It used to be that a great vacation was no phones, no fax, no electronics, just us and maybe a camera. Now, we think it's bad if there's no cell phone service and no internet, which is what it has been for the past few days.

We're in the Midway Marina, near Almost Nothing, MS and I'll be lucky if just this text gets out to the blog. No way to add more pictures because it's so slow that the servers won't wait for this slow phone internet to upload them. Just to get the one picture here, I had to reduce the file size by 80% and then wait 15 minutes just to get it uploaded.

We stopped at the beautiful Joe Wheeler State Park Marina again, but this time there were very few boats at the big transients dock and the fall colors had gone to mostly winter browns. Also, we woke up to frost all over the handrails of the boat and on the docks and boat ramps. Had to be careful going out to walk the dog. It warmed up nicely to about 60 during the days though.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving at Counce, TN (back at the corners of Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama). Kathy cooked a full Thanksgiving feast with a whole roasted chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, a pumpkin pie and a chocolate mousse pie. YUM!

Then we started down the Tenn-Tom Waterway which connects the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River. We went through three locks today 11/29) without much waiting and got about 55 miles down the waterway, which mostly looks like a big ditch. The Army Corps of Engineers says they moved more material for this than the Panama Canal, but it still looks like a big ditch.

We met another Hatteras Owner's Forum member in one of the locks today. Their boat name is "Fun@Sea.calm" a rather cute incantation of what cruising is supposed to be all about. They came over for drinks and appetisers, which turned out to be dinner by just finishing off with some of Kathy's Thanksgiving pies.

We'll stop at Abdereen, MS tomorrow and then on to Columbus, MS where we'll leave the boat to drive home for Christmas and New Years with friends and family.