Saturday: Aberdeen, MS

Thurs : 39 miles, no locks

Fri : 37 miles, 4 locks, total wait time for these locks: 15 minutes!!!

Today : 19 miles, 2 locks, total wait time for these locks: 0 minutes!!!

It has been two great days for the locks. The lockmasters seem much more pleasure boat friendly in trying to make it easy to get through. This part of the waterway is very similar to the Trent as it makes it way to Lake Simcoe: locks within 5 miles of each other and coordinated flow of traffic.

Steve said his goodbyes to Chip - the ultimate guide to the Tenn-Tom with whom he spent several hours going over charts and do's and don'ts for the waterway from here to Mobile. Chip has made over 150 trips up and down the waterway so he is very familiar with the system - he's really a wonderful person! We also had a final breakfast at the barbecue place in Counce, TN. And off we went.

The waterway at this point is mostly a dug canal 280 feet wide and 12 feet deep. Although the sun was shining much of the day the air was still very cool. Steve was dressed for the cold weather as we locked through the 4 locks on the second day of travel. The waterway is filled with birds - especially coots - that are here for the winter. Personally, this isn't nearly far enough south for me but I guess for the thousands of these duck-like waterfowl, it won't freeze their water and that is good enough.

Ok - now this is just a bit much! We woke this morning to a temperature of 28 degrees and frozen dew all over the boat. Any idea how slippery wood and fiberglass is when coated with a thin layer of ice? Could have been a disaster but fortunately we were warned by Skipper Bob to be careful (he writes the 'have to have' guides for completing the great loop). Since the boat was totally frozen over, we thought by the time we went to breakfast and the Piggly Wiggly (I had to have a picture of this because of the Driving Miss Daisy movie), that all would be thawed and ready by the time we returned. And the timing was actually pretty good! The frozen plastic (which Steve TOTALLY gets credit for - first I would never have even started them and secondly I didn't want to put the necessary snaps on them so he did) thawed and was once again WONDERFUL to have. Otherwise I would have to drive from inside as the wind was just really cold.

The waterway is lined in places with dead and not so dead trees as a result of the flooding when the waterway was completed. They call the stumps 'cypress knees' so I'm assuming these are a bunch of cypress trees. The path into our marina for today was really fun - winding in among the many trees and stumps. Very nice place (Aberdeen Marina) with the cheapest diesel so far: $2.79 a gallon. We used the courtesy car to go to the hardware store today and to scope out a place for breakfast in the morning. It's too cold and foggy to move much before 10 am anyway.

Watched college ball today: sorry for Illinois - they totally deserved to win the game with Michigan - what an exciting game though. Hopefully the Browns will do well tomorrow - we hope to be in Columbus, MS in time to see most of the game. GO BROWNS!!!!