June 29 ... We returned to Sunnyside Marina on Tuesday to find both biminis had been completed. What a wonderful surprise. Coming back from Nashville, we were still not sure how long it was going to take the canvas maker. He brought the helm cover shortly after we returned and did some final fitting on it. However Mark did say he would not be able to do the window covers. We’ll have to make do with limited privacy and have them made in Florida this winter.

It was now time for Musical Stuff again, hauling everything we had carried down to the boat back up to the van and all the stuff we took on the trip to Nashville now needed to get back on the boat. Thank goodness for the two wheeled carts available on the docks. Once again the boat is loaded and the van piled high with stuff we didn’t need to take. We spent the next day finishing our final provisioning and stowing the food and supplies. That evening Bernie and son Patrick came to the marina to take our van. They will get it to my cousin’s campground in Black River Falls, WI, where it will stay for the summer. We’ll figure out how to get it home later. As the van drove away we realized we were now without wheels and about to begin this trip for real.

July 1 ... We Be Blest and We Be Crusin’ ... finally! We left Sunnyside Marina around 10 am and headed down the St. Croix River. About five miles downstream we approached the Hudson Bridge with a 16’ clearance. Since we were unsure of our new height with the biminis, we dropped them before motoring under it. Captain Gene stood up as we passed under the bridge and could not touch it. After the biminis were back up, he estimated our height to be about 15’. We’ll want to get a more precise measure later.

What a beautiful day for cruising. Two different times, boys on a jet ski raced back and forth across our wake, even getting some airtime. While the mate did instrument checks several times to get a baseline for each of the gauges, the captain did wake checks at various speeds to see how our wake affects small boats.

At 12:55 PM we crossed under the lift bridge at Prescott, Wisconsin and motored into the mighty Mississippi River. The confluence of the St. Croix and the Mississippi is quite striking as the clear St. Croix water mixes with the muddy ol’ Miss. At times we could see boils of clear water surrounded by swirling dark patches as the currents began to merge. A little downstream there was clear water on the Wisconsin side of the channel while the muddy water flowed on the Minnesota side. Soon it all merged and flowed as one uniform color. On a previous trip we motored further north through the Twin Cities and to the confluence of the Minnesota and the Mississippi Rivers. There it was the Minnesota that brought in all the mud -- the Mississippi was the clearer stream.

4pm ... Just as we caught sight of Red Wing, MN, the phone rand. It was our friend Bridget who works in Red Wing and lives nearby. Gene had left her a message indicating out layover here. She rounded up her son Matt and his friend Joe (7th and 6th graders), packed some snacks, corn on the cob, burgers and buns and came to Bay Point Park where we were anchored.

Captain Gene. Gene picked the three up in our dinghy, the MINI BLEST, and brought them aboard. We motored about seven miles toward Lake Pepin where the boys could swim. As we anchored the boys began diving and jumping off the boat. Bridget scored their cannonballs: the wetter she got, the higher their score! While Gene grilled the corn and burgers, the Matt and Joe took great delight in quietly sneaking around on the outside of the boat. Then they’d jump in and drench Gene and Bridget!

When I asked Matt and Joe if they would like to drive the boat, their eyes lit up and it took them ... perhaps half a second to respond. They were so excited! On our return trip, they took turns as Captain and 1st Mate, even switching hats. We gave them mini lessons on red, right, returning, the shape of red nun and green can channel markers, no wake zones, easing off the throttle for smaller boats, and chart reading. Their grins were almost a mile wide as they waved to passing boats.

Even though it was a sweaty, hot day, it was a great time to catch up on each other’s families. We beat off the hoards of mosquitoes as we returned to Red Wing and said our good-byes. Back at anchor, after the mosquitoes died down, we tried out the cockpit shower for the first time. What a delight! It felt so good after such a hot day.

Today was a day of many firsts for the WE BE BLEST III:

Finally began the trip down the St. Croix River

1st day on the Mississippi River

1st guests on the Mississippi River

1st use of the cockpit shower

1st time anchoring

We toasted the WE BE BLEST III with the bottle of champagne from Brad and Jaclyn Miller, the owners of Camano Marine. What a great start to our trip!

End of Day 1 ... 1 lock

Mm 791.5 56 river miles

Today is another beautiful sunny day. We had a very pleasant first night on the hook in the WE BE BLEST III. Our granddaughter Naija is three today. Our son Greg has the official word he passed his radiology boards, and he had a good first day at his fellowship. A great start to the day!

About 8 am a small boat motored over to the WE BE BLEST informing us that four paddle wheelers will be arriving in this bay about 9 am. They are part of the GRAND EXCURSION, a flotilla of boats celebrating the renaissance of the upper Mississippi River region. The four coming in will be taking passengers out on river and dinner cruises. The flotilla has been traveling up the Mississippi, stopping at towns along the way recreating the 1854 train and steamboat expedition that brought worldwide attention to what was then America’s western frontier.

The original Grand Excursion celebrated America’s first railroad connection to the Mississippi River traveling from Chicago to Rock Island, Illinois, then traveling by steamboat up river to Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Over 1200 dignitaries including the 13th US President, Millard Fillmore, enjoyed the 1854 journey often stopping in river front communities. Grand Excursion 2004 retraced this historic adventure with stops in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota all along a 400 mile stretch of the Mississippi River. Festivals, parades and many programs were planned.

We pulled up anchor at 8:30 and passed one of the paddle wheelers, the DELTA QUEEN, already at the Red Wing City Dock. Bay Point Park was set up with a music grand stand and an art show. In Covil Park, a short way downstream, union and confederate troops were ready for a reenactment of one of the Civil War battles. Four police boats patrolled the waters in front of the nearby marina awaiting the flotilla.

They soon came. As we continued on down, we met six more padddlewheelers on their way upstream. The first was the JULIA B SWAIN from Red Wing. To our surprise a Camano from the St. Paul Power Squadron was escorting her. Don Hansen is the owner of MISS GYPSY, hull #103. We chatted briefly and took pictures of each other’s boats.

A third paddle wheeler, the LILY BELLE, followed. This was a little one, pushing a small barge with a tent on the front. It had the National Rivers Hall of Fame on the barge. Next came the CELEBRATION BELLE, from Moline, Illinois, a large four story boat. Passengers were waving from the balconies and several boats provided an escort.

As we cruised on Lake Pepin we passed the three decker SPIRIT OF PEORIA from Peoria, Illinois. Next came the ANSON NORTHRUP, a flat packet boat out of St. Paul, Minnesota, and lastly the HARRIET BISHOP, also from St. Paul. She played her calliope as we motored by her. On our previous trips, we’ve seen a number of paddle wheelers on the rivers including the biggest, the AMERICAN QUEEN, but never so many in the span of just 2-3 hours.

We had a great crossing of Lake Pepin. There was some chop and waves, but they did not bother the Camano. This lake is 21 miles long and 3 miles wide, rather shallow and is know for wind and squalls coming up without notice. In the past, we’ve had wonderfully relaxing crossings and extremely turbulent ones too. The mate recalls them most vividly!

We had planned on stopping in a very protected bay just south of the lake, but the Army Corps of Engineers had filled it in with sand as they dredged and maintained the channel for barge traffic. Instead we found a quiet slough behind an island. A huge dredger and barges were parked in the channel, probably for the holiday weekend. This reassured us that we should find sufficient depth for our boat. Many of the backwaters are much too shallow or have submerged wing dams (underwater rock walls to control the direction of the flow). This was a nice quiet spot, birds chirping and an occasional boat passing by our anchorage.

While Gene was grilling our supper, a pontoon pulled up alongside us. Dave Huntley introduced himself. He lives just across the channel and was very friendly, offering us the use of his dock at anytime. He asked if we’d like to go for a pontoon ride. Dave returned after supper with seven friends and we took a two hour cruise through the backwaters to Buffalo City, Wisconsin. It was fun being on a pontoon again. That’s always been one of our favorite boats. I commented to Dave that whenever we would boat on the Mississippi, we were transients -- passing through. Now we were with residents, cruising the backwaters, chutes, and sloughs, waving to folks they knew, stopping at a neighborhood "watering hole," and avoiding "local knowledge" hazards. This evening cruise had an entirely different feel. The difference was familiarity: being a transient vs. boating in home waters.

What a pleasant evening visiting and sharing boating stories. Dave recently bought a place on Gasparilla Island, not too far from our home in Florida. He’ll look us up this winter when he comes down. Then we can return his hospitality.

Day 2 ... 1 lock

Mm 749.8 43 river miles

98.5 total river miles

Today is Daron’s birthday. Is it possible for us to have a 36 years old son? Where did all the years go?

We traveled through two locks today, decided to stop at Winona, MN (river mile marker 725.8) and tie off to the city sea wall for the night. We found a great 6 mile city bike path around a backwater, rode our bikes about 45 minutes, then attended Saturday Mass at the cathedral. It’s raining tonight, but we’re snug and dry inside. The Camano certainly has more creature comforts than our pontoon did!

Day 3 ... 2 locks

Mm 725.5 26 river miles

125 total river miles

This morning I noticed the freezer had started to defrost and water collected in the fridge. Opps! The fridge must have a low voltage trip switch which activated as the batteries got low during the night. We’ll watch our batteries closely. Perhaps we’ll need a third house battery. We had been running the generator to charge the batteries, but perhaps we need to do more.

We biked about six miles, then left Winona about 12:35.

Lock 6 was very windy and crowded, a little difficult to keep the boat off the lock wall. At 4:30 we anchored near La Crosse, WI and watched all the activity as we waited for the fireworks. What a delightful afternoon. See story: JULY 4TH ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

Mm 698.1 27 miles today

The freezer defrosted again last night. The captain checked the water in the batteries. One cell may be bad.

Lock 8 was very windy. With our double biminis on the fly bridge the Camano seems to be a touch difficult to control in the wind.

Rain and some gusts of wind in the evening. There was a tornado watch for our county, but no real strong winds came our way. We held easily with one anchor.

Mm 671 31 miles today

The freezer defrosted a third time. We’ll check the battery condition when we get to Prairie du Chien Marina.

Anchor up at 8:15 AM and the captain wanted to be sure the log reflected that he was "cleaning about 2382 mayflies off the boat and 4 off the dink while the mate was prettying herself up for the trip." The mate’s reply: "Well, you can’t have an ugly mate!"

Lock 9 was pleasant. We were the only boat. And there was very little wind.

Mm 636 37 miles today

8 locks thus far

220 total miles

We stayed at Prairie du Chien Marina in Wisconsin. Jane and Jim Campbell, long time friends live here during the summer. We spent time with them at their place and two afternoons cruised on the boat. We caught up on visiting, laundry, phone calls, computer work and Internet tasks. Evidently when we are out of Verizon territory, I cannot log on to the net via my cell phone. So my updates may get sporadic. We saw more fireworks, the ladies got to shop and the men smoked ribs, chicken and loin. It was a great visit!

We had planned on meeting our youngest son, Neal and family here for a day on the boat, but they were unable to make it. They’ll have to see the WE BE BLEST in Florida instead.

The batteries checked out OK. We’ll still study our usage and see if we need a third one.

Mm 636 44 miles

We left Prairie du Chien Marina at 0900 heading for Dubuque, Iowa. Back in May we ordered a spare prop from Linden Propellor in Dubuque and Gary, the owner, called today indicating it was ready and he would deliver it to us at the marina.

Today is our swan song to the most beautiful parts of the Upper Mississippi River. After Dubuque, the terrain begins to flatten and we see less bluffs and ridges. More than likely, we will not be bringing the WE BE BLEST back up this far on future trips, so we’ve been savoring the views as we cruised south.

Lock 10 at Guttenberg, Iowa was an easy lockage. We locked through solo and the lock master asked if we wanted to float instead of tying off. We did and remembered we had floated with the pontoon on a previous trip a number of years ago

Lock 11 found us still learning the techniques to keep from destroying the stern in the windy locks! The two aft fenders saved the boat. They were worth their weight in gold today.

We took a slip at the Dubuque Yacht Basin for the night. Gary delivered out prop and warned us about an old submerged lock wall near Le Clair, Iowa. We noted this on our charts. He also gave us two recommendations of excellent prop sales and repair shops. He knows the owners personally. For all our Florida boaters here they are: Paul Fox at General Prop in Bradenton and Bob Musselman, the owner of Admiral C & B in Tampa.

After a very hot day a swim in the pool was so refreshing. Tomorrow morning, Bill and Arlette Fredricks, friends of ours who live here will be taking us to breakfast.

Mm 580.7 58 miles today

While waiting for Bill and Arlette to come to the marina, Gene was kicking around in the sand where there had been a restaurant. He found $2.38 in burned coins. We surmise the structure burned down since the restaurant was listed in the current Quimbey’s River Guide. It appeared money was still in the cash register, so it probably was not a "planned" fire.

Treating us to breakfast in a local German restaurant, we had a delightful visit with our friends. They are both 78 and Bill has been retired from WPL, now Alliant Energy, for 14 years.

Their son Jim is a riverboat pilot for ADM Transportation, moving barges up and down the river. In the upper Mississippi the barges will be lashed together three wide by five long with the pusher (the line boat) providing the power to move the load. As pilot, Jim is second in command to the captain. They alternate shifts. The captain has the morning (six to noon) and the evening (six to midnight) shifts. The pilot covers the afternoon (noon to six) and night (midnight to six) shifts. The captain also had the ultimate responsibility for everyone and everything on board. He handles any and all problems. Crews work thirty days on, then thirty days off.

LOCK 12 A very windy and disastrous lockage.

In spite of the wind, as we slowly motored in the lock and grabbed the lines, we were able to keep the stern from scraping the lock wall. Because of where our bikes were secured to the bow rail, they did occasionally get in the way. So the mate moved toward the stern and was standing near the helm window using the boat hook to fend off the WE BE BLEST from the wall.

We were very close to the wall and her pole was in its shortest position. She had it braced against her body for leverage and support while leaning against the outer starboard corner of the cabin. As the wind bounced the boat in the lock she felt the pole pressing firmly into her waist. Not a good thing, she thought, to be caught between the boat hook and the boat. So she changed the angle of the pole only to hear this horrible crunching sound as the handle of her boat hook pushed into the helm window. It shattered but fortunately the window was safety glass and the pieces remained in the frame intact.

We now have a beautiful spider web of glass filling the entire window. It even sparkles and glimmers in the sun. If anyone has been wondering about the minimum clearance between the lock wall and the cabin windows and if there is room to use a boat hook -- the answer is NO.

Score 1 for the Captain -- scraping the dink on the wall in Lock 8.

Score 1 for the Mate -- destroying a window in Lock 12.

The mate’s goof will cost more to fix ... But "that’s OK, honey, it’s for the boat!"

On the bright side, the mate was fortunate it was not her body that took the squeeze. That might not have been pretty!

We anchored at 1530 on the downstream end of Big Fishbone Island in the slough, mm 542. This was a deep, fast moving channel so we put out two anchors. Then the captain resecured the bikes farther forward to make more maneuvering room on the bow. Gotta save those windows!

We had a very pleasant evening. That cockpit shower is just divine! The captain read and the mate began working on her next book, Reflections on the Water ... Traveling the Waterways with God.

Mm 542 39 miles today

1 Lock

Anchor up at 1030. Had a relaxed morning fixing omelets and a broccoli/cauliflower salad for supper. Pleasant weather, some clouds. 80’s.

At the Sabula RR Bridge we took another reading on our height. The bridge was 16’10". We had about 35" clearance. We’re somewhere around 14’. Our 1st reading on day 1 was about 15’.

Ron from Camano Marine called today. The window is 6 mm laminated safety glass and can be replaced by a glazier. It can be removed from the outside by taking off the rubber and removing the pane. It is glued in well with silicone.

We crossed the big pool downstream of Windy Point mm 531.3 where we survived several big storms one night in 1997. It was here I was so stressed out and almost ready to hang it up, not continuing with the pontoon trip. Thank goodness I did choose to continue for that was a fantastic adventure for us.

This pool is over 6 miles long and four miles wide, dotted with islands. Hundreds of cormorants, marsh pelicans and ducks were in the water and nesting in the trees on two islands. It appears as if they were killing the trees on these islands, perhaps from too much nitrogen.

As we approached Lock 13, the steamboat TWILIGHT from the Port of St. Louis motored past us. It was lunchtime and everyone was inside at the tables.

We had a two hour wait for the lock since a tow with 15 barges was waiting to lock down ahead of us. We anchored, had lunch, read and snoozed a bit. As the lock was about to open an Army Corps line boat with two barges came past us. It motored into the lock first, then we followed another small boat and tied up in front of the barges. There was no wind and the captain easily came around the barges to the lock wall. We need more lockages like this one under our belt!

Another swing bridge. After more calculations, we need about 14’ clearance. We’ll do a precise measure when we’re in the marina at the Quad Cities.

1615 anchored in a very peaceful, protected slough at mm 510. The captain commented how much he liked this spot. He also mentioned he seems to be enjoying the area below Dubuque more than the upper part. Perhaps because of the relative newness of the area. We had boated a number of times above Dubuque, knew the towns, and were familiar with some anchorages and beaches. We have only been downstream of Dubuque one time, on the 75 day pontoon trip in 1997. He definitely enjoyed the beautiful scenery upstream, but the challenge of what’s around the next bend is more evident from here on down.

.

12 locks thus far.

Mm 510 32 miles today

Anchor up at 0720. Cool clear skies. Cleaned tons of mayflies before we left.

The terrain has flattened out. The banks are still tree-lined, but there are no hills anymore, just the occasional city or town. We’re heading for the Quad Cities. Friends of ours, Ken and Lynn Koele will be meeting us here tomorrow. Their son lives in the area.

Lock 14 1 ½ hour wait. Very smooth lockage!

We saw the CELEBRATION BELLE back in her home port of Moline Illinois. She’s quite a sight at night with so many lights shining.

Getting some clouds, windy, cooling a touch.

At 1615 we took a slip at Lindsey Park Yacht Club. We saw that the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN, a larger paddle wheeler, was docked here. Evidently she had some mechanical problems and was getting repairs completed here.

What a friendly yacht club marina this is. As we were coming in and hailing them on the radio, we received no reply from the marina. We even tried our cell phone. No luck. Shortly afterwards, another boater in the marina hailed us and got the attention of the dockmaster who was working outside. Their radio could receive, but they could not transmit. After we tied up at our slip a number of boaters came to talk about our vessel. It seems to draw quite a bit of interest, perhaps because of the unusual 360 degree view from the salon windows. Several people offered to get things at the grocery store for us.

That evening we were invited on board ROBINS VESSEL, T.W.O.. A 46’ Hattaras built in 1965. After happy hour, Captain Tom, the owner, took the two of us for a cruise up and down the river naming the points of interest along the way. What a delightful evening.

As we left that dock and headed to ours, another group called out, "Hey, Ft. Myers, come on over here for a drink." So we visited with these folks as well. Captain Arthur from SAMSONG, and his wife come to Ft. Myers and stay in their condo several times during the winter. They will look us up when they come down this coming winter and we can take them for a boat ride. Several other boaters are from the Florida area as well. These people even offered us the use of their car. River folks, we’ve found are very friendly and helpful.

Mm 484 26 miles today

Today we rode over 25 miles on our Tour de Quad Cities. Crossing the Mississippi via the state highway bridge we first reached Arsenal Island, which housed over 12,000 Confederate soldiers during the Civil Was and today includes a manufacturing plant for munitions. Since 9/11 much of the island is restricted, so we continued on over a backwater bridge into Rock Island, Illinois.

There was a great paved bike path all along the river with picnic tables, water taxi stops, restaurants and a visitor center. We stopped at the John Deer Commons which displayed much of the history of farm equipment. Several very old machines were on display, as well as new ones. We even saw a tractor made in, of all places, Pune, India. Our second granddaughter Naija lived there for about 10 months until her adoption was complete.

From Rock Island, we rode into Moline, still along the river, then back across the bridge to Davenport heading to the grocery store -- up hills and down hills. My, my, was the mate out of shape! She even walked her bike up one steep hill. On our way back to the marina, we made a detour to Bettendorf to get our fourth city in the Tour de Quad Cities -- 3 hours of biking, 25+ miles, although with lunch, grocery stops and the John Deere Commons, we actually were gone 6 ½ hours. With our other two rides in Winona, we have probably ridden 40+ miles this far. A good start for two slugs, after hanging out on the boat for so long.

Relaxing day. Did laundry in the morning. Ken and Lynn Koele came about 1100 with son Luke and his fiancee' Heidi. Leisurely motored up and down the river and anchored for lunch in a side channel. Had a good visit catching up on kids and biking.

Mm 484 13 miles today

Glen and Manuel fixed the cabin window and $250 later we were back on the river again looking like nothing had happened. We left about 1030. Lock 15 just downstream was a good lockage. It seems if we leave 4’-5’ between us and the lock wall it works well. (That keeps the mate’s boat hook away from the cabin windows too!) Then we can pull the WE BE BLEST closer to the wall as needed. That’s of course as long as the wind does not play havoc with us.

Pulled into Sunset Marina at Rock Island, Illinois for fuel, a pumpout and then rode our bikes to Ted’s Boat-A-Rama for some parts. We hoped to get more anchor chain, but they did not have it. Headed south at 1315.

Mm 461 below Muscatine -- lots of islands on the LDB (Illinois side). Really a beautiful area, almost reminiscent of a Canadian lake.

Lock 16 no waiting, very smooth. The Captain has been doing a great job of coming in about 4’-5’ from the wall. Easy to control. Had no wind in the lock, even though there was a stiff crosswise wind outside.

Mm 543 Anchored in a slough south of Muscatine, IA. High winds were predicted. There was a tornado watch until 7 PM. By evening it had blown NE of us and we had clear skies, yet still windy. The anchor chain made some funny "clunks" around 10 PM, perhaps the secondary anchor line went over the chain. The captain had a very restless night, awake a lot. "It’s an awesome responsibility, watching out for the vessel and crew," the Captain reported. The mate slept well. On our pontoon trip it was usually the opposite, with the mate having the restless nights keeping storm or anchor watch.

Mm 484 32 miles today

Clear skies 70’s 0830 anchor up. Had church this am since we missed it the past two days.

Mm 437.1 Lock 17 a very interesting and unusual lockage.

We waited at least 45 minutes while BULLFROG and his barges were tied off in the lock. This is the dredging outfit we anchored behind in the slough around Buffalo City on the July 4th weekend. BULLFROG was the main line boat, but his rudders were small, so they had a second line boat, the MELISSA K tied off in front to help steer the load. There were ten small barges tied together with dredging equipment, little bulldozers, pipes, floats, the dredging auger head, and a huge diesel engine.

They were 75’ wide, so there was room for us to come in on her starboard side. It was very calm with little winds, so there was no problem motoring into the lock. From the upstream side, as we waited to come in, however, it looked like we were going to thread the WE BE BLEST through the eye of a needle! We actually had 25’ of width between the barges and the lock wall.

As we motored in to the front of the lock we saw there were no lines down for us. Then Captain Gene heard BULLFROG’s captain say we can tie off to their barge. So one of their crew secured us to their front barge. As we were talking with the captain, we were surprised when the gates were opened. The drop was listed as eight feet, yet we were actually lowered only about one foot. The crew member untied us and we slowly motored out. A most unusual lockage.

A note about river mile markers which are like interstate mile markers. The Mississippi River is divided into the Upper and Lower sections. These sections are maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers, keeping a minimum 9’ deep channel for the barges which haul enormous amounts of coal, ore, grain, and sand.

The upper Mississippi begins in the Minneapolis, MN area at mile marker 857.8 and ends at the mouth of the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois, mile marker 0.0, 857.8 river miles downstream. This section has 27 locks which lower boats from pool to pool in a stair step fashion. The last lock is around St. Louis, mm 184. As we pass the St. Louis Arch, we are on a free running river. The current and turbulence pick up noticeably from the 3 mph we experienced in the upper section.

The Lower Mississippi begins at Cairo and ends about 980 miles later southwest of New Orleans. The current can get up to 6-9 mph in high water. Because of the locks, the tows on the upper section are limited to 3 wide by 5 long with perhaps one or two barges next to the pusher. In the Lower Mississippi they can be up to 9x5, with 45 barges lashed together and even 7x7 (49 barges).

Lock 18 1330 another smooth lockage, no waiting.

Mm 404.1 Big Muddy’s Restaurant 1430 tied to their courtesy pier for customers. We’re home! It’s easier to ask forgiveness that permission. The sign did not say we could not stay the night! Just above us was a big trawler, probably 70+’ tied between two dolphins. Stayed for Happy Hour and supper. Beer OK. Appetizers not as great as in ‘97. This was a very hot day. Had the genet on for 6 hours. We’re meeting Schneider’s tomorrow at Keokuk.

Mm 404 48 miles today

0650 lines off and on our way. Getting an early start and jump on the heat. The captain had a much better night’s sleep. It was unusual, we were tied to the pier, yet the current and set of the rudder kept us away from the pier. So when waves did come, we did not bounce into the pier.

Mm 383.9 0900 Ft. Madison Swing Bridge, 25 minute wait for a tow to come downstream and go through with us. Actually, the bridge was opened for him and we went through as well. This bridge is also called the Santa FE Bridge. It has a 525’ swing span which is the largest swing span in the world. It is a double decker bridge with autos on the top and trains on the lower level.

Choppy water with some whitecaps below town. This would not have been good water with the pontoon..

Campbell’s called. Peter’s surgery is not scheduled as yet. It will not be until late August or early September. Quite a delay for a person needing 4 bypasses. One spot is 100% blocked, the others are almost that bad. We can’t say much good about the Canadian Health Care system with delays like this.

Mm 366.9 1130 Keokuk Yacht Club. Took a slip. Washed the boat. Another hot day so we cranked up the air conditioner on our shore power and cooled off. Tom and Karen Schneider, friends from our park in Florida, who live in Macomb, Illinois, came by and we had a good visit catching up on the news from Old Bridge Village, sharing river stories and learning the ins and outs of the tent rental business.

We’re three for three, batting 1000. Every time we wash the boat it rains within 2-3 hours!

Mm 366.9 40 miles today