Ditto Landing Huntsville AL to Midway Marina Fulton Mississippi.

   I'm back! For those of you who don't know, I suffered a detached retina in my left eye. I kept this to myself for about two weeks until I started to lose vision in my left eye. I finally confessed to Dave on a Sunday after total loss of my peripheral vision. We debated stopping in Chattanooga but was pushed on to get to Huntsville. God was definitely in control! I called a surgical eye center on Tuesday and was given a 9:15 appointment. After struggling to get a taxi to come to Ditto Landing Marina to pick us up, we arrived at the Huntsville office by 8:50. By 11:00 I was on my way to a retina surgical specialist with a diagnosis of a torn retina. By 2:30 I was being wheeled back for emergency laser surgery. What a whirlwind day- but again, God was definitely in control! I had five days of laying on my left side or staring straight down at the floor but it worked!  The head position gustopo was on my butt to ensure I was face down for five days. I really got tired of "Face Down" Betsy! I have regained all of my vision and I am so very relieved! During the down time Dave changed the 7.5 gallons of engine oil, replaced the starboard engine fuel pump, watered the batteries and spent two day polishing out Fryedaze.

This past Saturday morning under very rainy skies, we were finally leaving Ditto Landing. The picture below shows our boat totally alone- all our Looper friends had been long gone. It almost felt like we were getting back to the land of the living (except on the water)! We traveled to Joe Wheeler State Park where we started in October to a beautiful anchorage. It felt so wonderful just to be moving! From Wheeler we moved toward the end of our time on the Tennessee River to begin our journey down the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway to MOBILE BAY, ALABAMA! The Tennessee River has been my favorite of our trip. We hope to someday return and explore the Tennessee for a much longer period!
We have been reading about and dreaming about the "Tenn-Tom" part of our trip for a long time! The Tombigbee is a man-made waterway that was created as an alternative route to get to the Gulf of Mexico other than the Mighty Mississippi. The Tenn-Tom is divided into three sections and we are already mid-way through the 2nd! We have already gone through 3 locks today and will go through 4 tomorrow. It is a beautiful waterway and we are enjoying all the wildlife and migrating birds that have made Mississippi their winter home.
Yesterday we put the final part of the back enclosure on our bridge. It has been very cool during the days and even cold at night. Today was delightful! We started at 56 degrees and ended up with 71 degrees this afternoon in Fulton, MS. It was wonderful to be back in t-shirts and shorts again! Although, the forecast for the next four days has the weather back to pretty cool (upper 50's and lower 60's during the day) as well as rainy, we don't care- we are headed south!
Our plan is to be in Mobile, AL sometime next week and are hoping to catch up with some of our Looper friends we have met along the way. We really miss them! That was my biggest concern with my surgery- would there be anyone left to cross the Gulf during the night with!? Not going to let it bother me though- it will work out!

By ourselves at Ditto Landing! The first three days Loopers came and went but after that it was just us.

 

A random sculpture that Dave saw leaving Florence. It first appeared to be a person fishing!

 

A group of white pelicans who were enjoying a rest on the TN River

 

Gorgeous skies on Sunday morning leaving Joe Wheeler State Park behind!

 

We have had a lot of "interesting firsts" along this trip. This was definitely one of them. As we approached Wilson Lock we were told that we would have about a 4 hour wait for a tow to push through two sets of barges. The lockmaster advised us to tie up to the auxillary lock chamber wall. Thought this was a great idea and place to wait out the time. NOT SO MUCH! The wind really kicked up and we were really getting beat up along the lock wall. You can see the big drop right in front of the boat. Needless to say- it was a "quiet" time on the boat!

 

It was pretty cold and windy when we went into the Wilson Lock. I had a winter coat on and still was cold! The lock is the biggest on the Tennessee River with a drop of over 84'.

 

We took the opportunity to do a selfie- but the depth of the lock can't truly be appreciated in this picture!

 

Another shot of the Wilson Lock looking up

 


Beautiful limestone and gorgeous homes built on top right outside Florence, AL.

 

This tree really captured my eye as it had all the colors of fall!

 

 

We grew up in a paper mill town. The large mountains of wood chips look familiar The steam is from the heat generated from the wood chip pile.



This was a huge pulp production plant along the Tenn-Tom. This was a big pile of trees waiting to be turned into chips. The morning was so cool that the chip piles were actually steaming!

 

 

Loved seeing the cypress trees and the knees sticking out of the water. Reminded us of home and Cypress Swamp!

 

This was one of our closest "passes" with a tow and barges that we had experienced to so far! Felt like we could reach out and high five!

 

This is right beside our marina tonight and the great white hunter is patiently waiting!

 

This is a shot of the canal portion of the Tenn-Tom that we sent through yesterday. The leaves were beautiful just hard to tell in this picture because of the cloud cover.

 

These were metal plates inside the first lock that we went through this morning. They were leaking! Fortunately where I was standing at the bollard I stayed dry!

 

It was just a perfect cruising day. The sky was kissing the water! Fryedaze is cruising in the clouds.

 

Love these signs at their dams!

 

The sun setting behind FRYDAZE this evening!

 
 

 


FRYEDAZE at Midway Marina

 

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Good Night from Fulton, MS