Travel Days

On Monday we woke up to 30-degrees outside and a stiff north wind, but didn’t mind much, since we are headed for warmer weather in the British Virgin Islands. We returned our rental car and boarded our first flight at tiny Golden Triangle Regional Airport, connected through Atlanta to Miami, where we spent the night at an airport hotel.

On Tuesday we went back to the busy Miami Airport, and met John and Sue McSherry at the gate for our flight to Tortola, BVI. We met Dale and Rachel Feddersen at the Beef Island Airport, then shared a taxi to The Moorings charter base in Roadtown. After settling in to the marina hotel, we had dinner at Charlie’s on site, did some planning and turned in. Here’s the view from our room:

Regular Sunday

Except for waking up and going to bed on a boat in eastern Mississippi, today was a pretty typical Sunday from our pre-Loop life. We have a rental car until tomorrow, and it’s been a joy to be able to drive anywhere anytime—something we take for granted at our dirt home. 

We picked up things at Walgreens, Walmart, Krogers grocery, the ATM and took in a matinee at the movie theater, seeing The Marvels, which was everything we expected from a Marvel film, including the post-credit teaser scenes for future movie plots.

Kathleen made tamales and salad for dinner, then we watched Hulu shows until bedtime. Just a regular Sunday.

Tuscaloosa, AL

After pretty much exhausting the tourism opportunities in Columbus, we decided to drive an hour east to Tuscaloosa, AL. On our way, we stopped at Lake Lowndes State Park and enjoyed a hike through the woods and around the lake. It definitely looks and feels like late autumn here, with crisp weather and new-fallen leaves covering the trails and crunching underfoot.

Tuscaloosa is home to the University of Alabama, perhaps the largest university we have ever seen and another institution that is the center of and seemingly inseparable from the surrounding community. Besides its enormous size, we were also struck by the near-uniformity of the architecture, with red brick and white columned buildings almost everywhere.

We had checked the schedule to make sure that it wasn’t a home-game Saturday for football-crazy ‘Bama—they were playing at rival Auburn—so getting around campus and finding a place to eat was easy. After lunch, we stopped by the local tourism office, visited a small farmers market and took a walk on the Tuscaloosa Riverwalk along the Black Warrior River. We had planned on visiting a couple of museums, but they were closed for the holiday weekend. 

Starkville, MS

We spent the day in nearby Starkville, part of the “Golden Triangle” of Columbus, Starkville and West Point, MS—the marketing label was coined in the 1960s to promote economic development. Starkville is home to Mississippi State University, a sprawling campus that is the beating heart of this community, with an insatiable appetite for athletics and a number of excellent museums  It’s Thanksgiving break, so car and pedestrian traffic was light, and parking readily available.

Out first visit was to the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library. Originally in Ohio, then Illinois, the library was relocated to Starkville in 2008 after Grant scholars at Mississippi State lobbied to house and maintain the collection. Fun fact: Ulysses and Julia Grant were invited by Abraham and Mary Lincoln to attend Ford’s Theater with them the night Lincoln was assassinated, but the Grants declined. The library also has a wing dedicated to Abraham Lincoln. Fun Lincoln fact: He patented a flotation device to assist steamboats across shallow sandbars and shoals. Although the device was never commercialized, Lincoln is the only U.S. President ever awarded a patent. 

Next was the Templeton Music Museum, a delightful collection of 200 musical instruments, 13,000 records and 22,000 pieces of sheet music amassed by Starkville businessman Charles H. Templeton, Sr. 

After lunch at Uno Mas Tacos y Tequila, we took a stroll around Chadwick Lake, then found another gem of a museum, also on the MSU campus. The Wade Clock Museum houses more than 400 early-American clocks from the early 1770s on. 

Making it a four-museum day, we finished off at the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum, a charming tribute to civic pride. Starkville’s famous sons and daughters include football hall-of-famer Jerry Rice and Donna Lynn Spruill, the first woman to land a plane on a Navy aircraft carrier. We were the only visitors, and had a long chat with the museum staff about the area and life in Mississippi. We are always surprised—and probably shouldn’t be— that those in the tourism sector on the waterways are well aware of the Great Loop and are very interested in our experiences traveling through their communities and states.

We skipped dinner to make the 6:00 PM showtime of Napoleon, the new Ridley Scott film about Bonaparte and Josephine. We liked the movie, but felt like it was missing something that we couldn’t quite identify. If you enjoy watching grandiose battle scenes on the big screen, complete with all of their glory and gore, this one’s for you, and Kathleen and I both loved Rupert Everett’s performance as the perpetually-scowling Duke of Wellington.

Happy Thanksgiving from Dragonfly

KG here coming to you live from Columbus Marina.  I hope you are all having a good Thanksgiving - that you have at least one loved one to spend some time with and can feel gratitude for something that is going well in your life.  

I will admit that at times since we started this trip I have had to force myself to name some things I’m grateful for as the Great Loop isn’t always everything I expected.  But then I’m not sure what I expected since (as most of you know) I really didn’t participate in the planning of this great adventure and just showed up on 9/4 with my bag packed ready to set sail.  Today has been a perfect example.

We woke up to outside temperatures in the upper 30’s.  We were both grateful that we are in a marina hooked to shore power so that our space heater was able to keep the cabin in the 50s which is plenty warm for sleeping.  We decided that we would take our bikes out today despite the fact that the predicted high was going to be 52 degrees since there were to be light winds.  We found the Columbus River Walk trail in town and took our Bromptons there for a 9+ mile bike ride on the trail and the town.  This was my first time on a bike since injuring my ankle and I was definitely feeling my injury, though I was still able to keep up with Tony.  I’m so grateful that I was able to work with my sister Frances - DPT - to get it healed as quickly as possible since I’ve needed two working feet to safely anchor and dock the boat.  

Back to our bike ride - we were the only people on bikes of the few people that were out and about Columbus on Thanksgiving.  I was just suggesting to Tony that we bike over the town’s pedestrian bridge (which is at the start of the River Trail) when we saw this sign under it:

A bit scary - not sure why they haven’t torn down the bridge yet.  We heeded the sign and after completing the river trail visited the town’s soccer complex and then the cemetery - called the Friendship Cemetery.  

We are not usually ones to visit cemeteries, but we heard a great deal about this one at the Town’s Visitor Center.  This cemetery, founded in 1849, originally encompassed  5 acres but has been expanded several times to its current area of 65 acres.  One of the sections that was particularly poignant was the row upon row of confederate soldiers (2,194 in all) that were buried there.  These were all soldiers that survived the Battle of Shiloh that I wrote about last week but were wounded and shipped to the makeshift hospitals in towns south of the battlefield.  Churches and large homes in Columbus were turned into hospitals, but many soldiers still died after arriving, from complications.  Only 345 of the confederate graves contain the remains of identified soldiers. So it was a sobering sight to see one tombstone after another with Unknown Confederate Soldier.

No matter the side of the battle these men fought on, one can imagine thousands of families waiting for their loved ones to return never knowing what happened to them.

We got back to the marina after our ride and I noticed for the first time a sign on the dock gate that said “No use of gas grill at the dock.”  This shot down my plan of Turkey and Fixin’s Kabobs since I can’t help but be a rule follower.  I was grateful that Tony had agreed to bring a toaster oven on the trip - he’s been wondering why we have it since we almost exclusively use our grill or our butane 1 flame stove - and the toaster oven has sat mostly idle taking up precious space.  So with an aluminum pan I had saved from restaurant leftovers a few weeks back, I roasted my kebob ingredients with plenty of garlic and spices and threw together a wild and long grain rice pilaf and we had, probably, the best meal yet that we’ve cooked ourselves on this trip.  Sorry about posting a food picture but here’s a glimpse of our feast.

One of the things that has stood out to us since we arrived here in Columbus is the extravagant Christmas decorations that are already everywhere.  I don’t usually decorate for Christmas until the week before but our site seeing put us in a holiday mood so while I was waiting for the food to roast (toast?), I decorated with MacGregor sized decorations.  This is about all we have room for - note the tree is in a water bottle holder for a sense of scale - it stands 3 inches to the top of the star and is made of Lego pieces. 

And there you have a glimpse into our quiet Thanksgiving.  I’m a fan of the BIG Thanksgiving surrounded by extended family and good friends but we had a lovely quiet time together on and off the boat today.  I’m grateful that Tony and I and our families are strong and healthy and we’re able to take this time to see the parts of the country that aren’t usually travel destinations but are the places to stop on a water journey.  I’m grateful that Tony’s diligent attention to details over the years has made it possible for us to take this long break from the hustle and bustle of our lives and meet so many kind and interesting people and appreciate the diverse plant and wildlife that surrounds us in this country.  And I’m grateful to my friends who so far have been there when I need a sanity check or just need to talk to someone who is not a Looper.  Thank You!

Columbus, MS

Although Columbus was named after another explorer, it is likely that Hernando DeSoto was the first European to set foot here in 1540. The Choctaw and Chickasaw referred to the new white settlement as Possum Town, a nickname still used by locals. Fun fact: Columbus was part of Alabama in its early years, until the state line was re-surveyed and the town was found to be in Mississippi. 

During the Civil War, Columbus became a hospital center, using churches and private homes to house the wounded from both sides, and was largely spared from the war’s destruction. The city is the birthplace of playwright Tennessee Williams, home to Columbus Air Force Base and The Mississippi University for Women—known as “The W,” America’s first public college for women. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Eudora Welty began her academic career at The W, writing short stories about the American South. 

Our day began at the Tennessee Williams Home & Welcome Center, the former Episcopal rectory where Thomas Lanier Williams III was born in 1911. He acquired his famous moniker while attending college in Iowa, due to his southern drawl. 

From the Welcome Center we set out on a 16-stop walking tour of antebellum homes nestled between The W and the Tombigbee River, then took a driving tour of the campus before eating lunch at Zachary’s, a bar & grill with great food and a Chicago Cubs-themed decor. 

Lastly, we stopped at Kroger’s grocery store—which of course was mobbed on the afternoon before Thanksgiving—then headed back to Dragonfly to hang out a bit before eating leftovers for dinner and reading and relaxing.

Dragonfly by the numbers

We’re taking a break from cruising to do some other travel, so I thought that a recap of our Great Loop so far would be interesting. Since leaving home 78 days ago, we’ve gone 1,773 miles, broken down as follows:

Mississippi River: 845 miles

Ohio River: 58 miles 

Cumberland River: 33 miles

Tennessee River: 720 miles

Tenn-Tom Waterway: 117 miles

Travel days: 54

Average travel day: 33 miles

Nights in marinas: 62 

Nights at free docks: 7

Nights at anchor: 9

Locks transited: 44

States visited: 9

Fuel consumed: 237 gallons

Fuel economy: 7.5 mpg

Fuel capacity: 28 gallon

Fuel range: 210 miles

Water usage: 3-4 gal/day

Water capacity: 20 gallons

Boat length: 26 feet

Boat beam: 7 feet

Boat draft: 5 feet (centerboard down), 3 feet (rudders down), 18 inches (everything up)

Boat weight: 3,500 lbs (approx)

Engine: 2023 Suzuki 50 HP outboard

I didn’t want to post without a photo, and many of our readers have never been aboard Dragonfly, so here’s a pic of our helm, with a brief tour: Directly under the steering wheel hub is the outboard tachometer. On the lower right of the steering pedestal are the engine’s ignition key, emergency kill switch, shifter and throttle. In the pouch on the lower left are a knife, whistle and two handheld VHF radios. We keep one radio on channel 16, as required by U.S. law for hailing and distress, with the other normally on channel 13 to communicate with tow captains, or switched to a lockmaster or marina working channel as needed. Directly above the steering wheel hub are power cords, 12V and USB outlets for our instruments. Above the wheel on the left is a Garmin fishfinder, which we use primarily for water depth (we don’t fish). To the right of that is an iPad Mini in a waterproof case, with Aqua Map and iNavx  navigation software, which is backed up on my phone. To the right of the iPad on the bulkhead is a magnetic compass, with a handheld backup stored below. 

We borrowed the marina’s courtesy van today to pick up a rental car for the week. The weather turned stormy, but we hope to do some sightseeing tomorrow.

Who was Tom Bigbee?

We get this question from time to time from friends and family. Tombigbee is not a proper name, but a Choctaw word meaning “box maker” and the river was named after a coffin maker who once lived near the headwaters.

Our overnight low was 37F, but we bundled up, turned in at 8:30 PM and spent a comfortable 10 hours in bed. The sun rose into a clear blue sky and the temperature was over 60F by our 11:00 AM departure.

During breakfast, we twice heard the familiar rumble of approaching tows. This is why anchoring in a cut-off is preferable to spending the night on the waterway.

It was such a beautiful day that we took our time covering the 14 miles to Columbus Marina, our next stop. We didn’t meet any other Loopers today, until a half-dozen boats pulled into the marina right after we tied up. We plan to leave Dragonfly here for a couple of weeks, while we go sightseeing over Thanksgiving and then spend the following week in the British Virgin Islands with some old Navy friends (not Old Navy friends).

We took a walk and explored a large park adjacent to the marina before eating dinner on board. Our new ritual since the clocks turned back is to enjoy a pre-dinner walk rather than go after dinner when it’s dark.

A Four-Lock Day

Yes folks, you read that right; we set a new record for our Loop by traveling through four locks today. Beginning at sunrise (6:30 AM), we left Midway Marina with Jeff and Melissa on Current Situation, who we met yesterday. On our way to the first lock, four boats anchored nearby joined the group and the six of us went down 25 feet at Fulton Lock, which was ready and waiting for us. Fifteen miles later, we dropped another 25 feet at Wilkins Lock, again with the lock doors open when we arrived. Five more miles and our luck held at Cochran Lock, where they held the lock for us and made the two boats already there wait for us. One of the two was Island Time from North Dakota, who we hadn’t seen since Paducah, KY. We were lowered 30 feet at Cochran, then all eight of us steamed 14 miles to Aberdeen Lock, entered the open doors and we completed the quadfecta with a 27-foot drop. The octet then split up, with some continuing on, some stopping at Columbus Marina and Island Time and Dragonfly heading to separate anchorages.

We are anchored in McKinley Creek, known as a cut-off. You may recall from our last travel day that we were running roughly parallel to the Tombigbee River, but separated by a levee. In this section, the canal regularly intersects the river, cutting off the oxbows to shorten the waterway distance (see screenshot), These cut-offs make lovely anchorages, and are welcome places to spend the night away from waterway traffic.

Fulton, MS

Today was another planned day of no travel, with no list of chores to take care of while docked. We woke up to light rain, made a hot breakfast onboard, then borrowed the marina’s courtesy car to explore the town. 

Fulton, MS, population 3,900, is the seat of Itawamba County and named for Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat and the submarine. It is the birthplace of Vernon Pressley, father of Elvis, who was born in nearby Tupelo. 

We took a long walk on the Tenn-Tom Waterway Trail, a lovely paved path on the levee that ends at the Fulton Lock & Dam, about three miles from the marina. We watched four Looper boats—two we recognized—approach the lock, heading downriver. There’s a regular progression of boats coming, going and passing by and the marina staff seems accustomed to the annual snowbird migration.

After our walk, we visited the Jamie Whitten Historical Center, dedicated to one of the champions of economic development in Northeast Mississippi during his 53 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. The first lock we passed through yesterday is also named after Whitten. Fun fact: The Tenn-Tom locks were originally called Lock A, B, C, etc. but were renamed for politicians and administrators who were proponents of the waterway. Other fun fact: large amounts of petrified wood were uncovered during the excavation for the center.

The skies are overcast, with on and off drizzle and we’re glad that we didn’t go out on the river today. We did connect with another Looper boat that’s leaving tomorrow and we plan to travel together through the next four locks to Columbus, MS.

Here is the group photo from last week’s AGLCA Fall Rendevous. Exercise for the reader: Find Kathleen and Tony.

The Canal Section

Our stuck-anchor follies yesterday had an unexpected benefit—besides saving our $300 anchor, chain and nylon rode, we connected with a group of four Canadian boats at our alternative anchorage and arranged to go through the next three locks with them. The Lockmasters prefer groups of pleasure craft rather than individual boats and make every effort to prioritize a flotilla. We set our alarm and were ready for the 7:00 AM departure. After waiting for a northbound tow to exit, we entered Whitten Lock for the 84-foot drop, the largest on the Tenn-Tom. The Whitten Lockmaster called ahead to the Montgomery Lock five miles downriver, and it was ready and waiting for us with the doors open and the green light flashing. After a 30-foot drop, our flotilla continued on to the Rankin Lock, which knew we were coming, but had to finish some maintenance before getting us through. Another 30-foot drop and we were on our way, until Dragonfly stopped for the day at Midway Marina in Fulton, MS, while the Canadians continued on to go through one more lock before anchoring for the night. We had a lot of fun traveling with this group—who called us their “+1”—and were grateful that they let us join up with them to get through the three locks more efficiently.

 

This part of the Tenn-Tom is called the Canal Section, a 48-mile chain of man-made lakes connected by straight canals. The Tombigbee River is so narrow and windy here that the Corps of Engineers chose not to use it, and created an artificial waterway instead.  The screenshot below shows some of the lakes and canals that we’re traveling on, with the natural river to the north and west.

We had a late lunch at Guy’s Place, the marina restaurant, then took a long walk along a local country road and enjoyed the 75F weather before the 4:48 PM sunset. We’re still getting accustomed to the shorter days of fall, and are always surprised and disappointed when the sun disappears so early in the evening. The shadows were already descending on the marina when we finished our walk. You can see Dragonfly in the bottom right of the last photo, framed by the boat hoist.

The Ditch

Today was our first full day on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, another engineering marvel that you’ve probably never heard of (before reading this blog). The Tenn-Tom is 234 miles long and as its name implies, connects the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River, with 10 locks and dams to manage the 340-foot elevation difference. The Tenn-Tom is the largest earth moving project in history, requiring the removal of 310 million cubic yards of soil, considerably more than the Panama Canal (210 million yards) and Suez Canal (105 million). Completed in 1985 (two years ahead of schedule), it shortened the water route to the Gulf of Mexico by 800 miles, compared with taking the Lower Mississippi River.

Today we traveled on the 30-mile Divide Cut, a man-made, 280-foot wide canal that connects Pickwick Lake to Bay Springs Lake. Known as “The Ditch,” it has no marinas, anchorages, docks, ramps or stopping unless you break down. It does have these interesting baffled spillways that enter into it periodically.

It was overcast with a high of 61F as we made our way through The Ditch, which was somewhat relaxing—it’s mostly straight with no channel markers and easy to navigate. We kept Dragonfly right in the middle, except for the one time we passed a tow and had to briefly slide to the right. 

Once on Bay Springs Lake, we chose an anchorage close to tomorrow’s first lock. The swing room was limited, and as we were setting our stern anchor, we noticed that the bow anchor rode didn’t look right. Upon further investigation, we discovered that it was fouled around a large submerged tree branch. After multiple attempts—and with both of us hauling—we finally freed it, retrieved both anchors and moved to another anchorage. We are currently by the Bay Springs/Whitten Lock Visitors Center with three other boats. It was warm enough to grill and eat in the cockpit, which we haven’t done in a while and are enjoying the evening sounds of nature as we close out the day.

Shiloh Take 2

Greetings and salutations from Iuka, MS where Tony and I are staying for a second night.  We decided to remain at the Grand Harbor Marina so that we could take their courtesy car to see the Shiloh battlefield.  If you are regularly reading the blog you will recall that on October 18 as we were traveling north on the Tennessee River, we passed by Pittsburg Landing which was where General US Grant, and then General DC Buel landed their troops for this epic Civil War Battle fought April 6-7. 1862.

The Shiloh National Military Park is an outstanding, educational park and WELL worth a visit.  After a 30 minute video at the visitor center we set out on the 12.8 mile driving tour of the main battle lines of this two day blood bath.  The entire area was well marked with monuments that indicated the headquarter positions of each of the groups of soldiers on both sides and also numerous and very informative signs that showed troop positions clearly marked as to the day of the position (since the fortunes reversed for each side on the second day).  This is a huge improvement from previous visits to battlefields over the years where there were a few key placards but the battlefield was mostly peaceful preserved park land.

This battle was named for Shiloh Church which was located in the area of the battle.    A replica of this first church is shown here and this is surrounded by several Confederate burial trenches.  

There is also a modern church on the site that is currently used as a place of worship.

As we continued on the trail we could see the incredibly rough conditions that these battles were fought in, through woods and steep hills in the muddy spring.  It was staggering  to imagine that there were 65,000 Union Troops and 45,000 Confederate troops engaged in this battle!!  Trying to imagine this many soldiers in active combat in the area we traveled and all the logistics involved in housing and supporting 110,000 troops in an area of 7.8 square miles was mind blowing.  And, just as sobering, were the casualties: 13,047 Union and 10,669 Confederate.  

Also in the park is the Shiloh Indian Mounds Historic Landmark which is a walking tour of a pre-historic Mississippian Native American village that thrived there between 1100-1300 AD.  The mounds were homes and burial mounds for this group of Mississippian peoples that led an agricultural lifestyle.  

We could have spent much more time in this area as there is also extensive material to see related to nearby Corinth Unit which was the site of later battles in 1862 but we had to return our vehicle.

We returned to the boat and with what little sunshine we had left, we started planning for our next travel days and played music together in the cockpit as we witnessed another incredible sunset.

Farewell Tennessee River

We woke up to a chilly 49F morning with fog, and took our time letting the mist and temperature lift before pulling up anchor.

Today (Monday) was our shortest travel day so far, only 5 miles, to Grand Harbor Marina in Counce, TN. We have been border-hopping the last two days, crossing between Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee waters. 

At Mile 215, we said goodbye to the Tennessee River and turned onto Yellow Creek, the beginning of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. After more than 700 miles, including our side trip to Chattanooga, it was a bittersweet farewell. We have thoroughly enjoyed cruising this beautiful river, but are excited to head south again, towards warmer weather and new adventures. 

We’re spending two nights at Grand Harbor, so this afternoon we relaxed, chatted with fellow boaters, did laundry and played music—Kathleen serenading the transient dock with her concertina, then a passing tow with her fiddle.

Florence, AL to Panther Creek

Our stay in Florence Harbor again coincided with a big fishing tournament—apparently there’s one just about every weekend. This was the morning scene at the docks:

Not wishing to depart in this madness, we borrowed the marina’s courtesy van and went out to breakfast at Big Bad Breakfast, a cool diner in Florence with a Cessna airplane body on the wall.

After breakfast, we got a few more groceries, filled up Dragonfly’s fuel tanks, said goodbye to Steve, Darci, Andrew & Susan and got underway. After so many nights in marinas, we really wanted to anchor out again and Pickwick Lake has many good options. Our first choice, Cooper Hollow, was crowded, so we ended up in Panther Creek at Mile 218, which was quiet and beautiful, and we had the eastern cove all to ourselves. We watched the sunset, cooked dinner, buttoned up the cabin against the cold, read and eventually fell asleep to the sounds of birds, frogs and insects.

The Shoals

One of the pieces of advice we received at the Fall Rendezvous was to slow down and enjoy the Loop rather than rush through it. We gave that a try, decided to stay an extra night in Florence Harbor and ended up having one our most enjoyable days on the trip. 

This area consists of Florence, Sheffield, Tuscumbia and Muscle Shoals, AL, but is simply known as The Shoals.  On Saturday morning, we went for a walk, then joined Pat & Gary from Nauti-Dog to drive across the river to the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, a small, unassuming building that is a monumental piece of musical history. Opened in 1969 by four local musicians, the studio attracted artists such as The Rolling Stones, Cher, Aretha Franklin, Duane Allman, Linda Ronstadt, George Michael, Wilson Pickett, Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, Helen Reddy, Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, Joe Cocker, Lynyrd Skynrd, Willie Nelson and more. The official name of the four musicians was the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, but they soon acquired the nickname “The Swampers” and became music legends. Bonus question: What 1974 hit song has an entire verse about The Swampers? (Answer at end of post). We had an excellent guided tour through the modest facility—which has begun recording music again—and definitely could feel the energy and magic that happened in this unique little building.

That afternoon, we paid another call on Steve & Darci aboard Balclutha Too, this time with our musical instruments. Their friends Andrew & Susan were visiting from St. Louis, and planned a dinner and jam session for the evening. Darci made us an amazing meal, and we sang, played and listened to music, including Susan’s own compositions. While not new for Kathleen, this was my first jam session, and it was a blast!

Bonus Question Answer: Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd. “Now Muscle Shoals has got The Swampers…”