As I have said many times, this trip is the dream of a lifetime (or at least about 30 years). For example, nineteen years ago while visiting friends, Rick and Kathy G in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, they said that I must visit Demopolis, Alabama on my way driving back to Texas. Even back then, it had a statewide reputation as a prime stop for Loopers. So, I stopped at Demopolis and even stayed overnight at the motel at the marina.
With that said, the destination for today is Demopolis, Alabama. First, we left Pickinsville Marina after the Admiral had called the Lockmaster at the Tom Bevill Lock and Dam to check the status of the lock. The news was great, as he said he would be ready when we arrived. We hurriedly left the dock at 6:30 am and went the 1.0 mile to the lock. We had to wait a few minutes for "High Maintenance" to also join us in the lock. It was only 25 mites from the time we entered to the time we existed after going down 30 feet. The interesting observation at the lock was the rather high flow both down the spillway (left side) and that some of the gates had also been lifted for extra discharge. I have mentioned before that there has been no current on the Tombigbee Waterway to this point. Standing on the flybridge taking this photo, I began to (optimistically) think that now there should be a (favorable) current. Our trip to Demopolis was 90.3 miles with two locks, and with the current our trip suddenly got shorter. The current was just about 1.2 mph, but it was enough to take over an hour off the 11+ hour running time plus the two locks.
The second half of the trip was a geologist's delight. We passed many miles of outcrops of the Selma Chalk. It is a well layered, extremely fine grained carbonate rock. Chalk? Well, not all chalk is "blackboard" quality chalk since some of it too well cemented and therefore too strong to be used on a blackboard. Other chalks that you may have heard of are the White Cliffs of Dover in England and the Austin Chalk in Texas. Most of the chalks in the world are Cretaceous in age. In fact, the Creta in Cretaceous means chalk. The picture at the left shows a small outcrop with some nice Fall colors for contrast. The sun was bright enough that the white color was very bright.
The picture at the right shows a "wall" of the chalk ahead at a bend in the river. I suppose that as a geologist that I might have enjoyed the scenery a bit more, but it was just plain beautiful to see...
Our total travel time thanks to the current and quick lock transits was only 10 hours and 45 minutes. However, we were pretty tired when we arrived at Demopolis. They have built a new marina next door to the old one, and when it is finished, it will be much more upscale that the old one. However, the new marina (picture at left) is not staffed even though it has a nice laundry, bathrooms and a lounge so you have to take a golf cart to drive about a half mile to the old office. It was when we checked in that we got the bad news... The restaurant is only open Thursday through Sundays, and guess what? Fortunately, the Admiral somehow found the strength to cook hamburgers and cut up vegetables for dinner. Not fancy, but it got the job done. The black sky in the upper right of the picture did fore shadow some rain later, but even a "little" noise was not going to keep either of us awake.
We are going to stay another night in Demopolis since the weather forecast for tomorrow afternoon and over night is not good. The predictions are for plenty of rain and (possibly severe) thunder storms. So, we will take the day off and hopefully rest up.
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