Back to Richmond With Heavy Hearts

Day 170 |  Columbus (MS) to Kodak (TN)  |  6 Hours  |  395 Miles  |  1 Time Zone

The storm hit Columbus around 2:00 a.m. with heavy rain and wind that woke us up. Thankfully it did not last more than 20 minutes, but we never really went back to a deep sleep. We both tossed and turned knowing that the alarm was set for 5:30 to give us time to shower before Barry called the Stennis Lock at 6:00 for a status report. Barry was getting dressed when the phone rang. From the caller ID, we know it was not good news. The person on the other end was calling to inform him that his dad had passed away peacefully in his sleep overnight. With that information our plans immediately changed, but we still saw our nine fellow Loopers off the dock and on to their journey for the day. A local egret quickly occupied the empty finger pier and I caught Barry sneaking up on him to take his picture.

That's a pretty good shot for a phone. We went back inside Crossroads and by 7:00 we had reserved a rental car (available at noon) and a hotel room just east of Knoxville. We began packing and were done by the time the marina office opened at 9:00 for us to extend our stay. We took a walk back around the East Bank Park and stopped to watch the dam dumping extraordinary amounts of water compared to just two days ago. This increase in volume was due to the heavy rains that have fallen in the watershed since our first visit. Most of the walking paths in the park were also covered in water, and the basketball court where Avery and I had hung out on Sunday was covered with hundreds of leaves. We agreed that we probably slept through more of the storm than we originally thought. By noon we were ready, but no car. It took over an hour more to finally secure a vehicle and get underway.

Because of our late start, we stopped close to the halfway point. No point arriving at our dark and empty house at 3:00 in the morning. We'll knock out the final six hours tomorrow and be back in Richmond in time to pick up Barry's brother and sister-in-law at the airport.

Julian always enjoyed his time on our boats -- sailboats Bear's Den, Bear Necessity (I & II), Laughing Place and trawler Crossroads. Our original plan was to have him accompany us on an early portion of the Loop. His health began to fail and this never happened. We shared a great afternoon with him just last weekend (10/29). He was his normal sharp and witty self and enjoyed the fact that Jaxon came along to visit. Thank you, Glenda, for taking this final photo.

As I've done before, I'll take a break from daily entries while at home. I'll post again when we return to Crossroads in roughly a week. Please check back and continue to follow our journey.