Warmer weather, Please!

     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

    We had a great time catching up, there is us waiting at the bar. Kristi brought her daughter and her significant other with. 

    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!

Mother nature turning a little mean...

     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! 

    Next time, we head on down to Alton, IL, sage cars for the trip home, and head back down the lower section of the UMR :)