We are back on the boat at Midway Marina in Fulton, Mississippi after our short trip to California. It was great seeing family! but now it’s time to get this show on the last leg of this long journey…hopefully.
Before we headed to California, and part of the reason we have been here so long, is that there is some maintenance stuff that Michael wanted to accomplish on the boat. One big thing was stripping and re-staining the kitchen and the salon floor. The years of sun and water have made them look old and tired. As always, he did an amazing job and the kitchen looks brand new. The sudden change to cold weather has not allowed for the floor to be done so that will have to wait a little while.
There really is not much that this part of Mississippi has to offer in the way of touristy things to see and do. We did walk over to the Jamie L. Whitten Historical Center from the marina one day. That was so-so, not even worthy of any pictures. We also walked a path to the next lock in our journey, the Fulton Lock. Nothing special about that either, not like we haven’t seen a bunch of locks, over 200 so far and 9 more left in the trip before we get dumped into the Gulf. But just the walk on a couple of very nice days was worth the effort.
We are seeing a lot of Loopers as we are all making our way down the rivers. There was one day that this marina had 7 Mainships, and the most 430’s (ours), 4 of them, that we have ever seen in one place at one time and they all came in on the same day. One of the 430’s was Bill and Adrianne on Christopher P. We first met them in March 2022 in Coco Village Florida at the start of our adventure. They finally got to start their loop trip this year and we have caught up with each other again. It was great seeing them after all this time.
With as many Loopers as there are going through here docktails are a pretty regular gathering. We even had a bonfire one night when a bunch of ships came in. At a gathering one other night we even saw the space station as it passed overhead.
We did take a trip down to Tupelo to Elvis Presley’s birthplace. I am not really an Elvis fan, but they did a good job in restoring the old house, church and grounds and the docents made the wandering around the site very entertaining and enjoyable. Elvis was born in this little house and lived here until he was 13 when the family moved to Memphis.
We have stocked the boat and will be heading out of Fulton on Tuesday morning, November 26th. From here we will go through 4 locks to get to Columbus, our next stop for 3 days over Thanksgiving.
Weather is once again an issue. It’s turned cold, into the 30’s overnight and the 60’s during the day with winds picking up often. So, where, when and how far we travel from here on will depend on that.
That’s all I got for now. Happy Thanksgiving to all and touch back in a little while for the latest on the adventures as THIS is what travels America Great Loop. Love to all, Gina and Mike.
