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!
No comments:
Post a Comment