After all our fun on the town Friday night, we lingered a bit Saturday, getting off the dock near 10am. No problem, just a short 2 hour cruise down to Alton, where our cars were waiting. The colors have caught up with us again!
We settled in, and I shocked and flushed our water tanks, then refilled. Water gets winterized here November 4th, so had to get it done. Then we had a nice dinner with my broker friends from back in the day. Mike and Lou (and their wives) are always a lot of fun!!!
Sunday we took off early for Joe Wheeler State Park, our home marina. We needed to leave Amy's car there for when we got back. We then drove back to TN and stopped through home. I had some things to handle Monday morning, then back to Alton. We got here in a terrible rain, but spent the evening at Fast Eddie's with our friend Kristi. She is the widow of Jeremy, the longtime harbormaster at Heritage Harbor in Ottawa, IL
Tuesday was another day of rain, so I wrote here, worked on some videos, inside the boat stuff. We will shove off early Wed morning!
Wednesday morning saw us off at first light for a lockage at Mel Price before a line of 5 towboats headed down. The lock chamber was full of floating debris from the rains. But we pushed gently through and got settled in.
The short cruise down to Lock 27 was quick with the current push, but much less debris. We locked down in the small chamber, then shot through St Louis like a rocket!!! Or at least that's how it seemed.
We were making 13mph, still making turns for 8.5mph. We sped past the arch (no pictures of us passing it this time) and were at the Meremac River in no time. That's where the debris got really crazy. But just past the worst of it was the kayak-er we shared lock 25 with.
The debris eased off as we got further down river. We passed Kaskaskia Lock (a popular stop to tie up) pretty early and pushed on to mile marker 83, one of the places we anchored on the way up.
After making all those miles, Thursday gave us a chance to get off the UMR in 2 days. So off we went about 0700.
We passed Little Diversion (another great anchorage) about 0900, and on we went. Passed a couple other loopers traveling slightly slower.
We rounded the confluence and started up the Ohio River about 1400. Now we slowed to between 6.5 and 7mph, still making turns for 8.5 mph.
This got us up to Turner Landing anchorage right below Olmstead lock at 1630. Dropped the hook and settled in.
Hoping for 75 miles into Green Turtle Bay, it's certainly going to make it a long day! We got right through Olmstead, an trudged on toward Paducah, KY. Shortly after clearing the lock, we were passed by this towboat moving at just over 10 mph!!
We reached Paducah about 11:30, and decided to continue on to Green Turtle after all. Plenty of current to fight, but still a beautiful day on the water!
We made it in, just after dark was settling in. Next week we will cover the rest of the trip home to Joe Wheeler State Park!
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