Congratulations to Detroit Tigers' own Miguel Cabrera for winning baseball's triple crown  -- the first time in forty years!!!  I like baseball but have seen no games this season, I am sad to say.  My team is the Pirates, incidentally.

We traveled 66 miles today and locked through the Wheeler Lock.  We are once again anchored in Carter Branch, a beautiful little anchorage in Muscle Shoal -- we were here just 12 days ago.  The leaves are changing, there's a little chill in the early morning air, and it's dark by 6:30 PM (central time).  Our backtracking will end when we reach Iuka, Mississippi tomorrow.   We will then be back on the Loop route.

Speaking of the Mississippi, Ralph received this email from a fellow Looper yesterday morning.

We stopped at Hoppie's on our way down the Mississippi on September 9 - Kimmswick is the name of the town if you want to read the posting from that date and see photos of the low water. Due to Hoppie's and Fern's quick response, there were no injuries or property damage to any vessels  tied to their docks.

By: Idylltime on October 3rd, 2012, 9:34 am

We had just finished the daily briefing with Fern at Hoppies and had settled into a nice quiet evening. A 15 barge tow was going upstream at full throttle. Just past Hoppies, we heard his engines go to neutral. We immediately went up on deck to see why and soon saw Hoppie and his family running down the hill towards the docks yelling at us to untie the boats. The tow had run aground and two fully loaded coal barges had broken away and were headed for the docks. We were all off the docks within minutes and hovering out in mid channel. Hoppie, in a small John boat began to push the loose barges away from the docks. Luckily both barges missed the marina by 100 yards. After the barges had drifted downstream we were given the all clear to came back into the marina. Earlier in the day a downbound tow had taken out the red channel marker and now tows are running aground just upstream from Hoppies. Hoppies did an excellent job of preventing a potentially tragic collision. We spent the rest of the night monitoring channel 13 and 16 in case another tow broke apart. We would suggest everyone to keep your radios on and be alert while here as the low water is creating problems.

Here are a few of today's photos:

Tennessee River reflecton

We watched these two little geese glide into the water today

Play Ball!!!!

Some lovely homes near Decatur, AL

Lovely homes on the Tennessee River

Tonight's back yard looking cozy with the lights in the windows.