yes dear …

11-OCT-2020 Sunday – Taylor Island, La Crosse, WI (~UMR mile 699)  to Jack Oak Island, Cassville, WI (~UMR mile 606)     93 nautical miles (107 statute)

42°42’16.9″N 90°58’35.7″W
42.704683, -90.976589
Elevation: 608 feet
Total Elevation Change: -23 feet

Locks (3)
Mississippi River Lock 8 – mile 679, Genoa, WI
Mississippi River Lock 9 – mile 648, Lynxville, WI and Harpers Ferry, IA
Mississippi River Lock 10 – mile 615, Guttenberg, IA

States (3) – Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa

Good Morning

We’re quickly settling into nomadic boat life. We got up at 7:30am, which is a good two hours earlier than we are used to getting up. It’s 44 degrees. Even with my shoes and socks on my feet are cold! We need to head south.

Along the Way

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Not quite Florida standards but pretty good for Minnesota. Some developer must have bought this sand dredge island for a good price then had a hay day building and selling houses and docks.

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If you’re a deck hand you gotta wash the boat. I’M NOT A DECK HAND! (The outside of yes dear… really needs a good cleaning.  It’s too cold today.)

We are getting to be regular river rats; passing barges in narrow bends, locking, anchoring out between wing dams. We also understand the deep southern drawls on the tow captains.

One thing nice about low water levels is that there hasn’t been any logs or sticks in the river to avoid. The river’s been pretty clean.

The houseboat is probably a rental from Lansing, IA. We witnessed another houseboat take quite a beating up river trying to catch lines in a lock. Bet that was a rental too.

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Check out these patio decks on rails.

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Isle of Capri Marina

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Iowa. The Land of Riverside Grain Elevators

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And an old mine of some kind. I wonder how long this has been around.

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Caseville, WI was supposed to have three free 50 foot courtesy transient slips per our charts and books. We ran pretty late into the dark to score a free dock.

No such luck. It didn’t. We suspect they had already been pulled for winter.

It was pretty dark once we settled on an anchorage. We had to rely heavily on our Navionics charts.

Literally a wing dam

River Rat 101

Wing Dam
A manmade barrier that extends partway into the water to deflect current. Wing dams force water into the faster moving main channel, reducing the rate of sediment accumulation as well as reducing water current and erosion.

Hey Debbie!

10-OCT-2020 Saturday – Slipperys, Wabasha, MN (~UMR mile 760) to Taylor Island, La Crosse, WI (~UMR mile 699)     53.6 nautical miles (61.7 statute)

43°49’37.8″N 91°16’08.3″W
43.827170, -91.268962
Elevation: 631 feet
Total Elevation Change: -35 feet

Locks (5)
Mississippi River Lock 4 – mile 753, Alma, WI
Mississippi River Lock 5 – mile 738, Minnesota City, MN
Mississippi River Lock 5A – mile 728, Fountain City, WI and Goodview, MN
Mississippi River Lock 6 – mile 714, Trempealeau, WI
Mississippi River Lock 7 – mile 703, La Crescent, MN and Onalaska, WI

States (2) – Minnesota, Wisconsin

Good Morning!

Early morning traffic.  There must be a bass tournament.

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I slept at Slipperys.

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Alma Lock 4 Waiting for Tow to Clear Lock 4

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Along the Way

Father Marquette, a French-America Jesuit explorer. He was the first to explore and map the northern portion of the Mississippi River Valley.

Vestiges of Summer

Sunglasses required. The weather was amazingly clear. The day felt like we were passing through pages in a travel magazine. Peak fall colors. 

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Quintessential Towns

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All of these beautiful little town would be cool to live in except for the fact a train rumbles through them a dozen times a day. Seriously, if I had a nickel for every train I saw I’d be up at least a dollar.

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Great River

The only way you can truly see the river is to be in a boat on the river. The Driftless area in southwestern Minnesota and southeastern Wisconsin which the Mississippi River flows through is as remarkable in its own way as the Hudson River in New York, the Grand Canyon and Yosemite. Pictures do not do it justice.

Imagine it at the end of the last Ice Age. The Mississippi River must have been a mighty river. Taking pictures of it is kinda like taking pictures of the Grand Canyon. It is impossible to understand the scale and impact from simple pictures.

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Trempealeau is part of the ‘Driftless Area’ and one of my favorite areas on the Upper Mississippi River.

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There was an enormous flock of cormorants circling and landing in the trees. I bet it totaled over 500 birds. I think it’s pretty amazing how they can wrap their little we feet around tree branches and hang on.

Good Night
Anchor was dropped between two wing dams off Taylor Island in La Crosse, WI.

The Driftless Area

The Driftless area is an area (as in Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa) that is free from glacial drift. It was surrounded by glaciers during the Pleistocene, last glacial period and yet remained untouched by passing glaciers. The area has deep cut river valleys, such as the Kickapoo, and rugged rock bluffs near La Crosse indicating lack of glacial drift

The ‘Driftless area’ includes the incised Paleozoic Plateau of southeastern Minnesota and northeastern Iowa. The region includes elevations ranging from 603 to 1,719 feet at Blue Mound State Park and covers an area of 24,000 square miles

Floccinaucinihilipilification
The Minnesota Art Museum in Winona, MN has a Picasso. (Also a Kandinsky, Renoir, and Van Goph)

9-OCT-2020 Friday – Twin City Marina, Inver Grove Heights (~UMR mile 831) to Slipperys, Wabasha, MN (~UMR mile 760) 61.5 nautical miles (71 statute)

*UMR Upper Mississippi River statute mile

44°51’31.5″N 93°00’52.2″W
44.858739, -93.014493
Elevation: 666 feet

Locks – Total Elevation Change 21 feet
Mississippi River Lock 2 – mile 815, Hastings, MN
Mississippi River Lock 3 – mile 797, Welch/Red Wing, MN

That ship has sailed! We left at first light. Not really. We were off after taking care of a few incidentals. First needed to dump the full recycle bin and full compacted bin that we forgot to last night. And we needed to make a pot coffee before we pulled the power cord.

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It’s as pretty here in Minnesota, south of the Twin Cities, as other places on the Loop.  The Grey Cloud area on the river is gorgeous, especially now in the Fall. I didn’t get a pictures of around there as it was still a little dark.

Dredging

The GODs (Guys on Docks) warned us to keep mid channel. A bunch of the GODs with their boats and wifes took an overnight run to Treasure Island Casino out last week. We’d have gone too but had other commitments. A couple of them ran aground running near the bouys.  Mid channel logged at 7.4 feet. 

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First lock out of the way.  Lock 2, just outside of Hastings, MN.

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Oh Look! It’s Steady Eddie!

It was serendipity running into our good friends Ed and Karen on Steady Eddie in Prescott, WI. They were on their way to Red Wing for the weekend.

Ed and Karen stopped in for a short visit while we were on the fuel dock. Then on to Red Wing

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Guess where we are

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Onto Lake Pepin

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Nothing ventured

We called Slipperys in Wabasha, MN and asked if we could spend the night on their dock. WOO WOO. They said sure even though the sign said NO OVERNIGHT DOCKING.

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Serendipity! HAHA! Look who showed up! Mark and Nancy have reservations at the St James Hotel in Red Wing……. for next weekend not this one. Oopsies. We invited them for the night since they were in the area and had no place to stay.

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Goodnight!

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8-OCT-2020 Thursday, Twin City Marina, Inver Grove Heights, MN, Mississippi River

44°51’31.5″N 93°00’52.2″W
44.858749, -93.014490
Elevation: 685 feet

Today was our last day before departure. Missions were to drop remaining items off at the boat, clean up our rooms at Emily’s house and drop off our car.

Time with the Fam minus Emily (she is at our condo in Florida)

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The day ended too quickly.

Final drop off

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Ship Shape

Everything on the boat. Just not put away. We have a whole lot of time to to put it away.

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Too Late for Pictures

The day got away from me. Too late for marina pictures. I’m going to miss this place and the great boat people. Thanks Denise and Dave organizing the send off party last weekend.

There are good ships, there are wood ships, there are ships that sail the sea. But jthe best ships are friendships, and may they always be.
~ Irish proverb

7-OCT-2020 Wednesday, Emily’s House in Roseville, MN (Dog sitting)

But first we had to play

The water in Pool 2 between the Upper and Lower St Anthony Falls Locks has been lowered to inspect the infrastructure and the Stone Arch Bridge.  The last time it was lowered for inspection was in 2008. Daryl, our good friend and Emily’s neighbor, joined us to check it out.  Lucky Mary! Two muses!

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Not water under the bridge

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Time to leave …

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Minneapolis and St Paul have to be the most beautiful river cities we have seen in all our travels.

Divide and Conquer

Happenings in the marina

Miss Behaven was pulled

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Saint Anthony Falls was the only natural major waterfall on the Upper Mississippi River.

The natural falls were replaced by a concrete overflow spillway after it partially collapsed in 1869. Later, in the 1950s and 1960s, a series of locks and dams was constructed to extend navigation to points upstream.

Geologists say that the falls first appeared roughly 12,000 years ago about 10 miles downstream at the confluence of the glacial River Warren (at present-day Ft. Snelling). Estimates are that the falls were about 180 feet high when the River Warren Falls receded past the confluence of the Mississippi River and the glacial River Warren. Over the succeeding 10,000 years, the falls moved upstream to its present location. The water churning at the bottom of the falls ate away at the soft sandstone, eventually breaking off the hard limestone cap in chunks as the falls receded. From its origins near Fort Snelling, St. Anthony Falls relocated upstream at a rate of about 4 feet per year until it reached its present location in the early 19th century. (Thanks Wiki)

6-OCT-2020 Tuesday, Emily’s House in Roseville, MN (Dog sitting)

Our departure plans have been constantly rearranging for that passed month. Yesterday, Monday, about 1:00pm things came together and we decided to leave this coming Friday.  So much to do and so little time.

Get Ready

Mission for the day was provisioning non-perishables, canned goods, freezer items and paper products. About $400 dollars later after a Costco run, we returned to yes dear…

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We always unpack the items and toss the boxes. Boxes take up a lot of room on a boat.

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So what did we buy… canned tomatoes of all kinds, beans of all kinds, baking staples and spices, cereal, nuts, snacks, pasta, several kinds of rice, salsa, chips ….

Ya just hate to work too hard on the first planning day.

Don’t hold your breathe

I’m not sure how often I’m going to blog.