We stopped for a visit at the museum of the Snagboat "Montgomery" and the Bevill visitor's center that was built as a combination of three different plantation houses.
The snagboat was the last active duty steam powered vessel used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the river systems. It was used to remove snags (fallen trees, etc.) from the river to keep the river safe for navigation. It was saved from being scrapped and set up as a museum.
The boat was operated by a small crew and the "pilot house" was used for the pilot and the snag crane operator.
After leaving the museum and visitor's center we anchored and waited for Jim and Sue Starke on "Eagle One" to catch up to us. While we were anchored we suddenly saw a plane flying right toward us almost on the water. At the last minute it would pull up and fly over the boat. This plane did this a few different times and we were only able to get this one not-so-good photo as the time from hearing the plane until it had passed us was very short.
Jim & Sue came by us and we headed to Waverly Marina where we topped off fuel (best price on the Tenn-Tom) and stayed for the night. We had their famous cheeseburgers overlooking our boats and then headed out the next day.
After anchoring, we toured the creek on "Eaglet" and realized that we could have anchored much further up the river if conditions warranted. As it was we were fine where we were and just stored the information in our memory.
Stacy wanted some the wildflowers (or were they weeds) along the banks so Jim pushed us into the bank so I could cut some of the flowers for her. They lasted a surprisingly long time in a vase.
At the next lock we found out that a tow had been released ahead of us and that we would be waiting on each lock that day for the tow to be locked through ahead of us. Commercial vessels have priority. We were going through 5 lock in one day and this was going to put us into Bay Springs in the dark. The lockmaster called us and arranged for us to go into the next lock with the tow if there was room and then be able to get ahead upon exiting.
The next lockmaster and the Tow captain agreed to let us into the lock and there was barely enough room to tie on the last bollard. We were quite concerned that Jim would not fit since he was towing his dinghy. The door just did clear and the tow allowed us to go by him as soon as we exited the lock.
We anchored in Bay Springs for a couple of days and just relaxed. Bay Springs is a beautiful part of the river system and I fully understood why everyone wants to anchor there. We played "Mexican Train" dominoes and visited some of Jim's friends at a local marina. The water was still a bit too cold for swimming but the water is surprisingly clear compared to the Tennessee.
As we came on up the Tennessee we were held up at Wheeler Lock for a few hours waiting for a large tow to be locked down. We were able to play an entire game of Mexican Train waiting for the locking. We did notice that the water released from the lock was released into this large cylinder. It was interesting to suddenly see this boiling water next to us.
We left Jim & Sue at Bay Hill marina (their home) and made our way on up river to Goose Pond Marina (our home). After securing the boat we made a mad dash to Athens Georgia to see about renting our houses for the next year or so. On the way back we stopped in to see Ken & Darcy Searle at their home in Roswell. They sold "Just Us" while we were with them in Panama City and we missed traveling back up the Tenn-Tom with them.
Since arriving back in Athens it has been a whirlwind. We have one house rented and are working on the other. We have been trimming trees, clearing flower beds, repainting, resealing decks and performing all the other requirements of turning over houses. Our nephew's wedding was last Saturday and we attended a wonderful event before heading back to the boat for a trip with Stacy's sister and family.
