) camera I bought on e-bay and it did a very good job of taking photos of the lights.

We also visited a golf driving range with a difference. Instead of aiming your golf ball for a post you aimed for big divided pit which gave you points if your ball landed in it. The nearer to the flag in the centre, the higher the score. The pit was about the size of a green.

 Each individual's balls had a RFID (radio frequency ID) so that the computer could keep track of who was up hitting. The computer also kept track of how close the ball came to the centre of the pit and the yardage. We had three games (20 balls each game) and I lost the first two badly until someone told me lowest score did not win!!!!. However, I came back on the 3rd game and came a close second to Gary. David started off with a bang and then fizzled. This certainly made practice more interesting than driving towards a distant flag.    
We had a great drive back to Alabama despite torrential rain. We met up with Gary's cousin and her family again. We got to meet both girls (Elaine and Rachel) and spent New Year's Eve with them and their friends. We had a smashing time.

                  Boats at the marina decorated for Christmas and New Year.
 When we got back to the boat, it seemed to be OK despite some cold temperatures whilst we were away. However, I noticed that we had had visitors in our absence - they left their calling card, if you get my meaning. We had been visited by rats. They ate half my citronella candle (must have been looking for a light meal - candle/light - get it!!!), the lid of my empty cashew container I was saving for future use, an empty bottle of water and my ant bait traps. Thank goodness they never got into the main living area of the boat. They would have had food to keep them going for weeks. We guess they got onto the boat by running up the boat lines as the boat was not near the dock. I was afraid that we would find a dead rat somewhere but so far we have not.
We are heading south for warmer weather. Today is in the 30s and tonight is to be in the teens - brrrrr. So goodbye old man winter-

Hello warm Florida sunshine!!!

December

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We were in Independence, Missouri visiting with Gary's parents. We arrived on their 65th Wedding Anniversary and helped them eat this lovely fruit arrangement containing lots of chocolate covered strawberries sent by Gary's brother, Galen and his wife, Cheryl. Mmmmm. Thank-you, Galen.

We spent Thanksgiving with Gary's cousin's family and had a lovely meal and visit with them. We had David with us as he flew in very early on Thanksgiving morning so that added to the excitement .

Unfortunately, our trip has come to a sudden stop due to Gary's mother falling on the ice and making the arthritis in her left knee worse. She has now decided to get the knee replacement her Dr recommended two years ago. Therefore, Gary and I will leave here tomorrow and return to the boat in Alabama. We should arrive late Saturday and then Gary will leave Tuesday to return to Independence with his cousin, Jackie who lives in Huntsville. I will then return to Maryland and make plans for Christmas. Gary will join me in Maryland on 18th December and we will spend Christmas with David.  David is running his first marathon at Disney World on 11th January and we hope to be able to cheer him on. We are not sure yet if Gary will return to help his mother after her knee replacement on 29th January or if his brother and his wife will fly out and assist her with her second knee replacement.
There is not much to tell about our journey to Missouri. We did pass a true trailer home-

I do not think I would like to live in this type of home. I wonder if they got their furniture from "Crate and Barrel"!!
We went through two very large locks, not as large as Carillon in Canada but still quite a hike up.

Tennessee River

Howdie,

It has not been the most interesting of weeks so I have not a lot to say (or type) and do not have many photos of interest.
We are now on the Tennessee River after traversing the Ohio and the Cumberland Rivers.  We have stayed at two very friendly Marinas - Green Turtle Bay and Mermaid. Both had wonderful owners/employees who were very hospitable and helpful. The Mermaid had just recently been bought by Betty and Barry in the last three months and we wish them well. The Tennessee and Kentucky accent was a delight to listen to and I could have stayed and talked to them all day.
An interesting occurrence happens at the end of September of every year as the water is let out of Kentucky Lake in preparation for the upcoming winter. This makes a significant difference to the depth and current on the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. The depth drops significantly making some marinas unable to take boats that have a draft of 4 feet or more. The current may increase to 2 knots/hour flowing north (against us).
We went through several locks, one (Barkley Lock and Dam) with a lift of 57'. We have been through one other lock, The Carillon in Canada which was 65' and will go through the Wilson Lock (at 93') and the Whitten Lock (at 84'). We passed Olmsted Lock, a lock in construction (to be finished in 2014 maybe) and were interested to see the cranes and tugs needed to complete the work on the new lock. The new lock will  replace two old locks, one of which we waited for over 3 hours to get through. We heard on the radio that there were 45 tows ahead of us (they take priority over pleasure craft) and planned on anchoring for a long while. We were let through with 3 other pleasure boats ahead of our turn, which we did not object to.

                                     The new dam under construction.

                         One of the huge cranes leading down to the river.

We think this was the lifting mechanism for hoisting pieces of the dam into place.
We saw several tows/tugs but not half as many as we saw on the Mississippi.

                                                   A mini tug!

                                               A washed up tug!

             We think this tug was towing the lock gates for the new Lock.

 We saw several tugs carrying loads of mulch. This must be where they are picking it up from. I wish they would deliver it to Pasadena!!!
Being in Tennessee we are seeing lots of work completed in the early 1930s by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The TVA was established to help areas hit hard by the Depression and covered most of Tennessee, a portion of Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky and a small slice of North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia. They were responsible for helping with navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertiliser manufacturing and economic development.

Steam plant built by the TVA. I guess it produces electricity, but I am not sure.
The homes along the rivers continue to built on stilts due to flooding. We saw the following house and think it was designed to rise with the flood water.

We also passed many trees with mistletoe growing on them. When you think about it - the plant is parasitic and sucks all the water and nutrients from the host tree, killing it in the long run - why would you want to hang mistletoe up at Christmas in the hopes of getting kissed!!!! Who came up with that wonderful idea? They must have been a sucker!!!!

I shall finish with a few photos I thought were rather nice:

I tried to come up with some puns to accompany my photos but was unable to despite "pund"ering for a while. I could not come up with "mulch" even though I "reflected" for several minutes and had to "tug" on my thoughts. I was "moonstruck" for puns, to no avail.
I would like to finish with offering my condolences to those who lost loved ones and friends in the tornadoes that hit the United States yesterday. You are all in our thoughts and prayers.
 
Kingston Rover Loop Map