The Sour and the Sweet

What an interesting day it was, a little better from my perspective because I didn't have to present a credit card after the damages were calculated. We started out by being hauled out by this lift which neither of us have ever seen the likes of before. The prop was pulled and we were told at first that it couldn't be fixed until TUESDAY! We don't have a lot of time to spare on the trip and certainly didn't want to spend that much time here, as nice as these folks are. More calls were made and it is supposedly fixed and will be installed tomorrow morning. Sweet!

We passed the day by making some trips to Louisiana, MO. across this bridge, which we are told is illegal to walk across, and for good reason, as the roadway is about 1`/2 " wider than two cars passing. (Yes, I know you can't see the bridge from that perspective, and why is that sign there, anyway?) We bought our second thermos of the trip at the smallest WalMart in the world; hopefully this one will last longer than the first, which served for less than a day before committing suicide on the flybridge. (WalMart doesn't have a hyphen anymore, really. They drove all the store out of business here and now there are pulling out of town.) And I have to mention the Kroger's clerk who demonstrated that putting a bag on a wine bottle is just like putting on a condom, making her our favorite for all three trips there. Jeff

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

First the Bad - As we are finding out as we travel down the river and discuss our misfortune with various boaters, it seems that the Keokuk Yacht Club has known about the submerged concrete block(s) that suddenly jumped up in front of the boat since they rebuilt their docks a few years ago. This is not a good PR move for them if they know there is a hazard in the approach to their outside tie along spaces that can cause severe damage to boats. Word has spread down the river about our misfortune.

The Ugly - That's it in the picture above. You can see that the bottom fluke is bent way out shape, which is pretty hard to do on a 28x29 prop that weighs close to 100 pounds. As we found out later, it was bent 1 1/2" which required about four hours to repair in one of the best prop shops in the St. Louis area.

Now the Good - Two Rivers Marina has a fantastic team who all worked together to get this turned around so we didn't have to spend an entire weekend here waiting for the prop shop to do their thing. Jamie, the marina manager drove the prop down to St. Charles in her truck before heading off to her doctor appointment (she is seven months along expecting twins). She wasn't able to make it back in time to pick it up, so her mother picked it up and brought it back to the marina. Lori, who does the office manager types of things here, was our main point of contact for coordinating and communicating everything. We started working with Lori when we were still 20 miles up river working our way down here. Mark, the lead mechanic and jack of all trades, ran the travel lift to haul us out, pulled the prop, measured the shaft with a micrometer to make sure it wasn't out of alignment, and offered to stay around tonight or come in early tomorrow to put on the new prop. And Randy, who we first met on the fuel dock for a pump out when we came in, is always around to help either us or Mark with whatever we need. This marina is a five anchor in Quimby's that primarily measures service and customer satisfaction. Jeff and I both agree that they earned their anchors today.

We plan to be on our way early tomorrow as soon as Mark finishes working his magic with the new prop. Stay tuned for further action............

On to Rockport, Thursday, Oct 30

The rest of the trip to Rockport was pretty uneventful. We had two locks to go through and they were both open and waiting for us. Finally we had a day without battling tows with 12-15 barges. We have seen hardly any other pleasure boats other than those sitting in marinas, so we pretty much have the river all to ourselves. We are always in the locks be ourselves, so the lock guys more often than not will just let us float out in the middle without having to grab on to the lines. This will all change, of course, once we reach the mouth of the Illinois River where a lot of the Great Loopers are going south.

We passed through a very interesting dredging operation which is pictured above. We actually had to wait a while for them to separate the floating pipe that carries the slew across the river. The pictures above hopefully show how some of this works.

We also passed by the historic village of Hannibal, MO, home to Mark Twain. It was quaint, but can't say it looked all that much different than dozens of other little towns that dot the shoreline.

We pulled into Two Rivers about 1:00, a little ahead of our schedule, so Jeff and I spent time walking around the marina until the staff arrived at 2:00 (they have a "flood season" schedule right now). Staff is very friendly and helpful, just what you would expect from a "five anchor" marina. They loaned us the "marina courtesy van" so we could run some errands. This involved driving the Dodge Caravan with 170,000 miles across an extremely narrow bridge across the Mississippi into the town of Louisiana, MO to visit the smallest WalMart in the U.S. (no kidding). I have been in corner drugstores that were larger than this store. Krogers was the other stop - the only grocery in the county.

The boat won't be hauled until tomorrow morning, since that is when "Mark the Mechanic" shows up. I will post a picture of their travel lift tomorrow, so hold your breath!

Keokuk to Rockport via Quincy

Well, we arranged to have the boat hauled out and the underwater damage examined at Two Rivers Marina in Rockport, IL. Once we pulled out of Keokuk the heart stopping vibrations that come from a damaged prop or drive shaft set in. That meant we had to work our way down to Rockport on one engine, which actually was not difficult once you got used to how the boat responds with only the starboard engine running. Rockport is about 70 miles down river from Keokuk, so we had to break the trip into two parts because with only one engine there is no way we are going to get up on plane. Our next stop was Quincy, IL.

Just south of Keokuk is lock #19, which is the first lock we go through that has floating bollards to hold your boat rather that just lines hanging down that you hang on to. This is also the largest drop of any lock north of St. Louis, 38 feet. The picture above is from the inside of the lock.

Quincy was a nice stop. We tied up at the Quincy Boat Club, which is a 170 member organization that is a pretty "free flowing" group. They were very hospitable, gave us some good suggestions for dinghy rides and riverside dinner spots. They were also aware of the rock situation at the Keokuk Club, so I suspect I was not the first boat to run into trouble there.

From Sweet to Sour

I'm not sure what Jim said before he left me this blank screen, but I'll start off with "sweet" Monday where I left off last. My sister Cyndi had left us a bag of great apples that we had been working on since the start of the trip, but they were past their "use by" date. I made up some apple crisp out of them, using packaged oatmeal, Splenda, cinnamon, and syrup, cooked in the boat's microwave/convection/baker/broiler/boiler/griller/smoker/warmer unit. (Pretend there is a photo of it HERE.) It was really pretty good, if I say so myself.

Tuesday we put on 117 serious miles, some going fast as there aren't a lot of places to stay around here because this spring's flooding took out many marinas. (It's nice to spend the night where we can plug in and get heat.) We docked at the Keokuk Yacht Club, a nice facility with a nearby fuel truck that will drive right down to the dock with bargain fuel prices. We were in heaven!

Then came "sour" Wednesday; the accounting of which was assigned to me because Jim doesn't want to replay it again. He was moving the boat from the fuel dock where we spent the night out in front of the facility and more convenient for the fuel truck driver. I was on this dock ready to catch the lines as he slowly approached, since it was a no-wake zone. (This next part is hard for me, too...) Suddenly the boat stopped, hard and quickly, the bow dipping sharply into the water in a way that could only mean that he had hit something big and hard. (I went over there to see what he had hit and promptly slid into the water, but that's another story.) Later investigation showed some bad vibrations coming from the port drive train, probably indicating damage to that prop and/or shaft. We then got fuel and limped down here on one engine to the Quincy Boat Club dock. (This paragraph has too many parentheses in it.)

This sounds like yet another long explanation of yet another unfortunate event occurring to yet another boat operator in a futile attempt to justify his/her mistake or inattention, doesn't it? But this happened in less than 4' of water right out in front of a dock where boaters came in and out for at least a whole season after the work was done on them. I'm going out on a limb and saying that someone at that facility has to have known about this obstruction. I can't see this incident could have been avoided. (Sally, my wife, said this sounds like just another day on a boat.)

So tomorrow we're off to Two Rivers Marina in Rockport, Il to get hauled out and fixed. We'll be right next to a casino and buffet and will keep you posted.

Rock Island to Keokuk, Oct 28

We left Sunset Marina in Rock Island, IL at 7:15 because we knew we had a long day ahead of us. The next marina that had all of the emenities we wanted was the Keokuk Yacht Club, 117 miles. The previous longest day we had was 75 miles, so to get to Keokuk we had to get up on plane for several miles. The first two locks we didn't have to wait at all, but at the third lock we had to wait about two hours. We finally made our destination at 4:45.



The leaves are still green or just starting to turn this far south, but the colors aren't really very brilliant. Also, the waters are pretty shallow the farther south we go because of the two major floods that took place this year.



We arranged to have a fuel truck come down to give us a fill the following morning. This came from the same fuel company that furnishes all of the farmers, so the price was pretty decent. Last night I was quoted $2.79/gal, but when he filled us up, we were charged $2.49/gal, plus 7% sales tax. This is the same fuel that goes into the John Deeres around here, so we didn't have to pay the "marine markup."



This morning was a real adventure, and I am going to let Jeff tell the story so it comes from a more neutral source than I would be.

Here is a picture of the inside of the windmill that we visited in Fulton (pictured in a previous blog) while we were buzzing around in Ray's car. All of gears are made of wood because they last much longer than any other material and are lubricated with animal fats (pig, horse, bison, etc) because mineral based lubricants would soak into the wood and ruin it.

We pulled into Sunset Marina in Rock Island, IL about 12:30 after dodging barges and speeding up to make lock openings. Another very windy day (20-30 mph) that makes the locks a lot of fun. Tomorrow we have to get as far as Keokuk, IA because many of the marinas that are within our normal daily travel distance of 60-70 miles are too shallow. The floods of this past summer caused a lot of shoaling in the harbors, and they are not planning to dredge until next spring.

We finally have a choice of two TV stations that we can pull in on our glomex antenna and there is a free wi-fi network that is pretty fast, so life is good this afternoon.

Here are two photos from Heritage Canyon, this cool spot in Fulton, IL consisting of a LOT of period buildings that were moved and reconstructed in this old quarry by a couple a long time ago. They are all filled with antiques and only recently had to be screened of from the public because people were stealing them from the exhibit. What a day, all made possible by Ray, the guy on our dock who had distinguished himself by scrubbing paint off the ramp. We inquired about this and he reported that he had discarded some paint in the trash and a racoon had stepped into it and then tracked it around on the ramp, causing Ray to feel guilty. We sure liked him, though, because he used some of my favorite words, "why don't you just take my car?". We did sight seeing and bought things we have been looking for, like a flosser and thermos, which we broke today already.

Today we turned south again after a day of wicked wind. I haven't ever seen wind like that on any day I've been on the water. We were happy to have been secured to the dock with eight docklines and a fat power cord that ran three heaters all night. But today it was calm, at least to start. We woke up right away by coming up on a railway bridge that was about three inches taller than we are and then noted a barge being pushed right out into our path from the right! A boat has to yield to the craft from the right, right? Not on the river, where the boat in the channel has the right of way, right...

Right now we are tied up two miles from Rock Island, IL, expecting it to be in the mid 20's again tonight. The marina (or someone around here) has wi-fi so I can post from my computer and add my photos, which I assume are probably identical to Jim's. He even has the exact same camera as mine. We agree about radio stations, politics, food, just about everything except temperature. He wants all of our living spaces to be above freezing, imagine that. We are going to walk to town after we finish our blogs and post a pirate watch.

My ribs are still sore. And if I would have mentioned the large chunk I tore out of my left hand when I fell down on the day it occurred, I would get a lot more sympathy, right? I'll do better next time.

Dubuque to Clinton, IA

We left Dubuque on Oct 25 at 7:40 under very cold, frosty conditions. The strataglass was frosted over so bad that it required a rag dipped in warm water to get it clear. By noon it warmed up but then the wind picked up. We only had two locks to transit, but lock 13, the last one was a beaut. This lock forms the largest pool in the upper Mississippi, and by the time we reached the lock at the south end of the pool, the wind was howling somewhere around 25-30 mph inside the lock. That was excitement. All I can say is that we were glad no other boat was in there with us so we didn't have to worry about somebody crashing into us.

We spent the night at Clinton Marina which recently became part of the Skipper Bud organization. The state of Iowa along with Skipper Bud has spent a tidy sum rebuilding this marina with new docks, facilities, and a restaurant that opens next year.

We spent an extra day here because the forecast for winds was 35-45 mph with gusts to over 50. They didn't lie! We have eight (count em - 8) lines on our boat in a covered slip in a relatively protected area of the marina, and it is still moving around. As a PR gesture, the marina manager here, Chris Richardt allowed us to stay the extra night for no charge since the second night was weather related. This marina gets a five anchor rating from me (Quimby's only has it at three). Tomorrow we will continue our journey since the winds are forecast to calm down to 15-25 mph.

To kill some time today Jeff and I visited Fulton, IL which is the city across the river from Clinton. One of the boaters here in the marina offered his car for our use after we asked him what there is to do around here. We went over to Fulton to visit a windmill which was built from scratch and transported here from Holland in 2000 (pictured above). It is used to grind various grains into flour, and one of the millers gave us a tour of the windmill which was extremely interesting. I have a gallery of pictures on kodakgallery.com, and if anyone is interested in seeing them just post a comment and I will forward them to you.

We also visited a reconstructed village from the 1800's that had been built in a deserted quarry (not sure what was mined there). This was a collection of buildings that resembled what you would find in a village from that era. There will also be a gallery of pictures from this visit for anyone who is interested.

McGregor to Dubuque, Oct 23

We departed McGregor at 0730 hoping to beat the rain to Dubuque that was forecast, and we almost made it. At lock 11 which is three miles north of the Dubuque Yacht Basin we just missed an opening before a barge showed up, so we had to wait two hours. Just as we were pulling into the marina the rain started. Once it started, we decided to wait out an extra day at the marina because we had some pretty good winds to go with it.

The Dubuque Yacht Basin is part of the American Marine organization that we bought our boat from, so we were treated pretty well with complimentary dockage and free wine with dinner. That helped with our decision to stay an extra night. Bob Runberg is the guy in charge there who is a great host if anyone is looking for an overnight stay. Catfish Charlies is also a nice restaurant overlooking the harbor that is comfortable with good food.

Speaking of good food, Jeff has taken over the galley on the boat and boy am I getting spoiled with the great creations he comes up with for our meals.

When we reached Dubuque, we had traveled 253 miles from Stillwater and we are averaging just a tad under 2 mpg. We cruise at 1100 rpm which moves us at about 10.5 mph depending on current (wind has very little effect). Once a day when we see a straight stretch with no traffic, we run at WOT for about five minutes, then cut back to 80% for another five minutes to exercise the Volvos to make sure everything is running right. These little spurts explain the under 2 mpg average we get.

TV reception has been extremely poor. We have not yet visited a marina that offers cable (like good ol Sunnyside), and the only station we have been able to get with our Glomex antenna is channel 8 out of LaCrosse. Dubuque only had one station we could get, and it was a religious right crusade station. So, needless to say we are putting Jeff's DVD collection to good use.

On our "day off" in Dubuque we spent a few hours visiting the Mississippi River Museum, which was really good. I have many pictures, too many to post on the blog, which I am going to try to set up in a Kodak Gallery.

More to come....

Here are the photos of the guy who supplies all the western wear for the film industry that I promised after I fell down. These photos, by the way, are the last taken of me prior to that incident. Note the smile on my face. I haven't figured out how to edit photos in this software, if you haven't figured that out by now. I can't even figure out how to remove one of those photos, much less rotate it.

I am feeling a lot better now, by the way, but still not 100%. It feels like I have a big sore spot right above my heart. I should be able to do some boat chores right after Thanksgiving, sooner if Jim threatens me.

We met our first other set of "loopers" here yesterday and swapped boat cards with them.

We took the day off today because of the weather forecast and visited the Mississippi museum here, a great spot to visit. Tomorrow it's supposed to be cold, but not raining so we plan to head for Clinton, IA. We may have to bring the cooler inside overnight so the contents don't freeze, really...

Live from Catfish Charlie's, where the wi-fi is

jeff

Pictures of McGregor Muni Docks, McGregor Main St,

Pictures of Cold Lock #4, Wabasha, and LaCrosse

Into Dubuque - Finally

This is a picture of Main Street in McGregor, IA.

We finally pulled in to the Dubuque Yacht Basin at 2:45 this afternoon. We had our first serious wait at a lock today. Lock #11 is just four miles north of Dubuque, and we arrived there around noon just in time to wait for a barge to lock through. Two hours later, we finally locked through and then it started to rain. We planned to leave extra early this morning just so we could beat the rain, but............. that's boating.

Sure am glad Jeff is volunteering to do a lot of the cooking. We get hot grilled sandwiches, hot soup, hot oatmeal, real fruit snacks, etc etc. I though I would take off some weight while doing this trip!

A new experience for Jeff: floating through a lock. Sometimes when you are the only boat going through, the lock master will ask if you want to grab lines along the side (the customary way), or just float out in the middle without bothering with lines. This was a new experience for Jeff the first time we did the floating thing. I didn't think there would be anything new on this trip that Jeff hadn't already experienced with all of the cruising he has done to Alaska, the Great Lakes, the Great Loop, etc.

After docking here we met our first couple who are also cruising down the inland river system. Dan and Sarah Vegter from New Boston, IL are starting out on their great loop trip, so Jeff had many sage words of wisdom to pass on to them. I'm sure we will join up with them again down stream - we all like the same beer.

LaCrosse, WI & McGregor, IA

As you know from Jeff's blogs we continued from LaCrosse and spent Wed night at the very interesting town of McGregor, IA. The weather has yet to be our friend, with the predominate state being cold and windy. The scenery seems to be past the peak - the trees are not any prettier than they were in Stillwater when we left. The lock folks tell us we may not see an improvement until we reach the KY Lakes area. Now we keep 1-2 space heaters going on the bridge all the time to keep our toes and fingers nimble.

The marinas in LaCrosse and McGregor were of the small town, munincipal variety - older wooded docks, maybe water, but we were always tied up and plugged in to some sort of electrical source. We kept warm at night, anyway.

We are now underway headed for Dubuque, IA where we will be able to enjoy a "4 anchor" marina for a night or two. Right now we are still experiencing cold and wind but no rain yet. Forecast for Dubuque is rain starting this afternoon and continuing into tomorrow. If it gets too bad we will plan to stay holed up there an extra day until this front passes us by. The Dubuque Yacht Basis is part of the American Marine network of Silverton dealers where we bought our boat, so we have been offered complimentary transit docking there. This is a good thing since we may be there for more than one night.

I have been struggling with getting pictures to show up at the right spot on the blog pages, so I think I will post one or two at a time with a brief description for each set.

BREAKING NEWS!!

Jim and I walked the length of McGregor, one long street with lots of cool stores, including the business that supposedly supplies costumes and props for every western ever filmed. (riverjunction.com) Photos of this will follow when I'm able. This town is worth a stop if you're in the area. We also visited the city library and heard the unmistakeable sound of a dot-matrix printer in action. How long has it been since you've heard that?

Anyway, (you're wondering what's breaking by now, right?) as we were on our way back to the boat, in broad daylight, on dry pavement, with no wind, alcohol or other reasonable excuse, I tripped over a curb and fell. I'm pretty sure I broke a rib or two, because Sally diagnosed it over the phone. Some gentle readers may recall similar injuries suffered by members of my crew in the past, so we're pretty sure that gremlin has followed us. S/he is also responsible for losing the salt and pepper, misplacing the butter and moving the shifters into forward after I successfully pulled the boat into the lock for the first time.

I'm pretty sure I can work this injury to the max for a loooong time, because ribs take a while to heal. This should enable me to avoid pesky chores like cleaning and dishes, but allow me to drive the boat, eat and goof off. More to follow.....

10/21/08 - Jeff's version

My reputation as a great fisher must have preceded me and these gulls started following us, hoping for a few morsels . We were sorry to disappoint them, explaining that this was a work trip, and totally devoid of any fun. Today was an example:

We got up early, had coffee and some fancy apple pastries and pulled out onto Lake Pepin. It was calm, clear and cold. We motored all the way down to LaCrosse, passing spectacular bluffs, the leaves at their peak and saw only one other pleasureboat. We went through five sets of locks and only had to wait a short time for one of them.

The boat has been performing flawlessly and is quite the craft to pilot, with electric shifters, a bow thruster and two engines, complete with a synchronizer to match the rpms! Wow. And I have my very own room (complete with TV and DVD) and head. What else could a guy ask for?

Tomorrow we plan to continue south, but the forecast includes rain, wind and cold. We might stay right here on the fuel dock at the LaCrosse Municipal Marina if it's too yucky.

Day One - Oct 20

We finally left Sunnyside Marina at 9:30 today after getting everything stowed away and resolving a couple of minor electronic glitches. Weather is great (for this time of year in MN) - high of 55, partly sunny. The foliage colors were a little past peak in Stillwater, but the colors seemed to brighten up as we moved south.

Only one lock to go through today, and it was wide open waiting for us. That's a first. The picture above shows us leaving Lock #3. We pulled in at Lake City Marina at 15:30 where we are spending our first night (the other picture above). Jeff did the cooking honors tonight. Forcast for tomorrow is 50% chance of rain, so we may not make our target destination of LaCrosse. Also, there are five locks to go through, but the barge traffic is light this time of year up here.

The pictures didn't line up correctly with this post, but it is a learning experience. Things will improve!!

The Dinghy

This past week was dinghy install week. It isn't quite as simple as it sounds. To mount the dinghy (which is just an inflatable boat) on the swim platform, it requires a lot of special hardware and a special gluing process so it can be tipped up on the back of the boat.

The worst part is that HOLES have to be drilled in the boat to install all the hardware that is required. Well, nothing good can come from drilling holes in a boat, so Patty wasn't to happy about this to say the least. We got it done, tho. We just timed our drilling to happen between 8am - 5pm on a weekday. (Patty works full time).

Til next time............