Cooks Bend Cutoff, Tenn-Tombigbee, Alabama

A random telephone booth along the river.

The front of this barge is rather heavily loaded.

The water was like glass today

Relaxing on the bow of Dream Fever

We left Columbus Marina at 7:45 this morning; called the lock and they said they could take us at about 8, so we wanted to be there and ready. As it happened, the doors were open and waiting for us, as was the case at the next two locks we went through today. Between Columbus and Demopolis, it is 118 miles, and there is only one marina, 28 miles out of Columbus. So our decision had to be between stopping at that marina, then travelling 91 miles the second day, or travelling further the first day, and making the distance less for the second day. This anchorage is approximately 60 miles from Columbus, so a nice stopping point. When you only travel at about 9 miles per hour, you don’t go anywhere very fast. Got here at about 2:30, anchored and rafted by 3:30, then time to relax. We set up chairs on the back of Nancy and Eddie’s boat and had snacks, then ate the stew I had going all day in the slow cooker. Cool this morning, but no fog, up to 81 F this afternoon and still a warm evening. Forecast is for rain overnight and showers tomorrow, so we may be travelling in wet weather  then. Only one tow today, although we saw a lot of working boats, tows, barges just before one lock. However, they were off to the side and so didn’t bother us, nor did we get in their road. Narrow channel for a lot of the day, trees along both sides, with the occasional open area with some very nice houses. Peaceful here in the cutoff where we are anchored. No houses in sight, but a couple of fishing boats have gone by. Today we started out in Mississippi, then for about 3 miles along the way we travelled back and forth between Mississippi and Alabama depending on how the river curved. Finally we entered Alabama, and we will stay in this state until after we reach Mobile at the Gulf coast.