Down River to Demopolis, AL

I don't want to know how cold it was outside our boat this morning because INside it was 44 degrees! We do not run the generator at night after cooking dinner and warming shower water so we bundled up in two blankets and slept fairly well. This morning I put on several layers to go out and wash down the muddy anchor as it came up. Brrrrr! That smile is frozen!

When the Captain called the lock which was about two miles from our anchorage he found out there was a boat already in the lock. The lock master told him if you could find some more horses and get on down there quick they will wait for us. Walter agreed and poured on the power.

Going into lock with other boat already secured and ready to lock down.

After we were dropped 32 ft to the level of the Waterway beyond the lock, the gates opened for us.

We soon passed the first tow which was a small one with only 3 barges.

Here is the second and last tow we passed today.  It was one of the largest we have seen on this waterway...three barges wide and three deep.

It was a beautiful clear (and cold!) day on the water.

This is the river we navigated today... the winding blue line in the middle of the chart is the Tenn-Tom waterway. Yes, the chart is hard to read!  Glad we have the Garmin chart.

Then we were treated to some real beauty: Fall foliage among The White Cliffs of Epes, AL They are chalk deposits.

And here we are looking back after passing under the Epes train bridge.

Here are more of the white cliffs with some striated rock.

I have hiked the Grand Canyon twice down to the Colorado River and this looks like part of the scenery there!

One last pretty view of these cliffs.

We traveled 46 miles today to the Demopolis city marina. We will need to go about 70 miles tomorrow which will be a long day but there are very few anchorages anywhere else as we make our way to Mobile Bay and the Gulf coast.  We are still looking for WARM weather as we travel south!