(Who’s singing along? 😉)

We had decided to stay two nights at Aqua Yacht. Thursday morning we went with Cam and Heather, from the boat Sea Clef, to the Shilo Civil War Battlefield. We had a tour with Larry DeBerry, whose ancestors fought in the war. His family owned property within the battlefield area up until his father sold the land to the State to be turned into a preserved historic park. He drove us through the park and walked us through the two day battle. He was very knowledgeable.

Cast of a tree stump where soliders buried their friend during the battle. He was later moved to the National Cemetery established in the park.

Belt buckles found within the park.

Later that evening we went to dinner with John from Moonshadow II (his wife Robin flew home that morning to visit their kids), Mike and Cindy from Meridian, and their friend Tom who is doing the trip solo. Mike and Cindy recommend this BBQ restaurant called The Outpost. This would be their third night in a row there 😆. So the food had to be good! Which it most definitely was, with the coolest decor. Wood beams, all carved with different animals, antique boating paraphernalia and an old fashioned general store.

We got a fried apple pie and the most delicious Heath cookies 😋.

When we got back to the marina we noticed Rival had arrived so we went over and said hello.

Friday we left, continuing on the Loop route South. We caught up to Masquerade and ended up going through two locks with them and then anchoring just before another. We could have made it through the next lock but there was another non Looper boat in the first two with us that was such a jerk! They would speed way to fast into the lock and once tied off in front of us rev the engine creating turbulence. So we opted to anchor above the next lock and let them continue on and away from us.

Karma in action. This lock was leaky and sprayed water on top of them as we descended. 😆

Saturday was expected to be stormy so we called Midway Marina to make sure we could arrive early as it was only about five miles away. Marinas are kind of like hotels, checkout is usually by 11am and arrival isn’t until about 1pm. Midway said they had plenty of room though and with a storm coming they’d be happy to have us get there ASAP.

Overnight was a little rough. The wind kicked up and the rain started, so we did not sleep well at all. Up early Saturday we called the lock and they said we could get through as soon as we were ready. We quickly pulled up anchor and went right there. The rain started again as soon as we got moving and our rear thruster stopped working, limiting our manuverability. So we were glad to not have far to go. Masquerade hadn’t planned on stopping at the marina but decided to come in as the wind and rain picked up even more as we were going along.

Sunday the rain was on and off all day. I did laundry while Don checked out the thruster, but he wasn’t able to get it working 🫤.

Monday we were up early again with four other boats heading out. We traveled down river together through the next four locks. The locks like when you stick together and they can send you through as a group rather than staggered. We went to Columbus Marina and saw Meridian already there. We chatted a bit and they introduced us to a couple on a sail boat that it turns out we had passed along the way up river. Don and I took the marina’s courtesy car to a pizza place they recommend, Lost Pizza. It was very good, with many create your own options or their custom creations.

The Pit Boss, BBQ pork topped pizza! 😋

Tuesday we did some boat work. We pulled out the anchor chain so I could repaint the length markers. Don washed the boat and tried working on the thruster again but no luck. We will be coming home for the holidays and found a marina in Florida to store the boat for December and part of January, so we made arrangements with them to look at the thruster while it’s there. I took the marina’s courtesy car to Walmart, came back to pick Don up and we went to my one food exception for not eating somewhere we could eat at home…any guesses…

Chick-fil-A! 😄

Wednesday a group of seven of us left the marina early. We thought we’d only have one lock to go through but checking again we saw we had overlooked one. Then as we were making good time and got through the first two quickly the group concensus was to push on through one more lock to Gainesville Alabama.

A phone booth marks the border of Mississippi and Alabama.

We turned into an anchorage just passed the lock, which was actually the part of the river diverted by the dam.

There were two boats already anchored here, Whoopsea who we met in Nashville, and the sailboat we just met in Columbus, Sandy Crab. So we took the dinghy over to say hello.

All along this section of river there have been these floating plants in the water. I have been wanting a small plant for the boat that I don’t have to worry about watering, and these just happened to float right by 😄.

I will have to get them a different container, but in the meantime we will continue our way down to the Gulf of Mexico.