Where's the Gammel Dansk?

Can you find our Nordic tug Gammel Dansk, in the sea of BIG BOATS?

Barge in GICW

Passing a barge hauling gravel and rocks in this narrow passage.

Gulf Intra Coastal Waterway!

We crossed the Mobile Bay and into the GICW (Gulf Intra Coastal Waterway), where Dolphins played in front of our boat.

This picture shows us headed to The Wharf Marina at Gulf Shores
Orange Beach, Alabama. 

Very peaceful calm waters, until we meet a barge in this narrow passage. We have traveled 1158 river miles. Our river travels are completed as we are in salt water for the first time since Being hauled out at Anacortes, Washington. We have been attentive dodging logs branches and debris in the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Tennessee TomBigbee and the Black Warrior Rivers.  Whew!! Mission accomplished. Our next river travel will be entering the Hudson River in New York City.   We will remember and appreciate the calm waters and sunshine of the Alabama Gulf Coast. 
It is 71 degrees and our only dilemma is whether to wear
regular footwear or flip flops.

Bobby's Fish Camp

We have arrived at Bobby’s Fish Camp...

 ...on the Tennessee TomBigbee Waterway at mile marker 119
near Silas, Alabama.

Just a Few Feet Down

This photo is from a lock chamber on the Black Warrior TomBigbee Waterway -- at the Coffeeville Lock and Dam in Coffeeville, Alabama. 

The drop was only 63 feet. The John C. Stennis lock in Columbus, Mississippi, on the Tennessee-TomBigbee Waterway was 86 foot drop.   

Rotten Cotton -- Demopolis, Alabama

Once those cotton balls get rotten,
you can’t pick very much cotton.

Cotton has been picked, but some of the cotton fell off the stems and was not harvested. There must be enough on the ground for a couple of white shirts or perhaps one bed sheet. 

Annie O -- From Seattle!

You never know what you can run into in Demopolis, Alabama. 

We have not seen the owners yet, but are on the lookout. It will be great to talk to them about the Seahawks, Huskies and fish & chips at Ivar’s.

Whiteout Blues

Woke up this morning with whiteout blues.
The Tom Bevil Lock and Dam is out there somewhere. 

We will wait until the fog lifts. Temperatures expected to be 68 degrees and sunny. We will have to wait. Our Minnesota friends visiting Florida called to tell us the temperature was 87 degrees and that we are not moving fast enough.  Our boat is called the “Turtle boat” -- because we are slow. We also pay homage to Turtles by wearing their turtle colors -- GREEN.
We all know how that fabled race went, Aesop. 

We Give Thanks for YOU!

Please read at your Thanksgiving.
From Mary and Dan and Tori, the Seeing Eye Dog,
in Columbus, Mississippi

Garden Meditation 

by Rev. Max Coots 

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.

For children who are our second planting, and though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are.

Let us give thanks;

For generous friends...with hearts...and smiles as bright as their blossoms;

For feisty friends, as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we've had them;

For crotchety friends, sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as potatoes and so good for you;

For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes;

And serious friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you through the winter;

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;

And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, but who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter.

For all these we give thanks. 

Tennessee Williams House

The Gammel Dansk crew took a break while at the Columbus Marina
in Columbus, Mississippi. 

We stopped at the home of Thomas Lanier Williams, also known as Tennessee Williams. He was a genius writer but lived a very turbulent life. He wrote the Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire. All three were turned into films and productions for the stage. Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor and Burl Ives starred in the movie version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Marlon Brando, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter in A Streetcar Named Desire. Dan shouted mimicking Marlon Brando:  STELLA! STELLA!

Elvis Presley at 13

Statue of a young Elvis Presley at 13 years old. 

He carried his guitar to school everyday. We toured his childhood
northland home in Tupelo, Mississippi. 

Pittsburg Landing

This area was referred to as Pittsburg Landing
by the Confederates during the Civil War.

The Union called it Shiloh because it was near a church called Shiloh. The confederate forces came up the Tennessee River from Corinth, Mississippi, to Pittsburg Landing. The Confederate forces numbered 48,000 and the Union 49,000 -- and reinforced by 18,000 Union soldiers. 26,000 men died in the battle. The Union won and Confederate General Johnston was killed in battle.

One of the Union Generals was considered to be insane. He gained notoriety and controversy later in the war. He was William Tecumseh Sherman, who is famous or infamous for his scorched earth March to the Sea -- burning and destroying everything in his path. Remember Charlotte in Gone with the Wind? "Oh Tara is burning, Oh Rhett, Atlanta is burning....
Well Charlotte, frankly I don’t give a damn!"

We saw many Dixie or Confederate flags flying in this area of Tennessee. Perhaps because it was close to Veterans Day. 

Floating Bollards

Floating Bollard in the Lock Chamber on the
Cumberland River nearing Kentucky Lakes. 

They are rare on our journey using the Lock and Dam Systems. Usually, we drive into the lock chamber and tie to one of the chamber sidewalls directed by the Lockmaster. After entering the large lock, gates will close. Lock tenders come to our boat and throw down a line -- a rope to all you land lubbers. We must hold on to the line to keep our boat close to the wall and in position. Millions of gallons of water are moving into or out of the lock chamber depending on the river level. This floating bollard only requires throwing a line around the pin and floating up or down. 

In this photo we floated up 28 feet to the next river. The lock chamber opens at the opposite end and you drive into the river 28 feet higher than you entered the lock. The floating bollards require no lock tender personnel to throw a line and help you tend the line during your ride up or down. We threw a line around the pin and waited while the Lockmaster filled the chamber with 28 feet of water. The gate opened, and we unhooked from the floating bollard that floated with us to the next level. The Lockmaster will give a loud blast of the horn when the gate is completely open. We then unhook ourselves and drive out of the lock chamber. Into the river, to our next Lock and Dam. The Lock and Dam systems are maintained by the United States Army Corp of Engineers and no fees are collected for Recreational craft or Commercial traffic. Thanks for paying your taxes, because this is how the Lock and Dams are administered, by tax dollars with no charge to the users of the Lock and Dam System. We will use over 150-190 locks
during our Loop. 

We are in Tupelo, Mississippi, on the Tennessee Tombigbee River headed to Mobile Alabama. This stretch of our river journey has 12 Lock and Dams. This floating bollard is only the second in all the locks we have been through. 

Chip Ahoy

Chip Ahoy Nordic Tug 26 is traveling the Great Loop with us. 

Two Nordic Tug 26-footers follow the mother ship, the Still Waters 2. Two little Tugs like ducklings follow. The Gammel Dansk is the tortoise of the group. We have been allowed to lead the Looper Navy out of the Marina on occasion into the main channel of the river.  It was akin to being allowed to eat at the adult table at the Thanksgiving feast.

Motoring Upstream

Nordic Tug Gammel Dansk motoring upstream on the Tennessee River
near Bath Springs, Tennessee.

Note the current we are running against.