We have travelled about 85.5 miles since leaving Quincy. It has been filled with a variety of sites and activities. I will start back as we left Quincy. We were in no hurry to leave Quincy as we planned to travel only to Hannibal which was not far down the river and included only one lock. We were excited as we had made plans with Roger and Pat Schultze to hook up in Hannibal so Roger could enjoy at least one day on the boat. As you can see from this picture, we have rigged a system to drive the boat from the top. Rick came up with this idea when the boat was still in the storage shed and it was Roger who became the "problem solver and implementer" of the system. On nice days, this is by far the best place to travel.
We just made it under the railroad bridge as we entered Hannibal. We called for clearance and had two feet to spare. Rick stayed on top but I chose to stay below just in case I would have to cut the motor. This is the spot Deb B. told us about watching some barges come apart, hit the bridge, etc. No such excitement for us.
Pat and Roger stayed with us on the boat for two nights. The first night we were docked at the Hannibal Boat Club. Now I want you to know that most "boat clubs" on the Mississippi have a small building and a small dock. We had no electricity, water, etc. except for our battery power. We had quite a feast of burgers and beans (not so wise for four in a houseboat) and were joined by a couple of brothers travelling in slightly smaller crafts than ours.
This happens to be a view of one of their boats tied along side ours for the night. They happened to find hotel lodging for the night. Often they simply camp along the river and eat food cooked on what sounds like the old bunsen burners. The way these guys travel made me really appreciate the houseboat!
We all took in the Hannibal sites on Tuesday morning. We got into the Mark Twain mood and were really enjoying the nice weather. The guys took off on their water journey while Pat and I went searching for an Orchard.
We were lucky to find our way to a great little place and while doing our shopping, the couple working there mentioned that there were a lot of barges backed up on the river near their home. At that moment, I recalled that we had heard part of the river was to be closed due to dredging. I hadn't thought any more about it until then. Little did I know the impact of the river closure to all the barge traffic.
We stayed at a great marina across the river from Louisianna. This is where the guys are used to pulling out when they do the two day river run in August. They had great facilities for showers, bathrooms, etc. Roger and Pat took off after breakfast and we headed out for another day. Everything changed when we called lock and dam 24. We could see the lock was full and we were told we would have about a two hour wait. Well, our wait was closer to 3 1/2 hours and then when we locked through, we were in the lock with a tow. This was a first for us. You can see us following him out in the picture to the right. While in the lock, the worker told us that in the pool (water between the two locks) there were approximately 28 barges and dredging boats. Our simple journey turned into a day of barge dodging along a very winding part of the river. At least the weather was good and we had contacted a marina for dockage that night.
This is part of the equipment that is being used on the river and has caused all the barge traffic to back-up. It is simply amazing to watch but it has caused some real headaches. Our marina was a little dock near a small campground where people live in their campers. It was nice they gave us an extension cord so we had some electricity. This place reminded me of some of the small towns we see in movies where out-of-work, meth addicts live. I think it is in the territory where children attend the school district our soon to be son-in-law works. INTERESTING!
We are currently waiting for another barge to lock through. We were told two hours like yesterday. At least today we have some phone signal. Tonight we should be in St. Charles to meet a few more friends. We hope to make it before dark.
Not enough charge left to proof and edit this post, so I hope it all made sense. Take care everyone.
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