Sep 30 - Vicksburg hotel and tows

JRY writes:

We arrived in Vicksburg around 4 this afternoon and got a room in a hotel next to the boat ramp (1 mile up the Yazoo River from the Mighty Miss.) Showers! Wonderful to be clean again. Now laundry and then a hot meal.  It is a trifle weird to be in civilization again.

This morning started with a real tow fest. At least 9 tows in the first 90 minutes, going in both directions, some passing upstream and some downstream. It all worked out and we were never in a position to take much chop and churn.  We've learned how to forecast the parts of the river to avoid during a tow fest - the places where the churning wakes reverberate off the revetments.

We can listen in on our marine radio to the tow captains discussing their intentions with the other boats. These things are so big and ponderous (a tow might be six barges wide by seven barges long and stretch for over a thousand feet in length; the tows themselves can develop over 11,000 horsepower) and are so hard to steer that before anyone passes anyone else in either direction, the logistics are worked out well in advance between the pilots.  Often arrangements are made miles ahead of the actual event and before the tows are even in sight of each other.  

Everyone is really polite: no profanity except for the occasional "well hell". Conversations are short without much frivolity but the tone is very friendly. All done in a casual conversational manner without radio claptrap like "roger this" or   

"over and out" and spoken in a sort of southern airline pilot drawl. "See you on the one; I'ah shore 'ppreciate thet." "Awl rite. Y'all have a safe journey north."

Passing right to right is one whistle or "on the one" and left to left is two whistles or "on the two".  This lingo dates back to steamboat days when pilots would signal other boats their intentions to each other by blowing their steam whistles.

These guys are real pros but very laid back about it, at least over the radio, although I suspect that they are paying careful attention for every second of their watch. I never feel threatened by these things: everything seems so precise and controlled, like giant elephants doing ballet.

We got a hotel room in Vicksburg, our first of the trip. We prefer camping, but there's no place to do that here, and it's time to stop for laundry and groceries. The hotel is a block from the boat ramp, and we used the baggage cart!

Nice people here too. The hotel guided us to a laundromat that's actually a dry cleaner and is closed. We asked at the neighborhood restaurant across the street, and the owner left the bar to give us a two mile ride. Then, while washing our clothes I chatted with the proprietor. He offered to give us a lift back to hotel. Very generous. 

Tomorrow a fellow we met on Facebook Lower Mississippi River Paddlers group has offered to meet up with us to take us to the grocery store. We're eager to meet a local river rat.

We are healthy, happy, and clean.