Jenny & Danny's Great Loop Adventure on "The Other Woman"

And Why Are We Doing the Great Loop?... When Danny and I discussed doing the Loop, we came up with many reasons.  We enjoyed traveling and always enjoyed the USA when traveling with the kids.  The boat would give us the opportunity see places we couldn't travel to by car.  In addition, we would meet lots of people on their boats as well as the towns we stopped to visit.  And let us not forget the food we would experience and each place's specialties.  What also goes with all those things that we didn't think much of was... weather. The day before we left, we had a snow and ice storm in Kentucky where I face planted myself on the uncleared gangway.  Last night, we were in the middle of tornado fields.  The guy next to us in the slip is from Mississippi.  He was talking to Danny and told him what apps to make sure he had on his phone with the sirens.  He and the boat on our other side traveling together found out we had a rental car and wanted ...

 Columbus, Mississippi to Demopolis, Alabama...  November 24, 2022 Another early morning start in an attempt to cross 3 locks dropping us another 90 feet.  The distance of 119 miles between marinas make it necessary for us to anchor out tonight so we would like to get as far as we can.  Initially, it was to rain this Thanksgiving morning but the sky was red last night and about 9pm the forecast called for no rain until noon changing later to night.  Along the river, the sites we saw.... One of only 2 barges we saw, glad they were off for Thanksgiving! We were the lead this morning of the 4 boats traveling so we got to see the lock door open UP CLOSE ! Cows along the banks relaxing and enjoying their day. Yes, that's a phone booth!  I have never heard the history of the phone booth but everyone gets a good chuckle and takes pictures of it. Recycling aluminum looked interesting as some are tied in squares and other look like scrap metal being placed on barges...

 Iuka to  Fulton to Columbus, Mississippi...        November 20, 2022 We started leaving Iuka, early this morning because we needed to clear 3 locks before reaching the Fulton Marina. You never know what the traffic and wait times will be.  While we did leave early, it was not the 6:15- 6:30am we wanted but more like 7:10am. Traveling down the Waterway, I saw these large concrete masses on the starboard (right) side of the water.  They were placed to keep the water from heavy rains, an overflowing lake, or upland rivers from sheeting down into the waterway.          Prior to the first lock, we had a Grady White similar to ours on the Loop who waked us which was quite a shock, disappointing, and unusual.  At the first lock of the day, we had a barge in front of us which caused us to have to wait about 90 minutes.  A couple on a boat similar to ours, radioed us and said we could tie up next to them while we waited ...

Iuka, Mississippi  Shiloh Battlefield and Corinth, Mississippi... November 17, 2022 Our arrival into Iuka, Mississippi was pretty straightforward.  When we arrived in the office and we got information about the loaner car and asking about where to go for food and groceries.  The harbormaster says it's real easy here.  You get up to the end of the gravel road and at the main road, if you turn right, you are in Tennessee and if you turn left, you are in Mississippi.  Sounded pretty simple and it was.  Found a very eclectic grocery store called Brooks Grocery in Mississippi.  I don't think anyone was working there over the age of 20 but everyone was very nice and they recommended what ended up being a great BBQ place!  We  also went to the right where Danny went into a convenience store to buy beer.  The woman said they did not sell beer because there was a law in Tennessee, in order to sell beer you had to be 500 feet from a place of worsh...

Clifton, Tennessee to Iuka, Mississippi... November 16, 2022 Today was uneventful in leaving Clifton .   There was fog coming off the water but cleared after a couple hours.    This was not surprising as we left at 6:30am.    The schedule for today was about 60 miles but we had to do a lock and we have heard stories of people waiting for 3-5 hours to pass through the lock.    Why would that be?    The Mississippi River this year is extremely low.    You may have seen pictures and news items concerning this.    The low water levels have not been this bad since 1988 at least.    While the Tennessee River which comes off the Ohio River further north is the largest tributary it is used by pleasure boaters and not as much commercial traffic except for this year due to the low water.    We both agreed we do not want to do any traveling at night hence we left at the break of light.    I spoke to Rand...