Great Escape: Oct 29th - Nov 6: Down to Mobile Alabama

Finally !! We've made it to Mobile, AL. Actually, we're a few miles south of Mobile on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay in a place called Fairhope, AL.

After our little engine maintenance in Midway Marina, we moved down the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway to Demopolis, AL where we joined the Lower Black Warrior Waterway which continues south to the Mobile River and brings you to - Mobile, Alabama.

During the trip south from Midway, we stopped in order: Blue Bluff anchorage, Pirate's Marina Cove, Sumter Recreational area anchorage, Demopolis, Bobby's Fish Camp (where we had to raft off another boat and had a great dinner - fried catfish, french fries and hush puppies), the Tensas River anchorage and finally Mobile.

This was not one of our favorite sections of the trip, but the cool fall added color to the trees and we met some really nice folks along the way. A good time was had by all.

Tomorrow we we start heading east staying in Alabama for a short distance and than entering the Florida panhandle.

Fog made for a late underway from Midway Marina.
We've experienced lots of fog this trip.

GREAT ESCAPE along the free dock (no power)
at the Sumter Recreational area. A great place for
the Boyz to go swimming and run around.

Is there room for one more ??

Getting ready to leave Sumter - more fog

Can you hear me now ??

This house needed more than this totem pole
to help with its landscaping.

Although it's hard to see, this is the MONTGOMERY, a steam powered
snag boat that was used to clear the waterway of underwater debris. It's now part of a display near the Pirate's Marina Cove.

Blue Bluff anchorage

Gettin' a little lovin'

The "White Cliffs of Eppes" - Eppes is the nearby town.
Sorry, we can't tell you what kind of rock we're looking at

Talk about a homemade boat!

At the Demopolis Lock, there were already 12 boats
when we arrived. The Lockmaster said we could enter if
another boat volunteered to let us raft off.

Jim and Elle on their Tiara volunteered. If they had not
let us tie off, we would have been delayed another two hours.

Not much expense in placing day markers along the waterway.
This shows 187.7 miles to Mobile

This Corps of Engineer boat was doing river soundings
with the device that extends from either side.

Anchorages are hard to find on the river. These three decided
to try this small creek. No room for anyone else.

Here we are at Bobby's Fish Camp, rafted off a 42 foot Silverton.
Later in the evening, a 46 foot Californian rafted off of us.

There were two boats already rafted off when we arrived.

A view of the dock at Bobby's.
GREAT ESCAPE is at the back left

The facilities at Bobby's

After a long day, the Boyz were just happy to
get their feet on solid ground.
(They are not devil dogs -
it was near sunset when we arrived)

Dinner inside Bobby's

The food was very good and served family style

Some of the decor inside Bobby's.

This is actually a Looper - doing it in a Kayak.
The Gulf of Mexico should be interesting.

The waterway has many "switchbacks." This is our GPS
navigational display. We're going North to South but have
to travel about 8 miles around this loop to go 1 mile south

Sunrise on the Tensas River, about 40 miles north of Mobile

The Dolly Parton bridge

Sighting of our first pelican.

At 14 miles north of Mobile is a railroad bridge. The old swing bridge,
pictured here, was removed and replaced with a new lift bridge. The replacement process shut down the river for four days. We saw a lot of tow traffic that was delayed south of the bridge heading north after it re-opened.