From Columbus, MS to Demopolis, AL

This is uncharted waters for us. We had been to Columbus but no further so we were very anxious to see the new part of the Tenn-Tom -as they call it here. Sunday was rainy and cool (not cold) so we did a little maintenance and then went into Columbus for a great dinner. Went to a place called Harvey's and had a terrific meal and brought back some Bread Pudding to eat at half time of the Broncos/Chiefs game. The dessert was really good. Football was really good--so all was worth having the lay-over in Columbus. Out bright and early Monday morning and through the 1st lock by 7:30. Around 10:30 we entered our 2nd lock (Bevin) and in comes this big fabulous boat and aboard is an old friend from high school--Pat Lynch. He and his buddies make this trip almost every year and they were going to end up in Fort Lauderdale before Thanksgiving. They are hauling! It was good to see Pat and we discussed how we tell our children to act right in public because you don't know who might know you. We let them go before us and they are probably already in Mobile Bay (or at least Bobby's Fish Camp) way down the road. Notes: Tuscaloosa radio station had country music (especially Luke Bryan), ran a commercial for "Car Wash Confidential” really?!? and a lot of Crimson Tide news. Last night was our first anchorage on the trip and we learned a lot. We were way out in the boonies and the only anchorage between Columbus and Demopolis was an area called Sumpter's Landing. Fitz and I are very literal people and the list said it was at mile marker 270.6. There was a large embayment and the directions said to enter in the middle of the opening where it was about 6ft. deep. There was an island in the middle so we looked it over and decided they meant the right hand middle. We slowly entered and immediately hit a sandbar. Soooo we backed out and went to the left middle where we had about 6ft depth and then it opened up to about 14-15 ft. Then directions said look for the boat ramp, this would protect you from the winds that were starting to pick up. No boat ramp--but there were some inlets so we thought OK lets look in the first inlet. We watched the depth and it looked 14-15 feet until we hit something the lifted the boat like that girl in the pulpit of the Titanic and boy were we stuck. SCARY as Leeton would say. We managed after a lot of kicking up mud to get off the mound and Terry just dropped anchor where we were. Wind was the worrisome part but it usually settles down after dark. A couple of boats were about 10 miles behind us and we heard them on the radio say that they were going to Sumpter's Landing. We were anxious see where they went. Well, they went right past our embayment and kept going. It seems at MM 270 was a small inlet with a boat ramp and protection from the winds. They did just fine. It took us an hour to get out of our anchorage this morning and we are just thankful that Sunny Days appears to be unscathed. Lesson learned. Notes: Last night we had no cell service thus no wireless and no TV. We watched "To Kill A Mockingbird” with Gregory Peck--it was just the thing. We had a full moon and it was a beautiful evening.