145+ Locks -- End of the River System

November 14

First a Smile

Our oldest son teaches Military Science at the University of Houston.  For Veterans Day he was asked to lead their football team on to the field.


I am so proud of this young man! 

The Rivers

We traversed the Illinois Waterway which consisted of multiple different rivers (i.e.. Calumet, Des Plains ...).  Then we transitioned to the Northern Mississippi river which lead to the Ohio river.  This opened up to Kentucky lake which led to the Tennessee river.  A quick 400+ mile side trip on the Tennessee had us to Chattanooga and back where upon return we were on the Tennessee - Tombigbee canal.  The end of that had us on the Tombigbee River which opened up to Mobile Bay.  All in all, 1800 miles of rivers and about 25+ locks.

Where the upper rivers were not that pretty and heavily commercial, our path off the Mississippi was beautiful and fun.  There were multiple nights at anchorage and the marinas were welcoming and kind.  There still existed commercial traffic and as a result the locks are huge to handle them.  Commercial traffic gets priority and occasionally this generated some heart burn for us.  But overall, it was a very enjoyable, very long, and very pretty part of the trip.

This pic is inserted simply because I like it and for some strange reason I am failing to come up with a witty caption.


 View of the rivers:



What was really funny was how curvy the rivers were.  One of our buddy boats who is an engineer stated that a river has a natural tendency for a 5 to 1 side to drop ratio.  This means that to drop one mile a river will wind around a total of 5 miles.  Seeing these rivers, I believe it.  Here is our chart plotter view.


Mobile Bay

Mobile Bay surprised us.  It is VERY industrial with a LOT of jumbo ship building.  There were several US Navy catamarans under construction.  


USS Comfort In For Repairs

Another surprise was the body of water itself.  I always pictured it as a large imposing waterway.  As it turns out it is only 30 miles North to South and 12 miles East to West (20 at the bottom where it flairs out).  It is also extremely shallow.  Deep areas are only 12 feet or so.  


It was so easy to traverse that we went back and forth on it without a second thought.

Lulu's

We finished up this segment at Lulu's!  This is owned by Lucy Buffett's sister.  The food is quite good and music every night.  Tons of fun.


That about wraps it up.  The Shorebilly is out of the water for maintenance.  It will be back in this evening.


Oh, one last thought.  Eventually we all have to retire.  I ran into an old friend who is enjoying the Gulf Coast as well.


Stay safe and with love.

Terri and Aubrey














 

Comments

  1. Rich CostelloNovember 15, 2023 at 8:20 AM

    Maybe the Pelicans were your welcoming committee for the South

    ReplyDelete

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