Time to move on so we left early at 7.30 am. Going to be anther hot and sticky day, although stared with light rain and overcast skies.
This was to be a three lock day and with the weekend restrictions of opening only every two hours , some locks on even hours , others on odd hours we didn't know what to expect!
When we had turned into the Tenn Tom waterway river system just before Aqua Marina,we knew we had 450 miles to go before reaching Mobile Alabama and into the Gulf of Mexico.
Finally we are truly heading south with the red buoys now on our left , not on our right. The countdown from mile marker 450 to 00! Also we are locking down now , not up which is much nicer.
As It turned out the lock keepers must have been feeling very benevolent as they , all three locked us through on request, even calling ahead to the next lock to let us know that we were coming. It was a fairly quiet day apart from lots of fishing boats.
Some we would go past , then they would blast past us and find a new spot up ahead, lots of fast and slow going for us all.
At the first Lock the Jamie Whitten our boating companions Betsy Marie from ou Pebble Isle and Clifton Marina stays joined us .It was the biggest Lock so far and was a drop of 84 ft..
On reflection , Erica made a silly decision to lock on the less preferred side.Fenders were already in place there! Consequently, too much water from the side was pouring out and swirling below us and Erica was not able to push the Lady Erica off the lock wall in time at the spot where the protecting fender was not high enough!So a couple of scrapes on the stainless steel rub rail , but fortunately no damage to the precious hull of the boat.Lesson learned!
Arrived at the cute old Midland Marina right beside some old cypress tree stumps and was greeted by Tom the resident dock master plus his secretary ( his faithful dog. ) Both boats did a side tie up and were soon settled and we were all heading for to you guessed it, a Walmart supermarket! Town iis interesting, they call the area Mississippi Hills here.About 17 miles away is Tupelo , the birthplace of Elvis Presley.
A poorer area and again the Super Walmart is the happening place.
Back to the boat , air con on, We were feeling whacked so rest and then early dinner and bed.
Over and out
E and G
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