We left out of Keokuk, after waiting an extra day for high winds. Well of course, the winds decided to continue anyway. We were joined by Plane Relief, gold loopers headed south for the winter. And they had ordered in a truck for fuel, so we topped off as well at $2.85/gallon! We were also joined by the Lady Chateau, an 80' boat that is home to it's owner, and also a dinner cruise boat in the summers in MN.
Lady Chateau was in a hurry, and with the lock so close it was best to all leave together... so lines were off at 0600 (first light is about 0700) and down to Lock 19. We were a few miles downstream of the lock before daylight ever found us. And windy! Good grief it was still windy. Luckily it didn't work too bad against us in the 4 locks.
We had a good day, following the other two. they ran slightly faster, but we were never more than 10 minutes behind. It was a south wind, so we still had temps near 80. For October 30th... that's pretty amazing :) And some beautiful scenery, which is the norm on the UMR!
We got nestled in to Two Rivers Marina about 1630, so still had time for dinner outside with a sunset before I had to fire up the computer for Virtual Docktails, an AGLCA event we were signed up for.
The next morning we waited for first light, but still an early start. After making over half way to Grafton we decided to push on, get there a day early, and have more time to enjoy Grafton.
We got off to a slow start, in that we had a 2 hour wait at Lock 24 for an upbound Towboat. Good thing was we were anchored through the small storm that blew in. Then off we went for Lock 25.
We ended up sharing the chamber with a kayak-er... now granted the waster has warmed slightly since we got further south...to a whole 61 degrees... but I can't believe anyone is this crazy :)
He headed for shore after the lockage, he had to be freezing! We continued on to Grafton. Lady Chateau went on to Alton. Plain Relief stopped with us, and we met another couple from Nothing Else Matters and had a great dinner and some drinks at the Martini Bar up the street!
I almost forgot, our landing pics!
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