Snow Cat: River Journey Ends After 7 Weeks!!!

We had a very quiet...and very dark... night at anchor, with the tide turning us 180 degrees by sunrise.

On Thursday morning we continued traveling the last 12 miles of this amazing network of rivers that brought us down the entire length of the United States, a river journey we began on the Chicago River on September 9th.

The Mobile River emptied into huge Mobile Bay, and immediately we were back to "civilization"!

A dry-dock for large ships

Before 10 am we arrived at Dog River Marina to fuel up...we used 86 gallons since Demopolis...and had free dockage since we are Loopers! We were greeted by Lise and Renald on Tango and went shopping with them using the marina's courtesy car. We spent the afternoon doing boat chores...Don changed the oil and filters in the engines, and I defrosted the fridge and freezer, and cleaned the grime from the locks off the fenders! Lise prepared a lovely dinner for us, and we caught up on our travels since we parted company at Green Turtle Bay many weeks ago!

Fishing boats are always surrounded by pelicans and seagulls.

On Friday morning we crossed to the east side of Mobile Bay and docked at Eastern Shore Marine, another free night for Loopers, to visit the town of Fairhope, which was in the top 20 "places to retire" in 2011. It is a charming area with quaint shops, lovely flowers, and a plethora of restaurants. We had a delicious lunch in the French Quarter at Panini Pete's...and met Pete himself. You may have seen him on the Food Network, but I bet he wasn't wearing the Halloween pants that he had on today!