PEACEFUL ANCHORAGES

We jump down the river here to a point where the birds are telling us that we are approaching the Gulf.  We start to see more seagulls and flocks of terns with their swept back wings and forked tails like Sabre jets diving into the water and rising on the wing with small fish in their beaks.  The herons are still just as numerous as they have been since the 45^th parallel.  Jan and I have found ourselves saying “I wonder….” So from here on we will pose these questions to ya’ll in the hope that you might post a reply with the answers.  I wonder why the herons are so prolific when the cranes are almost extinct.  Large sandy beaches are in evidence along the shore exciting us for the gulf shores.  The southern reaches of the Tenn-Tom are quite monotonous with wooded banks bordering a placid stream.  The oaks, ashes, hickorys, and white pines of the north have given way to the live oaks, pin oaks, rutaceae, honey locust, and southern pines which are just starting to be adorned with the somber streamers of Spanish moss.

     I think we have neglected the geology of the river valleys which are an open book to the past. Beautiful  layers of ochre, sienna, pumpkin, rust, and chalk slant up and down river in testament to the ancient seabeds and upheavals of yore.  Along the southern Appalachian thrust belt, Post-Cumbrian glacial drift formed the detritic medial morains  we see today.  Along the western shore, exposed stratigraphic aquifers have given local geologists hopes of implementing widespread carbon sequestration, but the diaspora of permeable synclinoria have put paid to that notion.  At some widely scattered entropic locations, encrustations of equimolar mixture have provided limited habitat for the  sadly endangered Tuscumbia darters, engendering heated controversy as to the efficacy of the erosional projections of the Office of Ecological Eschatology (OEE).  Strata of feldspar, quartzite granite, limestone, and marbled ecotropic shale are all visible along the banks.  What an incredible history lesson of the earth since it’s creation six thousand years ago!

     We have been intrigued by the metaphor of the river’s surface, which is all that we see.  We see the reflection of our “real” world in the surface tension of the waters, and can only imagine the murky world below:  i.e. what our black hull must look like to the fish.  I wonder, do the aboriginal tribes of Australia really believe that the dream world is the “real” one?  Whoa, as I type, we see our 1^st alligator! No lie.

     Fun place names to say (everyone read aloud):  Tishomingo, Caloosahatchee, Pascagoula, Nawlins, Biloxi, Choctaw, Tuscaloosa, Demopolis, Pass Christian (pah criss-ti-owh), Chickasaw, Bayou La Batre, Zutphen.  At least I’m entertaining myself.

     In the last weeks we have seen:  three coyotes with their black-tipped tails, “skinny legs and all”,  one swimming across the river:  one large chunky beaver on shore (which were introduced to this area in the early 1900’s for natural land reclamation i.e. their dams would drain the swamps????flood them???):  a dozen deer (The best of which was a nice 2 pt. buck who came around the corner as I was fishing, spooked and swam frantically across a ½ mile wide lake and bounded splashing out of the shallows on the other side),  and a fawn crossing the river;  two goats on a small island;  three water snakes swimming;  2 old guys hauling in a huge catfish that we estimated must have been at least 60 lbs(really- now you won’t believe anything I say);  and 3 javalinas at close range.

This morning we were given proof that Alabamians are among the craziest people on earth.  At just sunrise (6:30 am)  in fog as thick as Dave’s bean soup we heard a boat go screaming by our peaceful anchorage on the Tensas R. cutoff.  We thought, “Okay, somebody’s  running their gofaster  on the early morning slick.”  I got up, poured some juice, took my happy pill, and put the coffee on.  Then, in quick succession, at least 30 boats rocketed past, their drivers in snowmobile helmets and camo gear, at, oh, say, 40 mph.  Visibility- 20 yds;  into the Mobile river where a tow might pass once an hour;  logs as big as Schwartzenegger’s thighs;  sailboats anchored;  floating refrigerators.  Word. Crazy. RPBBs(rod-pumping bass busters).  Gary D. says they pay $100,000 in bass tournaments.  I’m goin’ fishin.  D- over and out.                                                                             

White Cliffs of Dover

STILL SOME WILD

CLOSE ENOUGH

FAWN

RPBB