Making our way down the rivers - slowly!

That gap is getting smaller….😎

Going back to Iuka- We left the boat there for the weekend and went off to Muscle Shoals/Florence.

Prior to leaving, I kept saying to Mike that our holding tank must have a problem because the smell was not Great. Our last boat had some issues with the holding tank, but never this one. We were perplexerd. Maybe it was the boat next door,, or across the way?? But, he dumped blue stuff in the toilet, then more…😬😕🤢

As we were leaving, we realized the whole marina stank. Then as we were driving, we realized that the whole county of Iuka smells like sewer. I need to look up their industry and figure that one out. It would come and go, but wasn’t particularly pleasant. A quick google says it has some timber industry- maybe rotting timber… I don’t know…

As It turns out, there is a lot of civil war history all through this area, but we didn’t visit any parks. We chose music. I would like to watch some of the videos to learn more about what happened here with the battle of Shilo, etc…

Muscle Shoals/Florence.…. What a great experience. Both the Muscle Shoals Studio and the Fame studio were excellent. So crazy to see such talent rolling through that little town.

Even though both studios are still recording , (Muscle Shoals took a long break, but is back) everything is so nostalgic. This area is definitely still rooted back in time on some level. Pretty cool.

Interestingly enough, it all started in Florence and the music halls are still in Florence.

We visited one of the music venues, but it was in a basement, and we decided it would be a bit too claustrophobic once it was filled with people.

The one we did decide to go to, we bailed on because we decided the hotel‘s music was equally as good and we didn’t have to drive or Uber. Are we getting old or what???🤦‍♀️

All Photos of Fame. The person behind the desk is Rick Hall‘s grandson and relayed some stories about being around the studio during his youth.

1-5 are of the recording studios .

6-8 Rick Halls office and I guess that little black chair has seen a lot of famous butts sitting it…. His grandson remembers hanging out in the barber chair listening to conversations that at the time, he didn’t realize the importance of.

9 A piano that Aretha Franklin used and also where they kept their ” Speak Easy” Back in those days, this was a dry county….Hard to believe all of this was happening in a dry county.

10- Can MIke be a star??

Photos:

• Mick Jagger leaning against a filing cabinet while recording of all things.

• Both Fame and MS talked about how the acoustic in the bathroom were the best and that many a song was recorded while sitting on ”The Throne”🚽

• MS is set up more as a museum than Fame is. There were many authentic pictures that we couldn’t take pictures of at Fame, but MS had posters and the like. It had a very different feel than Fame. It had an air of casualness and fun to it.

• If you don’t have a horseshoe, then by all means use a toilet seat.

• Mike outside of where it all started at MS

Our first night at the hotel, we listened to the “ The Michaels”. They were absolutely amazing and have played with many famous rock & country acts, we had a great time.

I wish I could get their Alabama melody and their blues to upload… but it was fun.

The second night we listened to Tosha Hill, she had a great voice, but she took random breaks and her last 25 minute break was at 10:15 with her set finishing at 11:00. We left and didn’t even bother watching the last few minutes….Perhaps we should have gone to a music hall Saturday….

I did finally have an amazing massage and it was much appreciated!

We had to return our rental car Monday morning vs Sunday night which had me a little anxious as we had a big day planned to get moving down the river and the rental car was 20 minutes away. You basically take a courtesy vehicle to get you to and from the rental agency.

As it turns out, there was a fair amount of fog that morning impacting our departure plan anyways. We changed course on where we were going to stay and traveled a whole 30 miles to Bay Springs Marina and had another zero lock day.

It was a nice enough marina, with huge house boats. The inland rivers love their BIG houseboats. Seriously !!!!

There ended out being several anchorages that I think would have been quite lovely as well though.

Photos:

• Bay coming into marina

• The inland rivers love their Houseboats

• Marina at night

I’m not going to lie - these rivers test me. I just want to get moving and make progress.

I told Mike I feel like I have a software deadline that is just taking too long.

With the record amount of the boats headed down the river, I feel like we can’t get out of our own way and we certainly don’t seem to be able to break free of the herd of boats. 🥺

Getting to Mobile will be a big milestone and help my mindset a great deal.

Mike is also ready to get to Mobile, but taking it better than me. At least outwardly.

However, at this point, we are on a mission and we are very goal oriented people, sooooooo.

I know, this isn’t synonymous with boating.….. no schedule , blah blah.

That’s for things like the North Channel, The Keys, Lake Champlain. BS on the inland rivers. - no offense to those houseboats….

Back to today……Since we had 30 miles under our keel already, we traveled farther than we had originally planned and ended our day at an anchorage at the lock with a convenient boat ramp for the dogs.

Today we went through 4 locks and have ended the day at MM 375 - slowly but surely working down from 450 to zero to get to Mobile.

Our lockages today could have been much worse, but they do keep you on your toes, knowing that the locks are always the wild card in how far you will travel.

This is how it went today:

Lock 1- We have a 7:00 am lock through but it took until 7:30 to get all the boats in and tied up. We then dropped an impressive 84 feet.

Lock 2- We waited 45 minutes for a tow to push through and we went on our way.

Lock 3- We were told they were doing maintenace and it could be several hours. We might as well drop anchor and wait.

After about an hour, I decided to take advantage of the time and run the dogs to shore. This was definitely the omen that got the lock master thinking.

Next thing you know, you hear the lock master saying that they are delaying any further maintenance and to be ready in 15 minutes. I raced back to the boat from shore, we secured the tender and in we went- with 10 other boats….

If I hadn’t taken them out, we probably would have been waiting for hours….

Inside the lock, we saw a tow down below and were so grateful, that the lock was full and we got our ride down first.

Lock 4- Ready and waiting and totally uneventful.

We are now anchored outside of lock 1 of 3 for tomorrow.

It’s a quiet cove with two other boats in it. They have a boat ramp which is great for getting the dogs to shore. We plan on a quiet night and an early rise…

While writing this, I realized that I volunteered to hail the locks at 6:00 am for our little group. Except I have dogs to take out.. this means, dogs must be back on the boat by 6:00 am So Mike can be ready to go if the locks give us the go ahead. 5:15 open a zero moon night, here we come… 🥱🤪💤

Photos::

• Lock 1 had an impressive 84 foot drop

• The walls are bleeding😳

• That its a little ways up…

• Thankfully, that tow was waiting for us on lock 3 vs the other way around.

• Pictures along the way

• Anchorage

• Sunset

We have 8 more locks in total…. The countdown is on and we’re down to single digits.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow we will try and get to Columbus Mississippi and MM 335. Then a big push for Demopolis, 3 locks and 120 miles.

If we succeed, this will definitely help our mindsets a bit. 😅

Everything will need to be working with us for that to happen. 🤞🤞. If it doesn’t we will find a place to anchor out for the night and get to Demopolis the next morning, but everyone ask the lock/inland river fairies to be kind to us please. 😜🧚🏼

I’ll leave you with this little clip. Not all bollards (the things you tie off to in these locks) are quiet. Down you go with a little background noise…

Next post- Maybe Demopolis as we have two days there.