Bob’s to Cottonwood Bar

When we arrived at Bob's Cabin it was a damp cool day. We were glad to have a warm place to bed down for the night. The weather forecast for the next day was to be similar to the day we arrived, with a slight chance of rain. We will get a good nights sleep and look at the forecast in the morning.

Bob said make yourself home. So we did. We enjoyed a pork tenderloin from his freezer that evening. We also found a package of sausage that we put in the refrigerator to cook the next morning. There were four eggs in the refrigerator, but no one has been there since January, so we knew they were at least a couple of months old. We weren’t sure how long eggs would keep in the refrigerator. We were pretty sure if we cracked them open, it would be somewhere between egg and chicken, so we passed on the eggs.

We got up the next morning and checked the weather forecast. It was raining, but was supposed to clear later in the day. We set 9:00 as the go/no go time. Charlie cooked up the sausage we found in the freezer. A hot breakfast is a treat on the Down South Loop.

It hadn't cleared up at 9. So we reset the go/no go time to 10:00. If it doesn't clear up by 10, we are going to stay another night.................At 10:00, it was with mixed feelings that we decided to stay another night. This may sound familiar, we enjoyed a pork tenderloin from Bob's freezer that evening and had a package of sausage the next morning.

The next morning the sky had cleared to a light overcast. We headed out. We weren't sure how far we could make it today. Charlie had arranged to have gas delivered to us in Greenville, MS. We hope to gas and go.

As we were leaving Desoto Lake (Bob's cabin) we were following our track showing on the chart plotter from when we cam into the lake. We kept hearing something hitting the pontoons. We became extra vigilant about watching for logs in the water. We couldn't see any logs in the water but we kept hitting something. We finally realized it was the Asian Carp hitting the bottom of the boat when we saw them jumping out of the water behind the boat. Problem solved.

Those darn Asian Carp. They are an invasive species of carp that are causing problems in the Mississippi River. You can read more in this article.

The Mighty Mississippi was good to us today. We made it to Greenville in what we thought was good time (5 hours). The Greenville Yacht Club dock was unavailable to use for fueling. The ramp between the dock and land was under water. We found a wall of the parking garage for the Trop Casino that was suitable for docking and fueling. We called Scott Petroleum, who had agreed to deliver fuel to us, and told them where we were. As we got the boat tied up to the railing, a security guard for the Casino came over to investigate. He was about 150 feet away trying to tells us something. He is serious about social distancing. We couldn't hear what he was saying. He finally moved to about 50 feet away and told us the Casino was closed and we couldn't dock there. We explained that a truck was bringing us fuel and we would not be here long. He said he would have to check with his supervisor and left.

The truck showed up with a drum containing 50 gallons of non-ethanol gasoline on the bed of the truck soon after the guard left. We pumped about 45 gallons of fuel into our tank and another gallon into a fuel can. We paid for the fuel. We all left before the security guard came back to give us permission to fuel up (I am sure that's what he would have come back with).

We headed on down river. Somewhere around mile 501 we made our last pass through Arkansas and now we would be weaving back and forth between Louisiana and Mississippi. So far we have been through parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi. Louisiana and Alabama will round out the list of states that are touched by The Down South Loop.

Near Transylvania, LA we found a great sand bar to spend the night, Cottonwood Bar (mile 468 on the Mississippi). We found some dead wood and built a little camp fire. Enjoyed a quiet evening on our own little Island, ours for the night anyway.

Tomorrow we hope to stop at Vicksburg and get fuel. There are no marinas, but we have a plan..........