Leaving the snow behind us, we headed back to Demopolis, Alabama on Tuesday and our 18 hour drive went well. Once back I washed down the boat while Dave made the 2 hour round trip to Meridian, Mississippi airport to return the rental car. Wednesday morning we woke up to slippery frost on the boat.
6 boats left for lock #77 of this magical mystery tour. Our goal for the day being Bobby's Fish Camp, about 80 miles south. It turned out to be a day of heavy tow traffic as you can see on this photo of the chart plotter. At one point there were 5 tows/barges maneuvering the sharp bend of the TomBigee in our path.
Those little triangles are tows/barges.
It gets a bit tense when we have to pass between one coming and one going!
Blue Moon arrived at Bobby's Fish Camp just before dark. Captain Dave, the legendary docking master that he is, parallel parked the boat between two other boats with only inches to spare. Bobby's Fish Camp is a legend among loopers and the only marina between Demopolis and Mobile (about 216 miles) so it's the only game in town. It's a few notches up the scale as compared to Hoppie's on the Mississippi and totally charming in a deep Alabama hillbilly, no frills, kinda' way.
It's in Choctaw County where Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Talahatchee Bridge!
Flip Flop Tree
Donna, the proprietor, made us a wonderful catfish dinner. Dave was asking her how they catch the catfish and she said they use commercial rearing ponds or noodling! She said she prefers noodlin'. She was proud to show us that she still has all her fingers!
After some key lime pie we went back to the boat and got out the night scope to look for gators. It didn't take long to spot one. Add gators to the list of critters on this trip!
This morning we woke up to a gray rainy day but no fog so we got an early start to THE LAST LOCK!
Happy me!
This last leg of river travel before Mobile Bay meandered from Bobby's Fish Camp.
We are now in a very secluded anchorage where the Alabama River meets the TomBigbee River. A steady but relatively warm rain has continued and the forest around the river is dead silent, soaked and ready to swallow Blue Moon for the night. Both bow and stern anchors are mud set in nearly 20' feet of water so we're not going anywhere and should have a restful night.
Tomorrow the last of our river travel and beginning of tides, salt water and hopefully sunshine.
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