Meandering Magees: Columbus, Mississippi

Day 47 - Sunday, October 23

1248 Miles

We were up before sunrise on Friday morning to leave Midway Marina with two other Loop boats. We waited at the dock until we could actually see the things we needed to unhook - water hose and electrical hose. With The Journey leading the way and Tiger behind us, our little Looper parade entered the Fulton Lock at 7:30. The temp was in the low 40’s and the wind was howling, which made it very difficult to keep the boat tight to the wall in the lock. Mike’s arms strained to hold our rope on the bollard, while Greg was constantly having to work the gears to keep the boat straight. It got easier after we dropped down into the lock and the wall rose above us to block the wind.

Along with beautiful scenery, we have seen all kinds of birds and animals on the river. An eagle, a fox, geese, herons, an armadillo, turtles and lions and tigers and bears, oh my! (not really on the last 3).

And so much for my fear of writing our boat name on bollards in the locks. Someone beat me to it. The people aboard a boat named Rendova left a little drawing in 3 of the locks we went through on Friday. They had probably been doing it in every lock, but it was the first time we had seen their signature as there are 2 sides to tie up to in a lock (port or starboard) and multiple bollards to throw a rope around, so you are never in the same spot in every lock.

But who am I kidding - Mike would never let me leave our name in permanent ink on government property!

The sun came out and it slowly warmed up as we made our way through 3 other locks: Wilkins, Amory and Aberdeen. At the last lock, our group of 3 became a party of 5 as Reveille and Valentine joined us in the lock. We were amazed as the guy on Valentine threw a line out into the water and fished while we were dropping in the lock. He later told us that he has caught a catfish in every lock except that one and he cooks them for dinner!

We each have our positions when in a lock. Greg is up top driving. I am on the bow, Karen is in the back and Mike is in the middle, holding the rope around the bollard. Karen and I don’t do much in the lock, except making sure the front or back doesn’t hit the wall (the bumpers do all the work) and give a push off when exiting the lock. Being on the bow, I get the first glimpse of the doors opening and seeing the river spread out before us. I never get tired of the view.

We pulled into the marina in Columbus, Mississippi at 3. The channel off the Tenn-Tom back to the marina is filled with water hyacinths - lily pads. They are pretty, but you don't want to stray off the cleared water as they can easily clog an engine.

Another marina with another courtesy car - we are thankful for the little things. We drove into historic downtown Columbus for dinner on Friday night to a place that was recommended by several boaters and marina staff - Huck’s. We each ordered something different and all had excellent meals. It was my first time to have catfish.

On Saturday, Mike and Greg drove Karen and I ten miles outside of Columbus to tour the Waverly Mansion. It is a magnificent antebellum house that was built in 1852 by Colonel George Hampton Young, who lived there with his wife and 10 children. Often the tour guide has as much to do with how enjoyable a tour is as the subject itself. What a better guide than someone who has lived in the house since 1962, which is exactly who we had. Karen and I walked up to the front door and a woman came out to greet us. She asked us where we were from, and when we said “Michigan”, she sat on the front step and with a slow southern drawl that oozed sincerity replied, “I . .was . . once . . in . . love . . with . . a . . man . . from . . Michigan.” Had she been wearing a hoop skirt you would have sworn she just walked off the set of “Gone With The Wind”, which is exactly where she got her name - Melanie. Her 91-year old father sat in a rocking chair on the porch behind her.

The last of the ten Young children died in 1913, and the house sat empty for almost 50 years until Robert and Donna Snow, Melanie’s parents, bought the house in 1962. Melanie was 7 years old. The most amazing thing about Waverly Mansion is that in those 50 years that the house sat vacant, there was no vandalism. The Snows found large gold-leaf mirrors and marble shelves intact. The extensive and elegant woodwork had not deteriorated or rotted. The house had its share of visitors in those years. Melanie told stories of fraternity pledges who had to spend the night in the house (which was considered haunted), couples who became engaged there, and parties that were held by the college kids. (the family found notes in a desk with multiple cubbyholes instructing who was to bring the beer and slips of paper with names and dates of marriage proposals). But it was as if all those young men and woman had a respect for the house and the land as nothing was destroyed.

The Snow family (Melanie, her parents and two siblings) restored the mansion room by room over the next 26 years. Several months after moving in, tired of people thinking the house was still empty and showing up at all hours of the day and night, Robert hand-painted a sign that said, “Tours of house - $1.00”. He thought that would put an end to it. Instead, it opened the floodgates to everyone from nosy townspeople to historians to tourists like us. Melanie and her Dad still live in the house and her love for it was obvious as she walked us through the rooms which her parents furnished with antiques from the mid to late 1800’s. While telling of life on the 50,000 acre plantation that Waverly was when Colonel Young built it, Melanie also shared funny and touching stories of growing up in the house. One story was a bit of trivia. Have you ever heard the phrase that someone is "on the wagon" or has "fallen off the wagon"? Long ago, wine was served at a meal in a decanter that sat in a wagon on wheels. The wagon would be pulled around the dining room table, and if you did not remove the decanter when it came to you, you left it "on the wagon." (abstaining) If you wanted a drink, you took the decanter "off the wagon." Melanie showed us a lovely decanter wagon in the dining room while telling us the history behind the popular phrase.

It was a really enjoyable afternoon that we tried to re-create for the guys, right down to Melanie’s sweet southern accent.

We took so long at the mansion that we didn't have time to drive back into Columbus to tour the home of playwright Tennessee Williams, whose works include "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" and "A Streetcar Named Desire".

We once again teamed up with another Loop boat - Lucky Ducks - to arrive at our first lock on Sunday morning together. The John Stennis Lock was right as we emerged from the Columbus Marina channel and when we got there, 3 other boats were waiting to go into the lock. Once inside the lock, the lock master (over the radio) asked for our documentation number, our port of origin, final destination and our boat length. We have never had to give that information in a lock before. Once out of the lock, the 5 boats ended up all traveling about the same speed so were together for over 50 miles. One by-product of this is the river (or Loop) humor that is carried on over the radio between boats. We laugh out loud and it helps pass the time. For a while, every bend in the Tombigbee river would take us back and forth between Mississippi and Alabama. At mile 310 on the waterway, we entered Alabama for good. After going down 27 feet in the Tom Bevill Lock, we stopped with Lucky Duck on Sunday night at 6:30 at an anchorage called Warsaw Cut-off. We will head to Demopolis, Alabama on Monday.