Sunday, 9-19-2010

Another hot day. We started out with our usual Sunday morning; slept in, big breakfast, and leisurely coffee; I love Sundays.

Last night was a good anchorage but it would have been nicer if it wasn't Saturday night; lots of pleasure boaters enjoying the 95 degree weather. It is starting to get dark earlier now, about 19:00 or so. We were serenade by thousands of little birds after supper last night. It kept up for about 15 minutes and just as fast as it started it stopped and there was total silence. We had never heard or seen anything like that before but it was pretty cool and enjoyable. So far we have both enjoyed anchoring out and will continue to do so as much as possible.

We went through Pickwick Lock this afternoon. It started out good as the floating bollard was easy to reach. We waited for a good half hour for another boat to get to the lock before the started filling the lock up. As it started to fill my floating bollard wasn't floating. I kept waiting for it to work but finally had to let loose of the rope and our boat ended up floating in the lock. Keith called the lock master twice and told him what the problem was and finally when he saw us floating he told us to pull up to the boat in front of us and tie up to him. We did so and got to meet John Haluska (pictured) of the Emery El. John and another couple were just finishing their loop when they got to Aqua Yacht Harbor, Iuka, MS, which is where we are staying tonight. We got to watch them "cross their wake" about 16:00 this afternoon.

CO's comments: John's card had a great quote that both Bobbie and I agree with. We thought you all would enjoy it. "Life's journey is not to arrive safely at the grave in a well preserved body but rather to slide in sideways, totally worn out shouting HOLY COW...What a ride!" Unknown author. (Thanks John)

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