A week in La Crosse

    Not a lot of excitement going on this week. Monday afternoon we both drove to Sabula, IA to grab my car. Amy went on to IL for a couple days of meetings. I got to return to the boat and do projects. 

The mustang had developed a crack in the windshield sitting in the hot summer sun. I ordered a repair kit, because it would be just my luck to replace it and then it crack again! I also got the soft start installed on the refrigeration compressor, so now the startup loads should be more manageable for the generator, and also for the inverter in the case of refrigeration. 

  

  Amy returned Wed evening with a beer re-supply from IL. Alcohol taxes are less in IL, about the only one that is less! I plotted and prepared for our trip up to the head of navigation. We also got to meet our dock neighbors finally.  The wife is from Viroqua and knows my family there.

 

   Thursday I made some adjustments to the trim tabs on the dinghy. The new shocks must be slightly longer than the old ones. I had to reduce the bite they were taking. For the evening we headed across the channel to Copeland Park to catch a La Crosse Loggers game. We had seats right over the Loggers dugout. The loggers were playoff bound, but not the most impressive display. The Center Fielder was not all that impressive. Left fielder and Short Stop will find their way to the Major Leagues though!

 

 

 

The "Lumberyard"

     Friday we had a full day running around La Crosse for provisions. First over-shopping stop was the Sam's Club. It's very hard to buy most things in bulk for a boat. But shelf stable goods we can find a place to store. Then a lunch stop at "Rocky Rococo's", a pizza chain Ive only seen in Wisconsin. Hasn't changed much in 20 years either :) We then headed for the south side, because there was an ALDI in the old south side Shopko building. And it looked like they maybe were using the whole building... which would have made it the largest ALDI we had ever heard of. Well turns out that it's the same ALDI, just slightly bigger with more room between isles. 

After all the provisions were loaded onto the boat and put away, we took Amy's car to Dahl Subaru for a recall repair.  We left the car with them for the next 2 weeks, for the repair and also to work up a possible trade scenario. Since she was rear-ended, we would like to trade sometime in the next few months. Maybe here if they offer us the right deal :)

    Saturday we finished last minute prep for Sunday departure, and took a dinghy cruise around the area. We explored the east side of French Island all the way up to the spillway from Lake Onalaska. We attempted to head up the La Crosse river, however the first overpass had too many trees and trash against it to make it through... or at least more than I wanted to attempt with an RIB 😅 SO off we went up around the west side, and then back to the boat to meet Aunt Janelle. She had called and was coming to La Crosse and wanted to meet up. Well Amy's birthday is coming up, and she brought cheesecake since we would be in MN over her birthday. Thanks Janelle!

    I am going to wrap this up here since we are taking off again Sunday. Have a great week everyone!

Special Edition: A Tribute to David Fuller

 

    We are very sad today to write this post. We learned last night that Dave passed away suddenly while he and his wife Claudia were on an Alaskan Cruise. Dave and Claudia are fellow members of AGLCA, and greatest of folks that we have met in the cruiser's association.

    Dave (and Claudia) was the best of the best. He was the type of guy you just talk to for 30 seconds and instantly know its going to be a pleasure knowing him. We met at the first Fall Rendezvous post COVID. After all the fight to even attend, (COVID related stuff) I was really on the fence about sticking around the association. A short private conversation with Dave, and 30 minutes later I walked upstairs and shelled out for a lifetime membership. I can't count the number of rewarding moments of helping someone, meeting new and interesting folks, and just great experiences that most of which would likely not have occurred without that connection. I will be eternally grateful to have known him, for even just a small handful of years.

    Dave loved stories, especially ones filled with humor, and I am going to share one. I ran into Dave and Claudia at The Crow's Nest in Venice, FL a couple years back. They were already in the restaurant when we arrived. I pulled up with a customer boat from the gulf, windows down, walked away from the helm. This particular vessel has one of those dockmate remotes.

    I stood on the bow, my deck hand on the stern. Moved into the fuel dock, filled up, then had 2-300 yards to go back toward the inlet and dock on the transient dock, right behind Still Waters II. So again, no one at the helm, we pushed out, spun around, idled up to the transient dock, spun again and start easing in. About then my phone goes off... its a text from Dave. "You know that's cheating!" We got tied up, and Dave came down laughing... because the windows were down, everyone in the restaurant could see no one was at either helm. So many were standing at the window asking who's driving the boat. Couldn't see that little remote in my hand from that distance. So just remember being "The Show" isn't always a bad thing!

 

    I just talked with Dave a little over a month ago. I ran into a subject of one of his stories in Red Wing, MN. You will read about that stop in the coming weeks. As is always the case, there is such a long list of things I would have said if I had any clue it would be the last time we spoke. But thats the thing about life, we never know. I connect the closest with people through humor and picking fun back and forth. I always do my best to make myself the butt of a few jokes as well! That's how I connect. I can sit down and write things with a deeper meaning, but on the fly in conversation I'm not so good at it. I truly hope Dave knew how great of a guy I felt he was while he was still here.    

    

    Fly high Frugal Fuller! I know I am sure going to miss that laugh and personality bigger than the state of Texas! I guess the "First Class Passenger" joke is on you now... If you didn't get first class accommodations on the other side, the rest of us do not stand a chance!

    The following link is video he did just a couple days before the two of them got on the Alaskan Cruise : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYvaOmo4meE

Who says you can't go home again??

     We pulled out of Island City Harbor on a Tuesday. We had a great stay, and wish we had more time, but our delays at Keokuk for high water have cost us this extra week. So off we go, through the railroad swing bridge, and under the highway bridge connecting Savanah, IL and Sabula, IA.

    We had a pretty smooth sailing day, other than I hit the lock, and Port of Dubuque Marina during Amy's 2 scheduled calls for the day... Couldn't plan it that way if I tried... So I locked single hand, and tied us up at the marina single hand. Good practice. Toscana isn't too bad to handle alone, but it takes a different mindset. Lots of prep, and well it's sure easier having her hands down on the deck!. 

    We took a tour of the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. I was expecting more Aquarium and less Museum, however it was still a nice stop. It is geared more for kids than Adults, but there were still some neat things to see. Worth the near $50 admission fee???? Maybe not, but still very neat. We finished off with Ice Cream at the marina Office, and picked up a bottle of Strawberry Rhubarb Wine from a local winery... we will taste that later in the week.

    Wednesday took us on the next leg to Guttenberg, IA. This was a short day, so we slept in a bit, and waited out some storms. I was surprised to find the RR Swing bridge in Dubuque to be physically manned, something we rarely see these days.

    The river was beautiful all day, its nice to see it not in flood! Guttenburg, IA was a new stop for me. Unfortunately the ice cream shop, and the brew house were both closed. So we enjoyed a cold beverage at The Dam Bar, walked back to the marina, and had dinner aboard. 

     The next morning we locked through at 10 and headed for Lansing, IA. Years ago I spent a fair amount of time in McGregor, IA and Lansing. Both of them sure have changed a lot, but it has been over 20 years! 

    Once past McGregor, we started to enter waters I had fished while growing up. Several places were familiar and brought back memories of that 16' flat bottom, chocked full of camping gear, headed for an island. That's what we did when I was a kid... that was vacation, at least 2 weekends a month on the river. I do NOT miss all the work to set up camp, then break it down 2-3 days later... that part never made sense to me... might be why I went into boats that "camp" was already set-up aboard! But I do miss the peace and quiet of the fishing parts! 

    Lansing was a lot of fun, we docked next to a really interesting couple, plus we bumped into a looper couple heading down river to start their loop. I'm not sure they have settled in to the lifestyle just yet, but they seem like wonderful folks. The Tiki Bar was serving Mexican that evening, so we had dinner there.

     We took our time getting going Friday morning, and payed for it with a near 4 hour wait at Lock 8. If we had left 15 minutes sooner we could have gotten right through. Also of note, in the near 4 hours we sat at anchor waiting, 4 houseboats, and multiple cruisers showed up to lock through as well. This is a Friday, and not even a holiday weekend, so you can imagine the surprise. Locking was a little interesting as 2 of the houseboats were rentals, without experienced Captains! 

Sandbars, the way they should be!!

                                                                    Downtown La Crosse!

     The trip from lock 8 into La Crosse was amazing... at least for me. This pool, near and around Goose Island, was where I spent so much of that  time as a kid. Brownsville, MN, where my Grandmother was from, and so many Weidman Family Reunions. We continued on, with so many boats out. I swear everyone that owns a boat called in sick to work today. We capped the cruise off with a nice slow cruise through La Crosse's riverfront, and up the Black River channel to our Marina home for our stay here.

    We started off right away Saturday with a day cruise with Grandpa, Aunt Janelle, and a few others... 8 or us in total. We cruised down to Brownsville, then back up to Pettibone Boat Club for a great lunch in the shade!

    We all piled back aboard and cruised up to the Swing RR bridge, then back down and up the Black River channel to our slip. We sat around for a bit, had a couple beverages, and then loaded them all up in the cars to head back to Viroqua. Grandpa is having second thoughts about the trip to Minneapolis, however hopefully we can get him out for a shorter trip. 

    Sunday brought us a nice low key day. We had a few locals stop by to say hi and get a closer look. Toscana gets a bit of attention up here in that not too many cruising boats find there way up here. I got one of the new Soft Starts installed, but the second one turned out to be defective. So a replacement is on it's way and I'll get that one later in the week. I have a few other small projects to tinker with this week, as well as a car ride back to Sabula to get my car. Amy is running to the office for a couple days so she will go on to Illinois, and I'll come back here and do a few projects to get ready for the trip to Minneapolis and back!

    I am hoping to get started releasing videos after we get back here from Minneapolis. We have some more pieces to add in, and I will have some time to get the post production work done. These from the trip up will be our "practice" run. I'm hoping to get some better stuff as we head downstream with fall colors and normal pool levels!

   

Island City Life!

     This week will be spent here in Sabula, IA. A city entirely on an island in the Mississippi River. It seems very peaceful, but I expect things will crank up by the weekend. Wed was eaten up with a drive to Keokuk, IA to get Amy's car, and some emergency repairs on the Ice Maker. For some reason the compressor overload has failed. I got a replacement ordered, but until it arrives I put it back in service with a 5A slow blow fuse to keep it running, but still protect the compressor windings in the event of a high current draw situation.

    Thursday we got up early with both cars and headed for La Crosse. Amy had a 0900 work call that we stopped for, then she spent the rest of the day working from the car on our way back. We ended up getting a slip at American Marine even though they do not generally take transients. We stopped in anyway, and with a face to face meeting, the nice lady who runs it had a slip they had not filled on a seasonal basis. She called her boss to see if renting to us for 2 months was acceptable vs hoping someone would walk in and get 3 months out of it. Well he was happy to take what he could get and we have a home base for Aug and September! In the evening we had some friends stop out who just got married last week, and we missed it because of being in Keokuk.

    Finally Friday we did not have any driving! We visited with a couple guys from Rockford... my "computer hardware" guy for over 10 years. Toscana can be challenging compared to a houseboat for example, but Rick made it on and off with no problems and enjoyed a nice ride. Then in the evening we put the dinghy in and cruised on down to the sandbar where Lon and Renee were hanging out. 

     Saturday we were joined by some of Amy's work friends and a lady who babysat Amy's kids growing up. It was a beautiful day. We took a cruise, then anchored near the beach. The crew were happy to sit and dangle feet off the swim platform instead of a dinghy ride in to the beach. We enjoyed a late afternoon meal of smoked country ribs! 

Sunday found us having good friends Joe and Dawn over, and just hanging around the dock. It was raining one min, hot and muggy the next. That was ok because they have been out on the boat more than once before.

Monday saw us having a quiet day. Amy had an important meeting she wanted to be stationary for, plus I needed to run to Clinton for a few provisions and a new phone. The screen was falling out of the darn thing. I had picked up some adhesive to get it held back in place, but AT&T had a deal to trade in any Galaxy for this flip6. I like the half the space in my pocket. We will see how well it holds up! Hopefully I wont be bringing it back up in next weeks post!! 😅🤣

KYC Week 3, and getting underway again!

     We started out the week with a car ride for me, taking Amy's parents up to their car in Sebula, IA. They had a great time, but I sure wish we could have delivered them as planned by boat! On the way home I inquired as to the availability in Muscatine Municipal Harbor for the second night. If we get there on a Monday sure, but being run by the city, no one will be there Sunday to take our money. So we will play that one by ear. Lock 18 looks to open as early as Friday, July 19. We are gearing up to take off Sat morning, July 20.

Thursday and Friday were busy days... doing laundry and bedding, packing up fishing equipment, provisioning, and getting everything ship shape for Sat departure. We also spent a fair amount of time saying our goodbyes to the great folks we met over our nearly 3 week stay at KYC. 

We woke up Saturday all ready to take off.... only to be delayed over an hour to re-wash the boat. We had the worst Mayfly hatch so far overnight, and the darn things were everywhere! We were underway before 0730 and had a great day of travel. Got right through the swing bridge in Ft Madison, the lift bridge in Burlington, and right through Lock 18. We completed our day at anchor, with smoked boston butt and zucchini with mushrooms off the griddle. Doesn't get much better than this. There are several towboats ahead of us waiting for 17 to open tomorrow... we will see how that all goes tomorrow.

Sunday brought us more high water, and towboats on top of towboats. Luckily Lock 17 said come on up, we will shoot you up in between when we have a chance... and they sure did, we waited about 90 minutes and had lunch. Our plan was to stop and anchor across from Muscatine, IA, however a call to Lock 16 kept us moving. They have lines backed up both ways, but they had an opportunity to shoot us through in between south bounders... so we got there, waited about 45 min, and were off again. Found a nice anchorage a few miles up... we had some simple burgers off the griddle and some leftover sides. Long day, but we are ahead of the game and through the largest area of backups.

    We were up early and moving Monday. Amy is not a big fan of "up early" but on these work days she does like to get moving, then have time to settle into her work. Just a short 2-3 miles upstream we crossed paths with towboat Mary K Cavarra. They were the one towboat that could pass us when we were on the Cairo, IL to St Louis stretch of the river. Unfortunately the crew has turned over, so it wasn't the same Captain. We passed the mouth of the Rock River, and worked our way up to Lock 15. They were getting ready to work a southbound double, so we had to wait. Their Auxiliary chamber had not re-opened yet from the high water. We had a short swift stretch up to Lock 14, and got right through. I had planned us for the free dock in Le Claire, IA. The dock was in great shape, but no power so just like at anchor, we had to make our own. 

    It also turned out we were about 6 blocks from the Iowa location of American Pickers, so we walked up and checked it out. Had a nice meal at a little Mexican restaurant while the skies opened up and poured outside. We returned to Toscana for some more beverages, a baseball game, and another rainbow with both ends visible!

    Tuesday brought us many beautiful homes to look at, and much less flooding. we worked our way through some still strong current through Clinton, IA and up to Lock 13. We locked through with a tourboat called "Twilight" that runs this stretch up to Dubuque, IA. we made great time, and got into Island City Harbor in Sabula, IA in very early afternoon. Only to be greeted by General Louis "P.I.T.A" Lipsey from Mississippi. We ran around the area, had some beers, a great meal, and a quick tour of what is left of Frank Fritz Finds.

 

    We will be here for a week to shuffle cars around, and boring stuff on land. We also have many friends planned to visit while we are here, but more on that next week!