Kentucky: Grand Rivers

Day 97
No boat travel

They don't call it "Green Turtle Bay" for nothing!

Our morning today was spent returning the rental car.  Again we had the circus of getting the courtesy car, driving to Paducah in two cars, dropping off the rental, and getting back to the marina within the two hour limit.  We learned that the low tire pressure idiot light in the courtesy car is always on because the owner of the vehicle disabled the sensor, so the idiot light assumes the worst. Wish we had known that last time we drove it!  Anyway, with that knowledge, Clark drove the 70 mph speed limit, so this time the trip to Paducah took the expected 30 minutes to complete.

I needed a couple of items that were unavailable in Grand Rivers stores, so after dropping off the rental car, we made two stops while in Paducah - Walgreen's and Kroger's.  Man I miss real grocery and drug stores.  It's heaven to be able to walk into a store and find what you need, which is something I very much take for granted when in NJ.  After our running around, we got back close to on time.  We had to stop to refuel the courtesy car for the next user or we would have made it back more on time.  After all the mucking about with the cars, it turned twelve o'clock and time for lunch in no time at all.  

After lunch today Clark and I spent a portion of our afternoon doing research on options for our travel plans after we leave here. Since we seem to have way more days than needed to get to our next scheduled destination, we decided to add one more day to our stay at the Green Turtle Bay Marina. The main reason for this decision has nothing to do with boating and everything to do with the Badgett Playhouse show on Friday night entitled "Variety! Music, Memories, and More".  We have heard that the shows are phenomenal and a patron gets way more than they paid for in entertainment.

I am very much looking forward to attending the show.  The theater is about a mile from the marina.  That is an easy walk in the daylight, but the dock master said the walk "would get old fast" at night in the dark.  He recommended we rent a golf cart for $20 to use Friday night to go to the show.  I think the weather may make the decision for us on the walk or rent options.

Angie and Dan from Sea Horse stopped by a couple of times today to say hello and talk about such things as how to make wood floors on boats shiny, the wonders of "magic erasers" on boats, and the amazing cleaning power of "Goof Off for Bathroom Cleaning".  Since Sea Horse and Sea Moss are both Mainship 350s, we have a lot in common.  We showed them a few of the upgrades we put on our boat like the hot / cold shower in the stern, they Ocean Aire screen on the master stateroom hatch, and the covers we placed over our port holes to allow us to keep them open even in rain storms.

Loopers are boat enthusiasts and discussions on boat care and maintenance are as popular topics as discussing the places we have seen or the places we plan to see.  With so many loopers at the Green Turtle Bay Marina right now, it is easy to overhear conversations and immediately tell the people talking are loopers.  Besides boat care discussions, popular topics are bugs and locks as these two issues are just about as equally annoying as each other as well as conversations on the lack of sleep and very early mornings on this most recent, river segment of the great loop.

We met Angie and Dan in May of 2014 when we were each planning our Great Loop adventures for some date in the future.  Just over a year ago, Angie and Dan set off on their voyage.  Earlier this week they "crossed their own wake" meaning they completed their Great Loop voyage.  As "in-progress" loopers, we display the white AGLCA burgee (flag).  As loopers who have completed the Great Loop, Angie and Dan now proudly display a Gold Burgee on their boat showing their impressive new status.

Sea Horse owners, Angie and Dan, 
proudly display their Gold Looper Flag

The last time our paths crossed with Angie and Dan was when they passed by New Jersey this past spring.  At that time we took our boat out past Sandy Hook to welcome them to NJ and lead them to an anchorage in Atlantic Highlands.  After dropping anchors, the crew from Sea Horse, Sea Moss, and Horizon Chaser had dinner together in town.

From the start of her adventure, I have followed Angie's blog, and she has followed mine, but it has been months since we talked.  Obviously we had a lot of catching up to do, so we scheduled dinner together for tonight at the famous Patti's restaurant in downtown Grand Rivers.  From the time we set up the dinner date until we actually went to dinner, the dinner party had grown to 10 people as first the crew from Penny Pinching and then Dream Catcher as well as Mazel Tug joined our looper dinner.  Impromptu dinner parties such as this are a common occurrence with loopers.

The food at Patti's and the amazing desserts were all that we had heard they would be, in other words, delicious!  I had a savory steak that melted in my mouth with Chess Pie for dessert.  The list of pie selections was quite long and many had a story behind the names of the pies.  "Boo boo" pie was named because the cook made a mistake in the recipe, which accidentally improved the end result.  "Chess Pie" is named as such because the woman who made the first Chess Pie told her neighbor, when asked what kind of pie she made, "it's jus' pie", but with her strong accent it sounded like she said "chess pie", and the name stuck.

After all the food (and calories) I consumed in tonight's meal, I wished I was walking the one mile back to the boat. However, we had transportation provided for the 10 of us as the restaurant provides a van to port patrons to and from the marina.  When I mentioned my lack of exercise to Clark, he reminded me that it is 1/4 mile to walk to the restroom before going to bed tonight.  (I clocked it using my Fitbit so I know.)  Round trip that makes a half mile to add to my Fitbit total steps and mileage log!  Hey, that almost makes it worthwhile having to walk half a mile to use the toilet.

NOTE: In yesterday's blog I posted a picture of a mystery bird.  My long-time friend, Leslie, sent me a note to let me know that the bird is a Black-crowned Night Heron.  (I knew he was no mocking bird relative as told by the little girl, but I did not know where to begin to figure it out.)  With Leslie's input, I looked him up on Wikipedia and sure enough that is him!  Thanks Leslie!  He comes back every day to the same  fishing spot.  He was quite irate today as Clark and I stood on the docks by our boat talking with Angie and Dan and disturbing his fishing spot.  He flew off in a huff squawking loudly as he went.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Kentucky: Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area

Day 96
No Boat Travel

We kept the rental car for an additional day and decided that we take advantage and visit the Land Between the Lakes national recreation area.  Grand Rivers, Kentucky is at the entrance to this prairie preserve, so we did not have far to go to reach the park.  The park itself, however, is quite large occupying 170,000 acres of forests and wetland.

We brought our bikes in case we found trails of interest.  We stopped at the North Welcome Center and picked up some brochures on the park.  One bike trail was recommended to us down by the visitor center 20 miles away.  We headed there next.

The scenery driving through Land Between the Lakes

We decided to stop at the visitor's center because we could not tell from the map where we needed to park for the bike trail.  Surprisingly we were told to take the highway to get there.  As we drove the highway we could see the bike trail paralleling the highway.  Yes, it was a bike trail.  Was it worth the effort to actually get the bikes out of the car, definitely not.

We ended up ditching the biking plan and instead decided to drive through the elk and bison park to see the herds of animals.  We saw the $5 entry fee to drive through with high expectations of seeing the animals.  Well, we saw plenty of  "scat", i.e. evidence of bison, but we saw not one elk or bison or even a squirrel in the whole area.  We kissed that $5 goodbye and decided to go for a hike to Honker Dam.

Of all the materials we picked up from the welcome center, the attraction that caught my eye was the show at the planetarium entitled "The Night Sky" where they said they would explain the constellations in the sky in the local area.  That particular show played at 2:00 so we had a hard deadline on our hike to the dam.

We knew the length of the trail to Honker Dam to be 4.6 miles but could not tell how far around we had to go to get to the dam.  We decided to take the trail and try to get to the dam in the time allowed. If we made it fine, if not okay.  To cover as much ground as possible, we set out at a very brisk pace. The trail was clear and the ground relatively flat to begin with, but pretty soon we got tree roots, rocks, and inclines to slow us down.

Trail through the woods to Honker Dam

As we walked along I pointed out to Clark that it was almost 1:00.  We had been hiking for about 20 minutes, and we still had to get back to the car and drive 15 miles to the planetarium.  He acknowledged the time and said we would continue for a bit more and then turn around.  We kept going and going, passed some lake areas, and crossed a bridge, but he showed no signs of turning back.

View from the hiking trail

We made our destination, the dam, at 1:15 or so and looked at the map trying to decide if we should keep going to complete the circle or turn around and go back the way we came.  We had covered just over  2 miles of the 5 mile trail, so we knew going back was about 2 miles or so but contained hills to climb.  The other direction contained 3 miles of flatter terrain.  In the end we opted to retrace our steps and try to move as quickly as possible to get back to the car by 1:45.

Honker Dam

I am wearing a Fitbit now thanks to the very-early-Christmas present from my daughter-in-law in Idaho.  As I covered the terrain as fast as I could manage I occasionally looked at my heart rate. Going up one hill, it registered 165.  Later, on a steeper hill, it refused to show any reading whatsoever, so I figured I must be dead.  I certainly felt close to it as I huffed and puffed my way up the steep hill.

As I clawed my way up the last bit of trail at 1:50,  I kept telling myself I could sit down in the air-conditioned planetarium once I got there.  I just had to get there.  Clark had the car running with the air conditioning full blast by the time I got up the last hill.  As soon as I got in the car, we took off from the parking lot with hopes of covering 12 miles in 5 minutes.  Not bloody likely but there you have it.

The road to the nature trails was clearly marked.  The road back out to the main drag - not so much.  Clark made a wrong turn somewhere, and eventually we figured out we were traveling on a twisty-turny road that paralleled the one we wanted.  When I saw on the map where we were, I told Clark to keep going as it was longer to go back than to go forward.

The planetarium brochure stated quite clearly that once the doors closed, no one is admitted to the show.  As we drove down the lane, 2:00 came and went.  I resigned myself to missing the show.  I looked at the program to see what show was scheduled for 3:00, and it was an episode on travel to the moon.  Pooh!  Not what I wanted at all.

We pulled into the parking lot at 2:05 - not bad considering the distance we traveled and the wrong turn.  We decided to go into the building and see if we could still get into the show.  As it turned out, we were the only customers for the 2:00 show, so we got our tickets and had the pick of any seats in the house as no other patrons appeared.  I enjoyed my tour of the night sky constellations and Milky Way very much.  It was worth the effort to get there.

With the time being 3:00 by the time we exited the planetarium, we had to decide on our next plan of action.  Did we still want to go for a bike ride?  Was there any other part of the park we should visit?  Should we call it a day and go back to the boat?  After studying Google and the brochures regarding bike trails, we decided to call it a day, which turned out to be a great decision when it started to spit bits of rain on us as we drove out of the park.  As we exited the park, we took a slight detour to go visit Sugar Bay.  It gave us a small taste of what we can expect as we boat on Kentucky Lake in the near future.

Yesterday when Clark was off talking to friends on other boats, I saw an interesting and rather large bird sitting at the end of the dock at the marina.  Tonight when we got back from our outing, he was back again.  A little girl told me he is part of the mocking bird family.  I have not verified that yet.

Bird fishing from our dock at the marina

After stashing our junk back on the boat, I went to take the garbage to the dumpster.  On my travels I found Linda and Jess from Bamma Dreamin.   We talked for a while and then headed back towards the boats.  They followed me to Pier 6 where our boat is docked because they planned to stop in to say hello to Angie and Dan on Sea Horse.

I walked there with them and ended up visiting with both Linda and Angie for quite a while.  Eventually Clark came over as well and chatted with Jess and Dan.  After our visit with the neighbors on Sea Horse, Clark and I went back to our boat and cooked dinner.

Tennessee: Nashville (by car)

Day 95
No Boat Travel

We raced around in the morning to get the courtesy car from the marina so we could drive to Paducah, Kentucky to pick up a rental car from Enterprise.  We reserved the courtesy car for 10:00.  Enterprise opened at 11:00.  The courtesy car had to be back at the marina in two hours.

We spent the first minutes of our drive to Paducah in a gas station putting air in the tires of the courtesy car.  Apparently all four were severely under-inflated, but even after Clark added air to all four tires, the idiot light for tire pressure continued to light.  We decided to drive the car that way but didn't feel safe driving the 70 mph posted on the highway, so we kept the speed down.  With the tire concern, the length of the drive to Paducah, and the time to sign out the rental car, we barely made it back to return the car to the marina in the 2-hour window allotted.

We drove both cars back to the marina (I drove the rental and followed Clark should something happen to the courtesy car), dropped off the courtesy car, and headed straight out for Nashville.  We allocated only part of one day to Nashville, so we wanted to make the most of what we had available to us.  The trip to Nashville from the marina took a full two hours of driving time each way.

Nashville, Tennessee

We decided to start with the Country Music Hall of Fame.  As we walked through the museum, I recognized a lot of names, but I had never heard of many of the artists.  The displays covered all the way through the years from Roy Rogers to Taylor Swift.  Clark felt that Taylor Swift got more space dedicated to her than seemed reasonable due to her length of time in the music business.  A special display area featured the works of Johnny Cash / Bob Dylan.

The displays were interesting and educational.  Elvis Presley's Golden Cadillac appeared in a prominent place complete with a television and a car phone in the back seat.  Of course we saw the plaques in the actual hall of fame as well as the displays for the many other noteworthy artists.

Country Music Hall of Fame

When we left the Hall of Fame, we hoped to visit the Parthenon next, but when we looked at Google maps, we found that the walk to the Centennial Park would take a full hour.  Okay, time for Plan B.  We decided to walk to the riverfront to see what we are missing by not bringing the boat to the city.

View of the Cumberland River from Nashville, TN

Titan Stadium in Nashville, TN

Though picturesque, we found the riverfront to be not-so-much pleasure boat friendly.  What we also found tied to the wall at the town dock was our old friends Ariel that we have not seen for many weeks.  Once we saw their boat, we just had to walk over the bridge to the other side of the river to say hello.   As we made our way to the far side of the river, we found many, many people going the other way across the bridge into downtown Nashville.  The game Indiana Colts vs Tennessee Titans had just let out.  Streams of people in blue jerseys - some Navy and some a paler blue streamed across the bridge.

Arial view of Ariel
(taken from bridge over the river)

View of Nashville, TN from the River

After our brief visit with Robert and Corinne on Ariel, we made our way back over the bridge and up Broadway.  We needed to make a restaurant selection for dinner, and a local told us that we had two choices - Broadway or 2nd Avenue for great places to eat and hear any type of music our hearts desired.  We found a nice restaurant on Broadway where we sampled some local cuisine.  I had corn soup which tasted nothing like any corn soup I have ever had before due to an unusual flavored seasoning that neither Clark nor I could identify.  I ordered broccolini but could not eat it due to the hot spicy flavor, so I sent it back to the kitchen.  I devoured their homemade sourdough bread and flavored butter.

We like strolling around parks, and we still wanted to see the full-scale Parthenon replica in Centennial Park, so we decided to walk back to the car and drive there as our next stop.  The sky gave us a brilliant showing as we drove across town.

Sunset over White Castle
the view as we drove across town to the Centennial Park

Too bad we could not get to the park earlier in the day.  A 3-day craft fair occupied a huge portion of the grounds in the park.  By the time we got there, however, the tents remained but the crafty owners had packed up their wares.

Parthenon Replica in Centennial Park

Sunset at the Tennessee Parthenon

After leaving the Parthenon / Park, we decided to go visit the Opryland Hotel we had been told was a must see.  We found the hotel, but circled the complex and failed to find a place to park.  At one point we saw two parking options - valet parking (no) and self-parking $23 (absolutely no).  In the end I told Clark to abort the hotel plan and head back to the boat which we did.

We had a "taste" of Nashville and enjoyed it very much.  We were glad we took a portion of our trip to visit this exciting, musical city.

Back on the boat, relaxing after a full day, I read a Facebook message from my daughter-in-law Devon "Guys, go look at the sky!"  I read it to Clark who immediately took off to see what he could see.  Earlier in the day we had too much cloud cover to see anything, but at some point those clouds had scattered.  When Clark went outside, he could clearly see the moon halfway through the full eclipse.  He came back and got me and we stood outside watching the eclipse until it was time to call it a night.

Proof we looked at the moon the night of the eclipse!

Kentucky: Grand Rivers Green Turtle Bay Marina and Resort

Day 94
No Travel

We decided that we will travel by car to Nashville tomorrow.  Renting a car here at GTB (Green Turtle Bay) is not an easy task.  The closest place to rent a car is in Paducah, Kentucky which is about 45 minutes away.  The Enterprise Rental place that provided the "we'll pick you up" service to GTB had no cars available for today.  The other location could not come pick us up but are open on Sundays, so we signed up to use the marina courtesy car tomorrow to go get the rental car before taking our outing to Nashville.

GTB is full of loopers - many of whom we have met along the way and others who we have never met before.  It can take extra time to move from one side of the marina to the other as one looper after another stops to chat and say hello.  It does not help that our slip is at the remotest outpost of the marina.  It is a long hike from the boat to the head, and I stress long - like a 1/4 mile long!  That first walk in the morning seems like it takes forever to get there.

I decided that my first priority was the laundry since machines are available right in the marina.  As I sat there doing the wash, Clark explored the ship's store.  When he stopped by to tell me he was heading back to the boat, Bob from Melinda B grabbed him and invited him to join him playing guitars this afternoon.  So much for any other plans, Clark was "all in" on that idea.

After finishing the laundry, I went back to the boat to feed Clark so he could go play.  I then proceeded to clean the inside of the boat - scrub the bathroom and kitchen, vacuum the floors, clean the bedrooms, etc.  I decided the outside is a lost cause and too much to take on.  We have live and dead bugs from one end of the boat to the other.  The covered slip is nice to keep cool in hot sun, but we have overcast, cool weather.  The hated bugs enjoy the covered slip areas more than the exposed slips and seem to really like our boat.

Although the marina offered a boiled dinner tonight for $25 / head  (crab, potatoes, corn on the cob, shrimp, ...), we opted to pass on that and took a courtesy car to the supermarket to load up on food.  We reserved a courtesy car for 4:30 but when we went to get the car, the previous users had not returned.  It quickly became clear that they would not return any time too soon either.  Fortunately one of the folks at the marina told us to take his car, so we did.

We went to the local super market and picked up most of what we needed.  When we got back to the marina,  Clark dropped me off at the boat with the groceries and then went to return the car to the other side of the marina.  I put away the groceries and waited for him to return to start dinner, and I waited and I waited.  After 45 minutes of waiting I finally called him to find out where he got snagged.  He was with the folks on Fryedaze, Plane to Sea, and Always Home having a good time.

I abandoned dinner plans and walked over to join him.  We ended up sitting on the boat Fryedaze for much longer than expected.  By the time we left and got back to the boat to cook dinner, it had already gone past 8:00.  After dinner I immediately sat down to play catch up on blog entries.

Now here it is almost midnight, and we have a busy day tomorrow - getting the rental car and taking a trip to Nashville.  I have done no planning whatsoever, so I have no idea what we will do when we get there.  Linda from Bamma Dream gave us a couple of quick tips but otherwise, we are going in clueless, but I have a two hour drive to do Google searches on things to do in Nashville as we find our way there.

Kentucky: Bean Branch Creek to Grand Rivers Green Turtle Bay Marina

Day 93
NM Today: 55
NM Total: 2050
Locks Today: 1
Locks Total: 82

Sunrise at Bean Branch Creek

 We awoke at 6:20 and were underway by 6:50 - record time for departure.  We arrived at Lock 52 at 8:30.  Once again we received direction to drop anchor this time near the red buoy.  Sigh!  Another long wait is in store for us.

We sat and sat and finally got word at 10:50 that we could pull up anchors and proceed to enter the lock.  The lockmaster told us to split up - some on port and some on starboard tie up to the lock walls. He also announced that we needed 2 lines of 100 foot length each.  Fortunately, Frydaze had posted an update to Active Captain so we were prepared for the need to have long lines available.

We sounded off on the VHF radio - "Jammin Jane takes port"; "Kat in the Hatt takes starboard" to avoid confusion in the lock itself.  Sea Moss prefers and claimed starboard side tie.  When we pulled up to the wall, a lock attendant was present to take our lines from our boat hooks we held over our heads, wrap the line around something we could not see, and pass the line back to us to secure to the boat.

When we finally reached the top of the climb (we're going up river on the Ohio), we could see the railing we were tied to and the spillway beyond.

Spillway at Lock 52

Tied up to the railing at Lock 52

We finally exited the second of the dreaded Ohio locks at 11:30.  Now we had a decision point - take the Tennessee River and face the heavily used Kentucky Lock or take the Cumberland River and add 16 miles travel time to our trip.  We checked the barge queue at the Kentucky Lock and found they had 3 barges waiting to go up and an equal number waiting to go down.  Jammin Jane asked the Lock 52 lock attendant about the Kentucky lock time and was told "it's a crap shoot".

Before we entered Lock 52, we had received a phone call from Kat in the Hatt saying that they planned on taking their chances on the Kentucky Lock.  We told them that we would let them know our decision when we got closer to the final decision point.  We called Kat in the Hatt at the critical moment and told them we had decided on the Cumberland - rather a sure thing than a crap shoot.  We also prefer moving for two hours extra instead of sitting idle for three (or even two) hours waiting for a lock.

Finally on our way 

I was interested to see what happened when we came to the decision point, so I sat watching with binoculars out the back of the boat to see who went where.  As I watched, three boats were clearly on the Tennessee side of the channel and three were on the Cumberland side.  The one boat in front of us had already told us they planned on taking the Cumberland River option.  It looked like we'd be 3 Tennessee and 5 Cumberland.

When it came right down to it, not one of the 8 boats that locked through together took the Tennessee River and the Kentucky Lock.  (The 9th boat that locked through Lock 53 with us - the mystery boat - disappeared somewhere along the way and did not lock through Lock 52 with us.)  Apparently no one wanted to test those waters after all.

We passed some commercial traffic on the Cumberland, but it was mostly peaceful and pleasant and less stressful than the Mississippi or the Ohio Rivers.   Clark took the picture below on the Cumberland River.  He seemed fascinated by the maze of conveyor belts moving sand and gravel to the water's edge to be collected by barges.

Web of conveyor belts moving sand and
similar materials to the barges on the river

At the end of another long day, we came to the Barkley Lock on Barkley Lake.  This lock had no queue up or down.  Three boats, Adventure III, Sea Moss, and Gimme Time, had sped ahead of the others in the pack and arrived at the lock together.  The three of us locked through as the rest were spread out behind us up to about 45 minutes behind us.

Locking through in Barkley Lock on Cumberland River
(life jackets required)
We tie one line only to the floating bollard shown

The Barkley Lock was very fast.  We went up very quickly and exited the lock in record time - certainly compared to any of the other locks we have encountered on the western rivers.  Immediately after exiting the lock we came to our destination for the night - the Green Turtle Bay marina and resort.   We pulled into the marina at 5:30 and refilled our fuel tanks and emptied our holding tank before pulling into our covered slip where we plan to stay for a full week.  We pulled into our slip for the night at 6:30 and by the time we had our lines secured and the boat settled in place, we completed yet another day of travel where we began at sunup and ended at sundown.

Earlier, as we sat at the fuel dock, the crew of Adventure III invited us to join them for dinner tonight at the marina restaurant.  After racing around to get the boat settled and ourselves showered and presentable after hard travel, we managed to meet them at the restaurant at the designated time of 7:30 where we had a lovely dinner and conversation that lasted until 10:30.  Having gotten up and underway so early, we were all exhausted by then and more then ready to call it a night.  Although I needed to get blog entries done, I opted for the bed instead.

Ohio River: Little Diversion Anchorage to Bean Branch Creek

Day 92 (9/24/2015)
NM Today: 67
NM Total: 1996
Locks Today: 1
Locks Total: 81

Sunrise at Little Diversion

 We pulled away from the anchorage at 6:40 a.m. Seeing great sun ups as well as sun sets seems to be coming a common occurrence.  The big question of the day was "what are we going to encounter at the Olmstead Lock and Dam?"  Jammin Jane had called ahead and was told to "come on down", so we did.

We arrived at Olmstead Lock on the Ohio River, which is a new lock under construction, at 12:30.

Olmstead Lock and Dam -
Under Construction on the Ohio River

We made a set of 6 boats coming together from Hoppies:

     - Gimme Time in the lead
     - Kat in the Hatt
     - Sea Moss
     - Movin' On
     - Jammin Jane
     - Knot Sew Easy

When the construction crew is present, boats must be led through the work zone to Lock 53 on the other side.  We were told to pull over to the port, out of the channel, and drop anchor.  The expected wait was said to be two hours.  As we sat there waiting our turn, Elizabear, sailed up and dropped anchor to wait with us.  At 2:30 Gimme Time called the lock for an update on status.  We were told it would be another 45 minutes wait.

At 3:45 yet another boat joined the group, Adventure III.  When he called the lock to request passage through, he was told that he would have a 45 minute wait to pass.  Some time after Adventure III another mystery boat joined the set of pleasure craft to lock through.  "... and then there were 9 ..."

Finally, at 4:30, we got the call from the lockmaster that our turn was next.  We finally got the go ahead to pull up anchor and proceed to the lock entrance at 4:40.  The lockmaster said, "9 Pleasure boats - line up like a wagon train and meet up with the lead boat to guide you through the lock".

A boat named Maverick led us through the under-construction lock.  As we proceeded to line up, we heard the lock team joking about our "wagon train".  Someone said they wanted "wagon train" music to be playing and another asked where they could find the chuck wagon.  It added a little humor to an otherwise dismal experience.

Wagon Train through Olmstead Lock

Maverick led us to the entrance to Lock 53 and then fell back to return to the Olmstead Lock.  The lockmaster at Lock 53 told us we needed to raft up to expedite the locking (and minimize the lockmaster's work to tie us up to the wall.)

By the time we got through with the rafting up and the slow fill of the lock, we finally exited Lock 53 at 6:05.  Now we had a problem.  We had to find an anchorage for the night and fast.   Clark handed me his iPad to look at the app Active Captain for an anchorage.  The only logical choice was Bean Branch Creek, so we headed there.

As shown in the picture below, we were racing the sun.  Could we get the anchor down before the sun disappeared completely?!   We managed to but just barely.  We had our anchor down at 7:17 and sunset occurred officially at 7:15.

Sunset at Bean Branch Creek

Given the full dark situation and the proximity to shore, we decided to eat in the near total darkness to avoid attracting a swarm of who-knows-what to our boat.  We had romantic, candle-lit leftovers!

We face our next hurdle, Lock 52 on the Ohio, tomorrow.  Early to bed, early to rise, ...

Missouri: Kimmswick to Little Diversion Anchorage

Day: 91

NM Today: 96

NM Total: 1928

Locks Today: 0

Locks Total: 80

We were up with the sun once again as we knew we had a long day ahead of us.  Our travel plans changed for the day after Clark talked to the folks on Jammin Jane who had called Lock 52 for a status update.   Our understanding last night was that the lock was backed up with barge traffic and arriving late Friday or Saturday gave us a better lock-through option.  Today we learned that both chambers are operative, so we should come ahead.  That changed our distance for the day from 40 to 96 thus requiring an earlier departure time.  We pulled away from the dock at 8:15. 

Clark snapped a few pictures as we pulled away from the dock to capture the image of Hoppies marina.

Hoppies Marina as we pull away

Kimmswick (Nicest house we have seen in ages)

Kimmswick Bluffs

 All told six of us left to continue our Great Loop journey downstream – Jammin Jane, Knot Sew Easy, Movin On (from Australia), Gimme Time, Bajan Speed, and our boat (Sea Moss).  Two looper boats remained behind at Hoppies Marina – Patriot who requires repair work before they can leave and Adventure III who planned to have friends join them tomorrow.  The six of us that left made quite a parade going downriver.

Once again we found ourselves dodging tows.  We saw the largest tow we have met on any of the river system thus far with 7 long by 5 across (35 barges in all).   The tug was really cranking the engine to push that load against current upstream. 

Largest Tow We've Seen

When we were free of tows, and sometimes when we were not, we had another river feature to worry about – water turbulence.  The wing dams along the side of the river cause the water to swirl and form eddies.  Diligence is required at all times to control the direction of the boat especially since our vessel has no automated pilot; all of our steering is manual.

Water Turbulence due to wing dams

We finally arrived at the Little Diversion River anchorage at 5:00 after a long day on the water and found two boats there before us – Elizabear and a catamaran sailboat.  

Sweet Sensations Sailboat in anchorage

At first we thought we would need to drop two anchors – one off the bow and one off the stern to keep ourselves from swinging in the narrow channel.  As we prowled the area looking for a place to drop anchor, Movin On, called us over and suggested that we raft up next to them.  Jammin Jane and Knot Sew Easy rafted together for-to-aft, and we did the same.  That way one boat’s bow anchor acted as the stern for the other and vice versa.  

Sharing Anchors with Movin On

Unfortunately, we had dragged out the second anchor before their generous offer, so we had that mess to clean up to put the anchor back in storage.  At least we don’t have to deal with that in the morning.  We got the word from the other boaters here with us in the anchorage that it is anchors aweigh at 6:30 tomorrow morning – earliest departure time thus far on the trip.

Needless to say we will “hit the hay” earlier than usual tonight.

Missouri: Alton, IL to Kimmswick, MO

Day: 90

NM Today: 37

NM Total: 1833

Locks Today: 2

Locks Total: 80

Because we wanted to lock through with Kat in the Hatt, we left Alton at 7:30 to head for the Mel Price Lock.  I have seen sunrise on this trip more times than I have during the rest of my life.  Their beauty is the best part of getting up so early. 

The trip to the lock from the Alton marina was very short and because Kat in the Hatt called ahead, the wait at the lock was short.  As we approached the lock, I saw a very long barge that had just exited the lock.  In one of the Illinois River locks, the barge would have been broken down into two parts to lock through.  The Mel Price lock on the Mississippi is large enough to take the barge as is.  As a little pleasure boat we felt very small in such a large lock.   Two other boats and a small-sized barge locked through with us, and there was still room for more.

Mel Price Lock

Bollard used to secure boat to lock wall -
it floats up / down inside the wall and we go along for the ride

Several miles downriver, on the path to our destination for the day, we saw the point where the Missouri River and the Mississippi River come together.

Missouri River Mississippi River Confluence

Shortly after the confluence of the two rivers we entered the canal bypassing a section of the Mississippi.  The difference in scenery from non-canal to canal was immediately apparent. 

Canal view

At the end of the canal we passed through the “Chain of Rocks” Lock and back into the Mississippi River proper.  You know you are on the Mississippi when …

Riverboat on the Mississippi

With heavy barge traffic, debris in the water, and turbulence stirring the river, Clark and I took turns driving the boat and taking pictures.  I got my shots on my phone camera for Facebook and then took over the helm, so Clark could get busy with the blog camera.

St Louis, Missouri - Arch

The 3 to 4 knot current downriver helped us arrive at Kimmswick, Missouri by 12:30.  At one point I looked at the boat’s “Speed Over Ground” on the display unit and saw 12 knots.  Only about 7.6 knots of that speed was due to our power, the rest was current.

The marina at Kimmswick is called Hoppies and has been in business on the river since the early 1930s.  Every day at this time of year, a number of looper boats line up along the barges that comprise Hoppies marina.  Our boat is tied to a barge towards the end, so our walk to the off ramp takes us across multiple barges with some of the most hazardous terrain imaginable.  Carpets are draped over the connections between barges to facilitate walking and the driving of golf carts over the barge connections.  Hoses and electric cables litter the barges.   In the middle of it all is a phone booth, a coffee table, and a collection of chairs.

"Hoppies" Conference Room

Upon arrival at the marina, I asked Fern about restroom facilities, and she directed me to the back of a shed.  After walking the length of the barges to the ramp and climbing up the steep driveway, I found the shed and a metal bar propped against the door to keep the door closed.  I moved the metal bar, opened the door, and peered inside only to see a collection of marina equipment.  I decided that I must be in the wrong place, so I closed the door, put the metal rod support back in place, and walked around the lot looking for the restroom.  

Not a sole appeared as I walked so I could not ask for further clarification.   It did not take long, however, for me to decide that I must have been right the first time, so I bravely went back to the shed, removed the metal rod, opened the door and walked in.  This time, since I had actually walked into the shed, I could see a small white room off in the far right corner.  As I made my way across the shed, I saw the commode and sink hiding back there.    

The proprietress, Fern, gives a daily readout of what to expect on the remainder of the Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers.  She told us that her council meeting would be held at 4:00, so because we had time before the get together, Clark and I headed into town for lunch and a look around. 

First we ate at The Blue Owl and had a great meal.  They only serve breakfast and lunch, but the food was excellent.  The strawberry salad with candied almonds and poppy-seed dressing that I ate was fabulous.  Clark had his heart set on a slice of their strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert but left disappointed because they sold out earlier in the day.  I was already full from lunch and I should not have indulged, but when I saw “root beer float” as one of the ice cream choices at the sweet shop next door, I had to have it.  Surprisingly, it tasted just like a root beer float in an ice cream cone.

Over the past couple of weeks I heard several times that Kimmswick was a cute / nice little town.  It came as a big surprise that it was a town capitalizing on its preserved history to bring in tourists from all over the world.  The town population in 2010 was 157 people according to Wikipedia.  It looked to me like every one of them had a gift shop open for business.  On each street corner stood a sign listing the shops and businesses in each direction.

As we strolled past the shops we found many buildings from times past in a variety of architectures.  The ones shown below were among the oldest we found.

“Kimmswick  c. 1876”

 On one street corner we found some interesting workmanship in the form of a carved tree trunk showing a woman brewing apple butter, a product for which Kimmswick is famous.  Every year they have an apple butter festival in town. 

Apple Butter Tree Carving

Even though it is still September, everywhere we looked we saw Halloween decorations.  It would appear that everyone in town gets into the spirit and decorates for the seasons.  For a town interested in tourism, it made a nice touch.

To make our 4:00 appointment with Fern to hear about the river, we headed back to the boat around 3:30.   On our way back we passed by the Anheuser Memorial Estate (Anheuser Busch) and, although we didn’t see Clydesdales, we did see horses on the estate.

Anheuser Memorial Estate

Fern’s meeting started somewhere around 4:30 with representatives from multiple looper boats in attendance.  We said hello to some familiar faces and met some new loopers whom we had not seen previously.  Clark and I took copious notes as Fern gave her readout.

Fern (in black) holding her meeting

After the readout we sat and talked to the other loopers until almost dark which translates into 7:00 p.m. here in the Central time zone.  At that time the “party” broke up so that we could go back to our boats and find dinner before full dark.  All the shops and restaurants in the town closed by 4:00 so dinner on board was the only option available.  Since we had a large amount of food to eat at lunchtime, I kept it simple for dinner and we had hot dogs.

Illinois / Missouri: Grafton, IL to Branson, MO to Alton, IL

Days: 87 - 89
NM To Date: 1796
Locks Total: 78

We made arrangements to meet two of Clark's cousins and their wives in Branson, Missouri for Saturday night into Sunday.  In order to make that date, we left Grafton early to get to the Alton marina, check in, pick up a rental car, and drive the 4.5 hours to Branson, MO.  Each cousin had approximately 4 to 4.5 hours drive to meet at Branson where we rented a three-bedroom duplex and split the cost.

Coming into Alton, IL

 Alton marina is a larger-sized marina.  Like Grafton the entire marina is built on floating docks.  Even the swimming pools are set up to go up and down with the rising and receding waters of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.  Earlier this year the Illinois and the Mississippi flooded and were closed to all but essential boat traffic.  After the waters receded, the slips in both marinas were filled with silt / sediment.  We learned in Grafton that many of the boats are still stuck in the silt and have not moved since the flood waters receded.

In Alton we saw the dredging activity required to clean the silt out of each slip.  The machinery barely had the swing room required to do the necessary work.

Dredging the slips in Alton, IL marina

Although our boat stayed in Alton for three nights, we barely saw the marina as we traveled by car to Branson, MO and stayed there overnight on Saturday.  We arrived in Branson just after 5:00, and Clark and his cousins immediately started catching up on what had happened over the last 18 years since they last saw each other.

Eventually we made our way out the door of the condo to drive to a restaurant, McFarlain's, where we had a good meal with great corn bread.  After dinner we went back to the condo and looked through family photos and played numerous rounds of a game I had never heard of before called Catch Phrase.  We had a lot of fun talking and playing and finally called it a night somewhere around 1:00 or 1:30 in the morning.

Sunday morning we took our time getting up and out.  We spent more time reminiscing as Clark searched Google maps for pictures of his cousins's farm that he had visited a couple of time when he was quite young.  We finally decided to go to Cracker Barrel for brunch, and only the fact that we had an 11:00 checkout time got us moving out the door.  Unfortunately numerous other families had the same brunch plans, so even though we got there at 11:30, it was closer to 12:30 before we got seated.  Since this was supposed to be breakfast, I was absolutely starving by the time it came time to order.  I must say that Cracker Barrel sure knows how to do breakfast right though as my food was prepared just how I like it.

We finished our brunch and thought about driving home, but fun and games were not over yet.  Branson is a Missouri version of Nashville / Los Vegas. Everywhere we looked we saw ads for entertainment in the form of singers, casinos, and family amusements, so we had lots of choices for entertainment.  Although it rained first thing in the morning, it did not last long.  While we ate our brunch, the sun came out and dried up the puddles enough that we decided to go play miniature golf before driving our separate ways back "home".

Professor Hacker's Miniature Golf
in Branson, MO

We completed 18 holes of mini golf and finally said our good-byes and left Branson around 3:30 or so for our 4.5 hour drive back to the boat.  Clark and I had a bit of trouble deciding what to do about dinner.  Since we were both still pretty full from our brunch, neither of us wanted much but knew we should eat something or wake up starving at 4:00 a.m.   By searching online I found a restaurant near Alton named The Round Table that had excellent Google reviews.  The place lived up to the reviews - good food, cheap price, great service.  Since we were both tired after we got back to the boat from our excursion, we called it a night early.

Monday morning we had errands to take care of and the first of those was to go to the store and buy some food to replenish our stock.  The next 3 nights will be stays at remote places or anchorages, so we needed to provision the boat fully.  After we returned from the pharmacy and food store, we took the boat to be fueled.  Poor thing was pretty thirsty, she took 204 gallons of diesel fuel at just under $3 / gallon.  Good thing at the speed we travel on this trip we do not have to fill up all that often.  We figured out that we have a range of about 350 miles with both tanks on full.

After completing our chores, we still had the car and some time on our hands, so Clark suggested we go to St. Charles, Missouri to tour this historic city which was Missouri's first state capital.

Old Railroad Station building in St Charles, MO

We took the self-guided tour of the historic downtown that I found on the internet.  The town is famous for a variety of reasons but at the top of the list are 1) the history of Lewis and Clark who resided here for two winters before setting out on their historic exploration west and 2) the importance of Daniel Boone to this area where he started to blaze his trail west.

As we strolled the streets, we saw many forms of architecture on our tour including some German masonry work which was interesting.

Lewis and Clark Restaurant

German Stone Houses

Vertical Log Cabin Church
reconstructed replica of original built in 1791

Clark caught me peaking into the cookie store
( I bought some Peanut Butter cookies for myself.)

Corner of Main and Boone's Lick Streets
Start of Boone's Lick Trail
where he blazed a trail following old Indian paths
Boone's Lick became the fist westward passage to the
Oregon, Santa Fe, and California Trails

Note the stars on this flag in front of the Lewis and Clark boat house
we did not get to see their boats as they are on loan
to make an HBO documentary of the L&C expedition

dug out canoe at the Lewis and Clark Boat House

Tapestry showing Lewis and Clark path westward

Lewis and Clark and dog
who accompanied them on their travels west

We underestimated the time required to drive back to the car rental place after our explorations of St. Charles.  We raced the clock and the traffic to get back by the 5:30 deadline, so we could get a ride back to the marina after dropping off the car.  We made it but just at 5:30 itself!

Clark promised me a bike ride in Alton, so before making dinner we went out to look for the bike trail heading back towards Grafton.  Since it gets dark earlier and earlier these days, we did not have much time to explore.  We did find a nice park with a pretty fountain as well as an interesting display of caves and a dragon drawn on the cave wall.

Fountain with bridge to Missouri in background

The story of the wall drawing

Wall drawing of dragon
we do not know the two posing in the picture!

Once again we caught ourselves racing against the clock as the sun set on our bike travels.  We raced home in the twilight to get back before complete darkness set in.  After our bike ride I made dinner, and as I cooked Clark worked on prepping the boat for our travels down river tomorrow.  He topped up the water tank and added an anti-corrosive fluid to the antifreeze.

Just before our bike ride, we talked with the owners of Kat in the Hat who plan to leave Alton tomorrow as well.  We will coordinate our departure in the morning to line up for the locks together.   Even though tonight turned into a late night of blogging, I will be up early to catch that first lock! We have two to get through tomorrow, and the first is less than a mile away from the Alton marina.

Not clear if I will be able to submit any blog entries over the next 3 nights as that will depend on cell phone coverage.  I do not expect to see WiFi for several days now.