We enjoyed the remainder of our journey down the Tenn-Tom Waterway to Demopolis, AL and had the opportunity to visit our friends along the way as well as meet new friends. We arrived at Midway Marina in Fulton, MS and were greet by Linda and Ron Gumm, with whom we had traveled most of our loop journey. We spent about five days there, enjoying their company, getting needed haircuts and visiting Elvis' birthplace, Tupelo, MS. We have included a couple of pictures of the little home he was born in. We also visited the hardware store where his mother bought him his first guitar and an automobile museum that housed some wonderful antique motorized vehicles from the beginning of the automobile era until today.
We had a very strong rainstorm during our stay there but never thought about how it would affect the river height until we started heading down toward Columbus, MS. We went through a couple of locks and as we came out of the Amory Lock, our speed increased to about 13-14 mph, which is very fast for us. The amount of debris in the water also increased tremendously. We were dodging trees and branches as we cruised down the river. We arrived at the entrance to Columbus Marina and were told by the dockmaster that we would have to cross the spillway to the dam at the Columbus lock in order to get to their marina. Flint "put the pedal to the metal" and as we turned into the rushing water, it tilted us about 25-30 degrees. We were able to power through it, but all kinds of articles down below were thrown around. That was the second time during this trip we were tilted over because of weather and we think twice is enough! We were in a flood situation "again" and had to stay in Columbus for a couple of days until the water subsided and the locks were cleared of debris and reopened.
We received a call from our relative while we were in Columbus that broke our hearts. He had been in drug rehab all winter and, after arriving home in late January, had gone back to work and things seemed to be going well. He told us that he had started taking drugs again and had a random drug screen due to be done the next day. We realized that the implications of his action would be great and that we probably needed to stop traveling and move more permanently to his home to help his family. We were due to arrive in Dempolis, AL in a couple of days and we called ahead to make arrangements for them to pull our boat out of the water for an extended period of time.
We finally headed south again and continued to dodge the debris from the riverbanks that clogged the river. We even had a water heater in one of the locks with us. We needed to anchor out one night and had been told that Sumter Landing was a good place to tuck in off of the river and have good protection. When we arrived there, another looper boat was already anchored. We had met them at the Looper Rendezvous and renewed our acquaintance. We had "cocktail hour" on our boat and found out they were from Middletown, MD. We left together the next morning and had a couple hour wait to go through the next lock as we waited for some commercial traffic to lock down. Our arrival in Demopolis was bittersweet as we were going to see some wonderful friends from New Zealand, whom we had traveled with in Michigan, but now had to tell them that we needed to stop traveling and go home. Our plan had been to join them as they traveled down to Mobile and through Florida. They were very sad that we would be unable to accompany them and for our circumstances.
We had all our worldly goods, so to speak, aboard our boat and arranged to rent a van to transport everything to our new temporary home. They took all the back seats out for us so that we would have more room to pack our "stuff". It took us most of a day to complete that process and we were off to SC. They pulled the boat the next week and she will be safe until we can come back and finish our trip. Our Grace Full Journey is still full of God's grace, even though it took a different path than what we had intended. We feel His mercy each day as we work our way through this season of life. Pray for us all that we might follow the path laid out for us and that someday we will be able to finish what we started, if it be God's will. So long and we will let you know when we start this Grace Full Journey again.
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