90 The US snagboat Montgomery

Midway to Demopolis

The weather has been almost perfect as we cruised south on the Tenn-Tom Canal. Yesterday we stopped at Columbus, MS, where we visited Tennessee Williams’ birthplace and strolled past beautiful antebellum mansions. Today we toured the Tom Beville Visitor’s Center where the US Snagboat Montgomery rests. The Montgomery was the last steam-powered sternwheeler to ply the inland waters of the South, and for nearly six decades helped to keep seven of the South’s major rivers navigable. It is now a National Historic Site. Arriving in the Demopolis Yacht Basin and Marina, we were delighted to see Floyd and Della (Freddy Freddy) again, and to meet Mike and Bev on their home-built sailboat Walkürie. Floyd and Della had been at Demopolis for six weeks giving Freddy Freddy a new coat of bottom (and top) paint and doing other maintenance. They hadn’t expected to be there that long, but the weather did not cooperate.

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