Waverly Mansion and The Bevill visitor center

We don’t have any pictures inside this mansion, but we did tour it. There were 4 floors which included the windowed cupola. The tour was guided and the guide was very knowledgeable. This mansion was within 8 miles of the civil war battles.




The guide explained that the confederate soldiers were attending a party and dancing with all the Southern Bells. At the ends of the room where they danced were two mirrors facing each other (about 12 inches high). There were tables with candelabras under the mirrors. In the moment of the dance one of the couples bumped the candles into the mirror. This was not noticed and soon the glass broke with a thunder! All of the women were sent to the upper floors and the soldiers ran out to get the enemy with their guns ready. They were sure that this thunder was a canon. Fascinating.



This mansion stood vacant for 50 years and there were many Old Miss college students and others that held impromptu parties at the mansion. But, most of the marble, wood, and original materials are still in tact. The vandals did not wreck a considerable amount of the mansion. The Young family owns this private mansion today and they are trying to restore it to the glory days. It will be a very costly and daunting and lengthy process. It certainly was a glimpse into history.

Waverly Mansion

 
The Snagboat Montgomery was the next side trip and it included a replica of an Antebellum home and a visitor center. The Snagboat was a steam powered boat with crane used to clear trees and (snags) debris from seven rivers in the south. I think it is the largest boy toy I have ever seen. Erwin thinks it is a magnificent piece of machinery. Either way, it was fun crawling all over it in admiration.




At the Tom Bevill visitor center the antebellum replica house was completely finished, and not a work in progress like the Waverly Mansion. We went here with 3 of our traveling companions and I think everyone enjoyed it. There were videos and a great display showing how a lock operation works. There was another wildlife display that was awesome. The place was filled with antiques like the Waverly Mansion. I even climbed all the way to the cupola with an outstanding view of the locks on the river and the grounds of the visitor center.






Snagboat Montgomery

Bevill Visitor Center

View from second floor of the visitor center



Rainbows, shallow water, stumps----oh my

We are now entering the river section of the Tombigbee waterway as we have finished the canal and the cut sections.  These are the trees, I think they are cedar of some sort and they are standing in water.

This was a beautiful full rainbow.  We were at a marina and woke up to this one morning.  It lasted a good five minutes
and was very stunning.

This was the channel markings into the marina where we stopped to get fuel.  It is a little frightening going into a swamp like area when all you see is debris.

This is the anchorage we stayed at after getting the fuel.  It was across the river from the last picture.  We had to drive through another channel marked the in the same way.  It was only 3 feet deep at one spot, we actually plowed the boat through it as we draw 4 feet with our boat.  As you can see, it was a beautiful anchorage and very peaceful.





This was a bluff near the anchorage.  It is called blue bluff as you can see the lower part of the rock has a bluish cast to it.  There is also holes bored into it (you may see them if you look close).  I think the birds have made them.

This is another view of the same bluff.

After we rode in the dinghy, we stopped at a dock by the bluff as there was a stairway there and we thought we should get some exercise and climb the bluff.  As you can see the stairway was in bad repair and after we climbed up a ways we could see it was actually blocked off.  However, we were naughty and climbed up it anyway.  We were careful.

This was the view from the top of the bluff,  it was breathtaking.

To our faithful followers - issues with photos

We are still traveling and we are experiencing issues with uploading our photos over the last couple of days.  Be patient, we are trying hard to resolve them.  Marilyn and Erwin

The Pond at Midway Marina

We stayed at the Midway Marina near Fulton Mississippi.  They have a pond on the property that was very cool.  It was stocked with Blue gills, catfish, and Marilyn's personal favorite, turtles.

Here are some the pictures we took.  The yellow and orange puffs in the water are the food that is provided to feed the critters.  (it sure look like dog food to us)

Largest Lock at Whitten Lock and Dam

Well, we made it through the largest lock of the trip, it is 84 feet deep and pretty intense. 



         This is the front gate of the lock.  You can see I am standing on the side of the boat, so that gives you an idea on the size of the lock itself.

This view is toward the back of the lock.  The large part up above is the doors and they are sitting on the sill which is a cement wall.  This boat is 39 feet long, so you can see it is a large chamber.

  

                                                Here is a view of the front gates opening.

This is the view as you leave the lock.  Check out the full stairways on the left of the pictures, it will give you and idea on the mammoth size of these lock chambers.

Tenn-Tom waterway

This is a cotton field that we saw along the road when we drove to Nashville. 











We went to a visitor center along the waterway.  Here are some of the pictures and facts we gathered on our visit.



Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway is where we are traveling now. This waterway is man made and is 234 miles long from Yellow Creek, Tennessee to Demopolis, Alabama. It has 10 locks along the waterway. The first lock is the Jamie Whitten Lock and it is 84 feet deep.



There are 3 sections to the waterway; they are the divide section, the canal section, and the river section. This waterway is called the Tenn-Tom. The name Tombigbee came from two Indian names. The Choctaw Indians called the river “Itomba Igaby”, roughly translated as box (or coffin) maker. The initial “I” on each word was not emphasized in the Choctaw dialect; hence the French settlers called it Tombeckbee.



The total lift of the Tenn-Tom is 341 feet from one end to the other and is more than 3 ½ times that of the Panama Canal. It took 12 years to build the Waterway, from December 1972 until December 1984. It cost over $2 Billion dollars and took more than 25 million man-hours.



This waterway saves users and companies over 800 miles between the Tennessee River and the Gulf of Mexico and saves them $130,000,000 annually. The average 8 barge tow can move as much freight as 120 rail cars or 480 tractor trailer trucks. That is a lot of material! It also can move over a ton of freight twice as far as a train and 6 times as far as a tractor-trailer on the same amount of fuel. It is efficient also.



It takes 46 million gallons of water to fill the Whitten Lock while the average lock holds about 14 million gallons. It takes on average 12 to 16 minutes to fill or empty the lock.





 



This is a model replica of one of the paddle wheelers.

This is a tow boat and barge that is inside the lock (84 feet).  We were standing on the access road by the lock.  The tow and barge disappeared as the water went down in the lock.

This is the sign board along the waterway.



Side trip to Nashville

Side trip.  We received a call from our wonderful daughter-in-law and she was in the airport in Atlanta (she originated in Seattle) and she was headed to Nashville for a conference.  So we decided to get a slip for the boat and rent a car.  Our great traveling buddies, Larry and Dorothy assisted us by taking us to the rental car place in the courtesy car.  We drove 3 ½ hours to Nashville.   We had a lovely dinner with our daughter-in-law, Lynette.  We also gave her copies of the pictures and talked her ear off all night with our stories of the last few weeks.  It was wonderful for us to see family and to catch up with her.  We stayed in Nashville and then drove back to our boat.  It was a great change of pace for us and a delightful surprise to see her.