The crew is back

The Crew...back together again!

So, we met up with half our crew in Iuka, Mississippi at the start of the Tenn-Tom (Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway). Weather has been a bit of a downer for us as we have been dealing with rainy, cloudy days. O'well, not trying to complain as I'm on a boat traveling with great people!
We set out to meet up with our third buddy boat, Movin On (Colin and Dawn) who were waiting for us in Columbus, about 113 miles and 7 locks down the river. We made two stops before Columbus, Bay Springs Marina and Smithville. Both these stops were short and sweet with our eye on the prize of getting to Columbus. We had been hearing about a BBQ joint we had to stop at and knowing we were going to settle there for two nights was a great relief for me as I get to sleep in!!

Bay Springs...Knot Sew Easy docked

Smithville wasn't much more than what you see here in this picture

Our two days on the river were cloudy, rainy, a bit chilly, then hot and sunny, then cold, scenic and fun as we found out we were in gator territory! We were watching the shoreline like a couple of kids hoping to catch sight of one of these adaptable predators, seems Ben caught sight of one...darn I was slow on the look and missed! We really enjoyed watching jets flying, or screaming overhead, as we were coming close to the Columbus Air Force Base. This is where pilots are trained on the T-37, nicknamed the "tweety bird" (the first pilots climb into) and T-38 or "Talon" jets (this introduces pilots to supersonic and high altitude flight). This is the nations busiest Air Force base, ranked up there with Chicago's O'Hare for landings and take-offs. We were so enthralled I forgot to take pictures, not that you would be able to see very well they were so fast.

Knot Sew Easy 

Jammin Jane traveling down the river

Tree popping out of the water 

Our guess was a tornado probably did this damage

Look close and you can see a fox watching us, there were a couple of them running along the shore

Enjoying a cool treat while we had some hot sunny weather

Coming into the Columbus marina

Columbus did not disappoint! We arrived early in the afternoon enabling us a good couple hours to settle in, catch up with our friends and make our dinner plans to hit Hank's BBQ. The BBQ was great, the company was even better! We secured the courtesy car to tour the town looking at the Antebellum homes (homes built pre-civil war found mostly in the South) and the beautiful architecture, maybe even a bit of shopping too! Our plan was to leave after 2 nights but the weather had other plans for us which kept us here for 4 nights. This was not a bad thing in my opinion, the marina and town were a nice spot to relax and provision, there were about 8 other Looper boats here to visit and meet, the town was quite big with lots of shops, and the people extremely friendly!

We finally meet back up with our friends on Movin On

Cute town of Columbus

We even saw trick or treaters! 

Lots of Loopers enjoying "docktails"

Happy Halloween!

Dinner at Hanks BBQ, complete with some freebies to go! Thanks Hank!

On a whim, I decided I wanted to learn how to knit. I picked up a kit a few days back while shopping only to find out that it didn't explain how to knit for dummies. Wouldn't you know it, our very own Dawn happens to be a master knitter!! AND she is a great teacher!! So, now I can sit along side Ben while underway and knit!

Dawn teaching me and giving Liz a refresher

Clearly Crocket was bored!

My first project...let's see how this turns out!

We ended up staying in Columbus for 4 nights because of weather, that was OK for us as we really are not in any hurry. We seem to adapt well to our surroundings and we enjoy spending time with locals and seeing what each stop has to offer. Columbus puts us 335 miles from the Gulf of Mexico...we are getting closer!!