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.