FINALLY – some forward progress!!!

We traveled 70 some-odd miles today (which isn’t too bad considering that we had to pass through four separate locks – each of which takes about 20-30 minutes when you catch them right. Fortunately, they were ALL ready for us. Traffic was so light, that each lockmaster would call-ahead to the next one, and tell them to get ready for us. Sweet!

We are in a place called Smithville, MS – pretty much in the middle of NOWHERE!

We went ahead and secured a dock tonight, so I can spend one more day researching/troubleshooting an issue with our generator. The alternators worked PERFECTLY today. (Whew!) But, the generator still needs some attention. It’s acting fuel-starved. It obviously needed the fuel filters and such changed (which I completed yesterday.) But, it’s still acting odd… I think that the fuel solenoid or something else is halting the fuel supply. (The filters all pump-up and fill-up perfectly, but no fuel is getting to the engine itself.) So, I’m spending most of tonight researching the Internet for answers – what did we ever do for this information before the Internet?

We spent about 10 hours on the water today. But, at least two of those hours were spent corralled within the locks. So, we only got about eight hours of actual cruising time.

Kelly has been nursing a wicked headache today. A weather front moved in, so her headache might be atmospheric-related? (pressure changes.)

When we stopped for tonight, I asked the guy who runs this place (Jesse) when we will start seeing alligators? He said that they purposefully introduced alligators to this waterway 22 years ago, to combat the beaver population. He said he saw a large one a few months ago, too. (Whereas, we saw a HUGE beaver swimming past us this evening…) He was too far away to get any decent pictures.

Pictures: Sorry there have been so few. But, the “ditch” is pretty darned boring… Not much worth taking a picture of…

Nite all,

Nick & Kelly.