Back to La Crosse!

     As much as we enjoyed our brief stay in St Paul, it is time to be getting back to La Crosse. We have a pretty full schedule through Oct 1 when we start heading further back to Tennessee. The good part to that is there will be no shortage of things to write about!

    We started our day with a beautiful early morning view of St Paul's riverfront. The road bridges are all high and fixed, but there are 3 Railroad bridges that require opening for us to pass.

Commercial paddlewheelers docked.

Several boats on an island sandbar, including a personal sized paddlewheeler

    We did not get any still pics of the trip up the St Croix. It started with a Railroad and a highway bridge opening to get on the St Croix. The next 11 miles to Afton, well lets just say they were a textbook example of why loopers tend to not travel on weekends. So many boats... I thought I was on the gulf coast near Tampa and Ft Myers at times.

    Across from Afton, MN is the St Croix Yacht Club. It is just a sandbar peninsula along the river, but it is private, and the YC has run power out there. So all these boats that beach and have fun can plug their boats into shore power. But it is a private beach. Do not pull up there without an invite from one of the members. 

    Toscana is not a good choice of boat for pulling up on sandbars, so we anchored just upstream a bit, and took the dinghy to the beach. We met up with Ron and Nancy from Flying Colors. We had met them on their loop briefly at Cuba Landing, and were at the 2021 Fall Rendezvous with them.

We returned to Toscana for a small dinner, and a great sunset!

    We got up and underway fairly early on Monday. Since we stopped short at Afton to see friends, we continued on up to Hudson, WI. The RR swing bridge was closed, and I wasn't gonna have them open, to just turn around and come back through in 30 minutes... so we called it good there and set course for Red Wing, MN

 

 Once in Red Wing, you had to see the World's Largest Boot! 😅

 

 

     The best part of Red Wing, MN was, as it usually is, the people! Mary met us at the boat with a nice vase of flowers! As we were tying the boat up for the night, Mary mentioned well Dan is over there, pointing to the table by the Marina Store, but he is blind. I already knew they were gold loopers, so the alarm bells went of almost instantly, this was the couple Dave Fuller talks about! And sure enough it was. They had wonderful stories about their trip around the loop. He drove the boat, Mary was his eyes, and tended the lines. I couldn't do their stories justice, I suggest you make a trip up the river to Red Wing and hear them for yourselves!

 

    We also met another planning loopers Brian and Vicky, but we didn't think to take their picture. We took the dinghy across the river to Harbor Bar to meet them, and also catch up with the owner Brad. I had met him on my trip 6 years ago, plus after that found a documentary called On The Waterways, that featured a great segment on him and his Bar & Marina. We stayed and visited pretty late as I had to dig out the running lights to cross the river! 

    Tuesday, we got up and going early. The American Serenade was docking at the city dock as we left.

    We had a short day planned, but 2 stops. Lake City, MN to meet a fuel truck for $3.00/gallon diesel. Then we wanted to stop at Slippery's in Wabasha, MN. If the tumblers have not clicked yet, think of the Grumpy Old Men movies! We had the Raggetti's Spaghetti and Slippery Deluxe!

   

 After our lunch and a trip through all the memorabilia, we walked a few blocks south to the National Eagle Center. They have 3 Bald Eagles, and something else that we couldn't see, a hawk of some kind. The eagles are all here because they were injured in such a way that even after recovery, they couldn't go back to the wild. It's a neat stop and by far the closest look at a Bald Eagle you will ever get!

A friend passing by snapped this shot of us at Slippery's. He is the Harbor man at Hub's in Hastings, MN. He and his wife are traveling down to Lansing, then back during their vacation week!

    We spent the night at Alma Marina, with Bart and Kristen 2 boats over. They traveled with us Wed, both stopping in Winona. We anchored, they went into Dick's Marine. Our anchorage was in a back channel with several boathouses. Lovely view! 

    Our friend Bart took a drive with their daughter across the bridge in front of us, great anchorage pics from them!

A couple shots of Bart and Kristen's boat waiting for lock 5a

    Thursday we took our time getting going, and weighed anchor about 0830. we eased down through Lock 6, about 30 min behind Bart. We then anchored near an old campsite we used for several years when I was a kid. It's changed alot. Plus I found a good place to go, where we can anchor with Toscana and do an overnight fishing trip with Grandpa if he wants to come.

 

    After that we weighed anchor again, and headed back down river. past Lock 7 and the La Crescent Swing Bridge, we passed the La Crosse Queen heading up with some tourists, and found the American Serenade had passed us up overnight sometime since Red Wing and was docked at Riverside Park. We got nestled back into our home-away-from-home slip at North Bay and ready for 6 weeks in La Crosse before continuing south. Don't worry we have plenty of Shore Leave excursions planned to share with you over the next few weeks!