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!!
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!
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