Burntside Adventures: Tennessee River

Over the past week we have worked our way up the Tombigbee to the Tennessee River, so finally we are in new territory. The trip up the Tombigbee was pretty uneventful. We had some nice anchorages, stopped a couple of days in Columbus Mississippi at a small marina there. Ate a great meal of shrimp and grits in Columbus, and did the best we can to solve our internet connectivity. We had been connecting flawlessly with an outfit called "Finally WiFi" which had a contract with AT&T for truly unlimited, unthrottled internet via AT&T towers. Last Thursday, AT&T arbitrarily and without warning, shut down the access, leaving all the subscribers in the dark. This was bad because at the time we were watching Hurricane Sally pretty closely, and needed weather information. We stopped at Columbus to see what I could re-establish. We both have Verizon cell phones and in the past used them as hot spots, so I went to the Verizon outlet there and met two women who absolutely had no clue as to how to help. I spent 15 minutes talking to them and they just didn't get it. So I went to the AT&T outlet where a delightful girl busted her butt to try and help. Turns out we needed a business tax ID from Minnesota to qualify, then they would send a modem/router and give us what we needed. That would involve waiting a week to get it, and our business tax ID is expired anyway. So I called Verizon. I spoke to a guy who helped right away. We are now back online, but only have 60 gigs of data per month so it's a little limited, but will do for now. Verizon coverage in this part of the country is crappy, so we are still a little limited. We spent 2 nights anchored in Bay Spring Lake at the top of the Tombigbee, and it's unique because it is clear water, a rarity. We anchored off a beautiful campground, got a hike and a paddle in and Cindy got a good run in. Today we are now ascending the lower Tennessee River and will pull over at a marina for a couple of nightsnear lorence and Muscle Shoals. There is a rock and roll museum I want to go to and it's time to eat out and get some southern barbecue. They have a courtesy car I think, so will grocery up and re-provision on gin. Weather has been nice, even a little cool, 70's during the day and 50's at night, so sleeping has been good.