November 8, 2008: Pickensville, Alabama

We had a nice bike ride, 6.2 miles, this morning to the Wal*Mart in town. We are planning to refinish our teak chairs and needed the varnish, sandpaper and brushes, and I was hoping to get a new set of knitting needles. Tom carried the backpack as we road, and it was great to get the exercise in the sunshine. After lunch we cast off for our short cruise to Pickensville. We entered the Stennis Lock with two sailboats also headed South and descended the waterway another 25 feet. The Stennis Lockmaster asked for our Coast Guard registration number which was unusual, but Tom had it scribbled on a little slip of paper and had it handy.

The route today was interesting in that the Tenn-Tom made the slash mark in the $ and the Tom Bigbee made the ‘S’ so we kept crossing the river; lots of waterways and riverlets coming in and out of the main channel. We zigzagged across the state line between Alabama and Mississippi as we traveled south. We soaked in God’s beautiful Earth with the sun glistening on the water, birds in their natural habitat and an interesting floating plant with large shiny green leaves. The Dockmaster, Ms. Star, at the Cove Marina where we are spending the night told us it was Water Hyacinth. It is something like water kudzu in that it grows aggressively into huge floating mats and clogs water ways. It has been spread from South America likely because it has a large beautiful purple to violet flower when it is blooming. Star said that the Mobile Army Corps of Engineers sprays to kill it all summer but they have stopped now. We saw lots of it floating in the channel. Too bad we missed the flowers.

Tom and I took a short ride this afternoon to see the National History Landmark, Snagboat Mongomery, that has been permanently dry docked near here. This was the last of the active steam driven, stern paddlewheel boats used by the Army Corps for clearing “snags”, underwater trees or stumps, out of the water way. It was 178 feet long and three decks high, with a huge black crane on the front which would have had a clamshell grapple claw. It was in use for over 50 years, from 1926 to 1982, but now lies in its mounting as a reminder of earlier day. The Bevill Visitor Center there is built like a old antebellum mansion overlooking the river and reminded us of Waverly that we visited yesterday, but this one is new.

So tonight we are back in Alabama, near Pickensville, where the Tenn-Tom meets the Bevill Lock and Dam. We are at the Cove Marina tied up to an old wooden floating dock next to a boat from Swansboro, NC. The owners have left it here while they are home for the holidays. The name painted across the stern is Semper Fi, so I am thinking the boat Captain is a marine from Cherry Point where my Dad and brother worked for years. It really is a small world.