Mississippi, Ohio,and Cumberland Rivers

We left Grafton and headed for the Mississippi just a mile down stream. The river gets much wider when the two river meet. There seems to be much more small debris and the river is deeper. The bank scenery changes from banks with farm land to limestone cliffs cut by glaciers and the river. The run to Alton IL was uneventful and we enjoyed great weather on the trip. In Alton we stayed three days at a great marina. The Alton Marina is interesting. The offices and bath house are floating barges and all this is tied to large, high covered docks that float. This entire assembly has to float 20+ feet up when the rivers rise during floods. While in Alton we rode bikes to the National Great Rivers Museum at Mel Price Lock. It was a fun afternoon and the museum was well done. Our next stop was the infamous Hoppies Marina in Kimmswich MO. This stop is a must for boats who don't have the fuel capacity to run long distance.. The next fuel stop is almost 250 miles. Hoppies is three large barges on the right descending bank. Its not much, but getting your down river briefing from Fern the owner makes the stop one of the great experiences on the loop. Fuel at $2.57/gal wasn't bad either. The next stop was an anchorage at Little Diversion Canal. It was a 110 mile run to Little Diversion Channel, Cape Girardeau MO. We ran faster than normal at 1700 rpm vs. 1400 rpm. We wanted to ensure we got in before dark after two locks. Always Home and Fryedaze ran at almost 14 mph while Bama Dream ran a few mph slower. We probably only arrived 45 minutes earlier than Bama Dream so we probably just burnt more fuel for nothing:-). The next leg of the trip is troublesome for Loopers this year. We left Little Diversion and ran the 49 miles to enter the Ohio river. When you make the turn to the Ohio you go from 13-14 mph to 6-7 mph as you now head upstream. The first 42 miles on the Ohio has two very old locks. The delays at these two locks due to traffic and maintenance can be extensive. We had significant delays at these locks. The delays are worrisome because you want to get to your anchorage before dark and the delays challenge that. We anchored over night on the Ohio at Bean Branch Creek inlet and then moved on to the anchorage at the Cumberland river towhead. The anchorage was great and the Asian Carp show when we cam in was pretty cool. The next morning we set out up the Cumberland , made it through Barkley Lock and tied up at Green Turtle Bay Marina for a three day lay over.

 

Departing Grafton, thanks for the picture Clark on Sea Moss.

 

We were told that the water has come up to the cape that the statue of Mary. The platform she stands on is twenty feet high!

During the flood of 1951 the Mississippi River had risen so high that it threatened Portage des Sioux for the first time in the history of the town. In a 1957 article The St. Charles Banner-News reported: “While the streets of many riverbank communities disappeared beneath the rising waters, something important was happening in Portage des Sioux, Mo. Father Edward B. Schlattmann, pastor of St. Francis Church, called upon his parish Legion of Mary to pray to the Blessed Virgin. For the first time anywhere, Mary’s protection was sought under the appellative, “Our Lady of the rivers.” The surging current swept over the roads leading into Portage and lapsed hungrily toward the town. Isolated and frightened, Portage people watched helplessly as the water inched nearer their homes. After two weeks, when the flood finally crested, their community was mostly high and dry.”

In gratitude, the parish decided to erect a statue on the banks of the river, dedicated to “Our Lady of the Rivers.” Word of the project spread, and contributions came in from all over the United States. In October 1957, ten thousand people attended the dedication of a 25-foot fiberglass statue of Mary mounted on a 20-foot concrete pedestal that sits at the water's edge looking across the Mississippi to the bluffs above Alton, Illinois.

Tow simulator at the National Great River museum. Its like a big video game. We did pretty well until it came time to put the barges in the lock. The sound of the barge scraping the lock walls is scary!

The Argosy Casino in Alton IL. 

Fast Freddies Bon Air. The prices on the wall are real. This place knows how to move some product. We had a good time with three other looper couples.

Camera selfie going by the Saint Louis Arch



The locks are getting larger. They were 600 feet long and now some are 1000 feet long.





"This Buds for you"



Hoppies with Patriot, Elizabear and Always home

Riverfront art near Saint Louis

Google Earth Hoppies

This is the biggest old boy we have seen yet. 35 barges in this tow.

Bama Dream heading out into the mist of morning.

Smoke on the water........The big fog bank ahead burnt off before we got there, thank goodness!

Always Home making a pass on a very large barge. He has to hit it because the Tow is headed into a 100 degree bend.

And he made it!!

Looking out the entrance of Little Diversion Canal in the morning as we ready for the days run.

Parking lot. The Mississippi and Ohio had barges parked everywhere.

We ran into the Queen of the Mississippi and a long Tow at this sharp turn. We radioed the Queen and said we would wait until she came through. Three abreast on the turn would have been tight. After the Queen passed we called the Tow captain for instructions and he told use to come on the one. So we continued on and passed the Tow.



Raft up of Always Home Fryedaze and Bama Dream in Little Diversion. Always home set a bow anchor and Bama Dream came in backwards and set their anchor so we didn't move. Fryedaze was lazy and just snuggled between the two

We are slappin leather now, 14.9 mph!!  See mom, this is how we know were to go.

Anchored on the Ohio river

Little guys

The Olmstead Lock under construction. Congress funded this $775 mil project in 1988. The cost has ballooned to $3.1 billion. Its only half done and isn't schedule for completion until 2020 possibly 2024. The lock will replace the decaying Lock 52 and 53.

All that debris is at least twenty feet above the water at the lock.

Hear comes the Queen.

 "We were in the worst dogfight I ever dreamed of. There were bogeys like fireflies all over the sky". Everyone of those blue triangles is a bogey, Oh I mean a Tow. You can see how congested the river gets.

We were anchored below the lock 52 dam waiting our turn to lock through. One hour before this picture was take there wasn't any water coming over that dam. We were nicely anchored in calm water. We got lucky and they called us before the water came up. Apparently they let warter down upstream two days before to raise the levels so tows can get through the locks. It was just getting there when we pulled anchor.

Hey, we are anchored. Lets get some stainless polished while we wait.

Asian Carp at the Cumberland Towhead anchorage.

There are two of these moorings where the Ohio meets the Cumberland river. It looks like someone "bumped" this one.

 That's one way to fill a barge. There are lots of quarries on the Cumberland river.

 We tie up to floating bollards that float up with the boat as the lock fills. Its a lot easier than managing bow and stern lines to hold the boat in place. Thanks goodness we have a seasoned deck hand who has this procedure wired!

 Barkley Lock was opened to navigation traffic in July of 1964.  The lock chamber is 800-foot long and 110-foot wide.  During normal lake levels, the lock will lift a boat 57-foot from the river below the dam to the lake above the dam.  The lock releases over 37.5 million gallons of water each time is emptied.

 That's a long way up for this elevator ride.

This little hitch hiker road our boat for a few miles. We think he was resting. We have seen a few Monarch Butterflies heading south. At one point one flew in front of the boat for about ten minutes while we were doing about 10 mph. Who knew?