Demopolis, Alabama

Sunday & Monday, October 26  27, 2014

Like usual these days, we waited for the fog to lift a bit and then we were off.  Three boats travelling together, we had a pretty long day planned.  We've slowed our speed down even more which our dear Pearl the Perkins diesel engine LOVES (not to mention tons of money saved in fuel) and putt-putt-putted down the Tenn-Tom.

Jeff caught a picture of this guy swimming across the river.  Not sure what he is, maybe a timber rattle snake?  

The area we are travelling is very rural and today we were blessed:  Grant, from As The Crow Flies lent us his awesome zoom lens so we  had a blast taking pictures of all the wildlife.  We anchored out at MM224, which made for a short run into the marina this morning.

A quick story:  After a long day on the rivers we anchored in a little side creek.  Tired, I quickly curled up to read.  Absorbed in my book I was slightly aware of Jeff puttering around, checking stuff out around the boat.  He wasn't happy with where we were anchored and wanted to weigh anchor and move the boat upstream a bit. So laying my book down with a sigh, knowing he was right and the boat had to be moved, up I went to the fly bridge to drive the boat while Jeff lifted the anchor.  Drat.  The ignition seemed to stick and wouldn't turn over, so I (mistakenly, being distracted and tired) decided to dart downstairs to start it from the downstairs driving station.  Mistake.

Remember those roadrunner and coyote cartoons where Wile E. Coyote is about to fall but pauses for a second, looks at the camera with a forlorn look and then whoosh, down he goes? Well, that's pretty much what it felt like by the time I remembered that Jeff had one of the hatches in the salon floor open.  We locked eyes, then whoosh, down I went -- into the bilge with a girly scream, followed by the crash of the anchor as Jeff dropped it to chivalrously dash to my rescue.

Instinctively, worried about getting burned on the engine (which I had landed on with a thud), I somehow scrambled to get outta there in a hurry. I'm not even sure how I managed that but I have a vague memory of a crab-walk-like movement being involved.  Yikes!  I'm lucky.  I could have been seriously hurt out there in the backwoods of Alabama but apparently the old girl still bounces.  I'm fine, with only some colourful bruises to punctuate my story at cocktail hour.

Another story:  Because of my bruises, Jeff generously took on more of the driving than he usually does, giving me time to rest and heal.  He was enjoying taking pics with Grant's zoom lens, seeing what kind of wildlife he could shoot.  I took the helm for a bit so he could take a short break and within seconds I spotting this gator, our first one, grabbed the camera and snapped this picture.  We didn't realize is at the time but if you look closely you can see that she/he has a baby that she/he is protecing.  Jeff was proud of his snake pictures but he had to admit that my gater trumped his snake.

Jeff took this shot as the alligator started to move into the river and I was squealing with delight, dancing around on the flybridge.  No swimming for us from now on unless we're in a pool AND have checked it carefully first!

We are now safely tied up to a dock at a marina in Demopolis, Alabama.  The temperature is in the eighties in the afternoon and there is a pool that is crying out for attention from Northerners (the locals think we're crazy.  Too "cold". HA!)  Jeff has our little t.v. hooked up to cable and we are lazing about watching some good old t.v.  Life is good.