Tug Calypso's Great Loop Adventure: BBQ, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Tennessee Wiliams

What do BBQ, fried green tomatoes, and Tennessee Williams all have in common? Well, we found all three of them in Columbus, Mississippi. Since last Monday, we have traveled 215 miles and transited 8 locks. Our worst locking experience was on Tuesday at the Pickwick Lock on the Tennessee River. When we arrived to be locked up, we were informed that there was a double locking down and it would probably be 3 hrs before we could lock through. A double means the tow was too long to fit in the lock so they cut it in half and lock it through in 2 sections. It takes forever to get a tow into the lock and secure it and now we had to sit through two of these cycles. Fortunately, when we finally did get through, our destination for the day was only a few miles away. This was our first night in Mississippi. Wednesday morning when we got up at 6 AM for our usual early departure, we were greeted with thick fog. That delay cost us an hour. However, we did have good luck with the locks that day and breezed right through all 3 of them with little or no delay. Another basic, but adequate, marina awaited us at the end of the day. For the second evening in a row, we were able to borrow the courtesy car and eat dinner ashore. Thursday our goal was to make it through 4 locks to a marina just outside of Columbus, Mississippi. Did I mention that the temperatures had been in the upper 90's all week with the heat index around 105? By now we were totally wiped out and decided to spend a few days in Columbus to wait out a front coming through over the weekend.

We secured a rental car when we got to Columbus and discovered that we had arrived in the middle of the 11th Annual Tennessee Williams Tribute and Tour of Victorian Homes. It turns out that Tennessee Williams was born here in Columbus, where his grandfather was rector of the local Episcopal Church. Friday morning we were able to take a guided bus tour to visit his boyhood home, his grandfather's church, a Tennessee Williams exhibit at the Columbus Public Library, and to see many of the beautiful historic homes in Columbus. This town has been a delightful surprise. We've also sampled lots of great Southern food - catfish, shrimp and grits, barbeque, fried okra, and fried green tomatoes.

This morning we went to visit Waverly Mansion, which was built in 1852 as the home of a wealthy cotton planter. The house was empty from the 1930's to the 1960's, when the Snow family bought it and restored it. Melanie Snow and her father still live in the house and they graciously open their home for tours daily. The amazing part of the story is that in the 30 years it was vacant, it was the local lover's lane, a camp-site for hunters, and a spot where sorority and fraternity pledges from MSU were dropped off to spend a night in the "haunted mansion". During all that time, marble mantles, mahogany staircase spindles, gold-gilded mirrors and ornate chandeliers remained undamaged.

The weather has broken finally (high of 80 today) and we are ready to resume our trip down the Tennessee-Tombigbee tomorrow. We will anchor somewhere tomorrow and then be in Demopolis, AL the next day. We are getting closer to Florida every day!