Destination Arrived Mississippi River Statute Mile 830
Along the Way
All good things must come to an end. Today we sold yes dear to Paul and Micki. If you had been paying attention to foreshadowing in the last two blogs you would have noticed ‘yes dear = Freedom‘. Paul and Micki are going to rechristen yes dear… to Freedom. I know she is going to competent boaters and wonderful people who will enjoy her as much as we did.
The final act. Removing yes dear’s…. Platinum Loop burgee
Time is like a river. You cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has past will never pass by again. Enjoy every moment of your life.
Destination Arrived Mississippi River Statute Mile 830 Remaining Statute Miles: 0 Remaining number of Locks: 0
Along the Way
Top O’ the Morning. We are off.
Good Bye Treasure Island.
Keeping an eagle eye on us.
At work (It’s great to be retired).
I hope no one is in there…
LOL. The section of the Mississippi River from Treasure Island to the Twin Cities is called Asshole Alley because there are so many inconsiderate large boats hauling all out between the two spots. Being a Tuesday and all, luckily we didn’t encounter any.
This semi-sunken house boat has been turned into a dock
explorers
Prescot
Turtles on the ribs of a sunken boat
Hastings
Lock 2 – mile 815, Hastings, MN. The final lock of our adventure. One last time we needed to drop anchor and wait. Scheduled repair was being perform on the lock. We had to wait 30 minutes for the next opening. No problem. It was another ‘Top 10 Weather Day’ and the company was great (Paul and Micki).
The gates on this lock are different from the roller gates on the southern locks. Opportunist pelicans congregated near them
Teaching Micki to drop an anchor
Opportunists. Pelicans.
Closed for repair
The last lock!
Mississippi River Pool 2
Mississippi River bluffs
The skeleton of a keyboard is in the trees. Paul and Micki said it’s been there for about 20 years. They keep watching it fall apart.
Keyboard in the trees
Woo Woo! Twin Cities Marina ahead!
Look at that hood ornament!
Our kids where there to greet us. I was so excited to see our granddaughter Quinlyn that she was the only one I took a picture of. I got to hold her first 🙂
Destination Mississippi River Statute Mile 830 Remaining Statute Miles: 32 Remaining number of Locks: 1
Along the Way
First order of the day was to swap out the props.
walking yes dear… onto the lift
OMG. The underside of yes dear… was green with grass! All of it courtesy of this marina.
shiny props
ready for the splash
Woo Woo! We had friends join us for the remainder of the trip to the Twin Cities. Both Micki and Paul are experienced boaters. We put them to work….. It felt like we were rich and had deck hands.
Micki, Paul and Dale
The Coast Guard reminds me of squirrels. They store their caches in locations where they can later retrieve them.
Lake Pepin. It was a ‘Top 10 Weather Day’.
Entering Pepin
‘Top 10 Day’ for a crossing!
Point No Point (left) Maiden Rock (right)
In the Winona legend, the daughter of Dakota Sioux chief Red Wing (for whom the nearby town of Red Wing, Minnesota is named) jumped from this cliff after her lover, a member of the rival Chippewa tribe, was killed by Dakota warriors under orders from Red Wing. (This story sounds a whole lot like the story of Lovers’ Leap in Hannibal MO http://yesdear.life/wp-admin/post.php?post=27720)
Maiden Rock
God Bless America. In the fall of 1938, as fascism and war threatened Europe, Irving Berlin decided to write a peace song. He recalled an unpublished version of a song that he had set aside in a trunk, took it out and shaped it into a ‘second’ national anthem. God Bless America was notably recorded by Kate Smith, becoming her signature song.
God bless America
Land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above
Redwing
But of course!
boat houses
Lock 3 – mile 797, Welch/Red Wing, MN
“The Overseer”
This land was made for you and me!
“This Land Is Your Land” is one of the United States’ most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1940 in critical response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”. Guthrie was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing “God Bless America” on the radio in the late 1930s.
Neighbors
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The Mississippi River is the second longest river in North America, flowing 2,350 miles from its source at Lake Itasca through the center of the continental United States to the Gulf of Mexico. The Missouri River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, is about 100 miles longer.
Drolleries and Yuks
What do you say to comfort a friend who’s struggling with grammar? ~ There, their, they’re.
Destination Mississippi River Statute Mile 830 Remaining Statute Miles: 70 Remaining number of Locks: 2
Along the Way
We just can’t seem to get way from BUGS!!!
The boat lift at the Wabasha City Marina wasn’t large enough to pull out yes dear… so we can switch out the props. We needed to move to Parkside Marina on the north end of Wabasha.
backing out of Wabasha City Marina (easier than turning around)
Wabasha
National Eagle Center
Slippery’s and entrance Parkside Marina
Dale opened the lift door to the cockpit storage/genny compartment door to pull something out. Ugh! It was lined with mayfly carcasses. There is no escaping these bugs.
Neighbors
Parkside Marina is really green with lots of bottom weeds too. The water is low and it has been hot. Prime weather for growing weeds.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Bald eagles have a wingspan of 5 to 8 feet long and a body that ranges from 2 feet to just over 3 feet long.
The female bald eagles are larger than the males. On average, male bald eagles weigh 25 percent less than females. Females weigh around 13 pounds, while the males weigh around 9 pounds.
Bald eagles live around 20 to 30 years old in the wild. Captive individuals have been known to live longer, with one eagle almost reaching the age of 50.
Bald eagle pairs typically bond for life around 4 or 5 years of age.
Bald eagles build the largest nest of any North American bird. Nests have been found that are as deep as 13 feet and up to 8 feet wide. Some bald eagle’s nests can weigh as much as 2000 pounds!
Once an egg hatches, the baby eagle will be confined to the nest anywhere between 8 to 14 weeks before fledging (taking their first flight).
Once they can fly, the parents will continue bringing the juveniles food and providing protection for another six weeks! During this time, they continue to develop their flying and hunting skills before heading off on their own.
Bald eagles can fly as high as 10,000 feet.
While on the hunt for prey, eagles can dive up to 100 miles per hour. But in regular flight, they can travel about 30 miles per hour.
Bald have two centers of focus. This gives them the ability to see forward and to the side simultaneously.
Bald eagles can swim, sort of. Eagles have hollow bones and fluffy down, so they can float pretty well.
We didn’t see ANY eagles around Wabasha.
Drolleries and Yuks
What do you call an eagle that plays the piano? Talon-ted!
Locks (6): Lock 8 – mile 679, Genoa, WI Lock 7 – mile 703, La Crescent, MN and Onalaska, WI Lock 6 – mile 714, Trempealeau, WI Lock 5A – mile 728, Fountain City, WI and Goodview, MN Lock 5 – mile 738, Minnesota City, MN Lock 4 – mile 753, Alma, WI
Destination Mississippi River Statute Mile 830 Remaining Statute Miles: 71 Remaining number of Locks: 2
Along the Way
We picked the world’s worst anchorage last night. We knew there would be trains. (Along the rivers there always are.) We hadn’t expected them blowing their horn for EVERY little road they crossed. We also hadn’t expected the factory whistles and other industrial noises all night. (For the record, we couldn’t see the factory from the river.)
We’d been feeling pretty smug about no bugs for the past couple of of days. Then this happened. Last night we were inundated again by mayflies. Our nice clean boat 🙁
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
At least we weren’t inundated with other pesky little bugs.
Sunrise was about 5:30am this morning. It was 61 degrees. Days are noticeably longer, earlier mornings later nights. We are further up north than we’ve been for a long time.
There must have been a bass fishing contest today. Bass boats were as plentiful as mayflies before we got underway.
Traveling too fast for my camera’s shuttle speed.
It started as another bleak day and was pretty much a bleak day all day. The scenery was phenomenal. It looks a whole lot like the upper Hudson River valley.
Lock 8 – mile 679, Genoa, WI
You go girl!!!!
Sand dredge islands. The dredgers need someplace to put the sand. There are a fair amount of them and they are huge. This is the only area on our entire trip where we see this singular formation.
Some of the dredge islands have small coves for boats
This one has been recently worked
Bass fishermen crossing our wake full speed.
Lock 7 – mile 703, La Crescent, MN and Onalaska, WI
I-90 Dresbach Bridge at La Crosse. Lock 7 behind it.
Lock 7 was another lock we got to sit and enjoy the view for an hour until the southbound barge pushed out. There were 6 rec boats waiting go up and another 7 at the top waiting to go down. We had to tie up, rather than float through, because there were other boats in the lock with us. Locks are a lot faster if you can float through.
We weren’t alone
It lightly rained off and on throughout the day.
Lock 6 – mile 714, Trempealeau, WI
Trempealeau was celebrating Catfish Days. The lock was open for visitors to explore. There were a lot of visitors exploring.
I’d have loved to have walked above the dam gates.
tagged
The day warmed up but it never got sunny. Leave it to Minnesotans to still get out and enjoy the water and sand.
Winona area eventing. A day on the water is an event for people in Minnesota, and I suppose Wisconsin too. It seems they have the ability to enjoyed more than anywhere else. Probably because they don’t take it for granted like the Florida people do.
Slip and slide set-up on the hillside
Boat house cove in Winona
I canawanagetthere. Lock 5A – mile 728, Fountain City, WI and Goodview, MN is the forth lock of the day.
Our timing has not been good today. We had another wait at Lock 5A for another tow.
Waiting with other up bound boats
tow waiting to lift down the lock
Thankfully the Lockmaster lifted the rec vessels through the lock before he took the waiting tow. I suppose he just wanted us out of the way.
An enormous Corp of Engineers tow passed us headed down river lugging a little bit of everything. It included two large tow boats (on pushing, one being lugged), an extra large dredging barge, crew cabin/office barge, land equipment/earth movers, at least four small tow boats, and several crew runabout boats in tow.
A second Corp of Engineers tow followed it from a distance of the time it takes to raise and lower a lock. It carried dredging pipes and other pieces of equipment.
Oopsies. I hate oopsies. I accidently bumped a button on my camera.
Here’s the rest of the crew. Timing spaced one lock
I canawanagetthere. Lock 5 – mile 738, Minnesota City, MN is the fifth lock of the day. It sure is pretty around here even on cloudy days.
air boat on the sand
rental house boats
I really canawanagetthere. Lock 4 – mile 753, Alma, WI is the sixth lock of the day. Our personal best was 7 locks in on day. That happened twice while we were on the Erie Canal.
Same shot as above with the correct setting!
Now this is a slip and slide!
🙁 We hit a submerged object. A wreck your day kind of object. yes dear… has a small shimmy so we will have to swap out her props:(
Locks (3): Lock 11 – mile 583, Dubuque, IA Lock 10 – mile 615, Guttenberg, IA Lock 9 – mile 648, Lynxville, WI and Harpers Ferry, IA
Destination Mississippi River Statute Mile 830 Remaining Statute Miles: 168 Remaining number of Locks: 8
Along the Way
Daylight come and we wanna go home
Entered Wisconsin just before we reached Lock 11 – mile 583, Dubuque, IA
We had plenty of time to look at Lock 11. The lock had just started moving a southbound tow into it. Two hour wait.
pelicans in below the dam
I tagged it on the way through
We are in the Driftless Area. Rugged rock bluffs and huge hill on both sides the Mississippi River. The upper Mississippi River is a great place to end our great run.
It was a gray day. It was time to try a different lens. Here’s to hoping things look cheerier.
Guttenberg
Things do look brighter!
We got to spend a little over an hour looking at Lock 10 – mile 615, Guttenberg, IA while we waited for a tow to pass. Fortunately it was a small one 2×3 barges. It could all fit in the lock at one time.
Our turn. The lockmaster squeezed us through while a barge was disassembling for passage.
helper tow
tying off the second load
Bridge at Marquette IA
Casino boat
By the time we got to Lock 9 – mile 648, Lynxville, WI and Harpers Ferry, IA the sun was going down but the sky was brightening up.
There were quite a few people camping along this stretch of the river.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The Driftless Area is a region in southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme northwestern corner of Illinois, of the American Midwest. The region’s distinctive terrain is due to its having been bypassed by the last continental glacier. The term “driftless” indicates a lack of glacial drift, the deposits of silt, gravel, and rock that retreating glaciers leave behind. It is characterized by steep, forested ridges, deeply carved river valleys, and karst geology characterized by spring-fed waterfalls and cold-water trout streams.
Drolleries and Yuks
What do you call an unpredictable camera? ~A loose Canon.
Destination Mississippi River Statute Mile 830 Remaining Statute Miles: 250 Remaining number of Locks: 11
Along the Way
It’s been really hot. One day for fun we walked around the freezer section at HyVee because we just wanted to be cold. Unfortunately HyVee had really thermal freezer doors so we had to settle for the cold meat and dairy sections. I purchase a bottle of water and slammed it down. Instant brain freeze!
It was so warm in the beginning of the week the potable drinking water on yes dear… was warm to the taste. Having air conditioning on the yes dear… has been a blessing.
Dubuque is a pretty river town.
Court House
It has an old history of painting on the sides of building. Sold signage is visible on many buildings.
Dubuque also has a modern history of painting on the sides of building. The downtown area is filled with murals. Below are just a couple of them
The walk took me past Bimbo Bakeries. Bimbo Bakeries USA is part of Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest baking company. Some of their brands include Sara Lee®, Entenmann’s®, Brownberry® Bread, Thomas’® English muffins and bagels. We can smell the freshly baked bread from the marina.
The grain cars are all tagged/painte
destined for Roseville MN
All of the above pictures were take on my cell phone when I walked to HyVee for groceries. Thursday morning. My camera was still on break.
Neighbors
The Twilight departs for 1 and 2 day cruises.
Heading out
wheel house
Floccinaucinihilipilification
A brain freeze is actually called sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgi.
Ponder This
Muffins spelled backwards is exactly what you get.
Locks (3): Lock 14 – mile 493, LeClaire, IA Lock 13 – mile 522, above Fulton, IL and Clinton, IA Lock 12 – mile 557, Bellevue, IA
Destination Mississippi River Statute Mile 830 Remaining Statute Miles: 250 Remaining number of Locks: 11
Happy 4th of JulyObserved
I observed the holiday.
‘Huskers’
I’m feeling guilty about taking blog days off. The river run between Davenport(yesterday) and Dubuque(today) is pretty and I should have taken pictures. You’ll have to run it for yourself sometime, I guess.
By the way….. I will probably be taking Tuesday, July 6 – Thursday, July 8 off. We are going to hang out here in Dubuque for a couple of days.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Americans Will Enjoy 150 Million Hot Dogs During the 4th According to the National Sausage and Hot Dog Council (NHDSC), Americans are expected to eat 150 million hot dogs over the July 4th holiday. This is part of an estimated 7 billion that are expected to be eaten during the summer season from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Americans consume about 150 million hot dogs while celebrating Independence Day. According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, that amount of dogs can stretch from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles more than five times.
Ponder This
The Declaration of Independence was signed by 56 white guys with an average age of 44 wearing wigs, tights, heals and rouge.
Locks (4): Lock 18 – mile 410, Gladstone, IL and Burlington, IA Lock 17 – mile 347, New Boston, IL Lock 16 – mile 457, Muscatine, IA Lock 15 – mile 483, Rock Island, IL and Davenport, IA
Destination Mississippi River Statute Mile 830 Remaining Statute Miles: 332 Remaining number of Locks: 14
Happy 4th of July
I took the holiday off.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The Declare Independence wasn’t signed on the 4th of July 1776 The official Declare Independence vote actually took place two days before on July 2 and the “Declaration” was published in papers on July 4. Only two men Signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, Charles Thompson and the infamous John. The other 54 delegates signed over the course of the next month.
The Declaration of Independence was written on a laptop … Okay, not a modern laptop, but still. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on a writing desk that could fit over one’s lap. This device was referred to at the time as a “laptop.”
Three presidents have died, and one was born in the Forth of July. Thomas Jefferson, 82, and John Adams, 90, both died on July 4, 1826 within five hours of each other on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. James Monroe, the nation’s fifth president, died just a few years later on July 4, 1831.
The country’s 30th Commander-in-Chief, Calvin Coolidge, was born on July 4, 1872.
Drolleries and Yuks
Why doesn’t fire get to enjoy a day off on the Fourth of July? ~ Because fire works.
What did the little firecracker say to the bigger firecracker? ~“Hi, Pop.”
How did one flag greet another flag? ~It waved.
How come there aren’t any knock-knock jokes about America? ~Because freedom rings.
What did the colonists wear to the Boston Tea Party? ~Tea-shirts.
What do you call an American revolutionary who draws cartoons? ~A Yankee Doodler.
Which colonists told the most jokes? ~Punsylvanians!
Locks (3): Lock 21 – mile 32,5 Quincy, IL Lock 20 – mile 343, Canton, MO Lock 19 – mile 364, Keokuk, IA
Destination Mississippi River Pool 2 Statute Mile 830 Remaining Statute Miles: 428 Remaining number of Locks: 18
Along the Way
Looking back at Lock 22 – mile 301, Saverton MO
Hannibal MO
runners along the rail road tracks
Lover’s Leap
The Lover’s Leap story goes … It was given this name about 1840, by some genius who applied to it the scene of the oft repeated story of the Indian Maiden who dashed herself down from a rock precipice rather than wed a warrior she did not love. Since the whole story is an invention of a romanticist, the Indian maiden could have really married the “buck” selected for her by her father, and is indifferent about the matter altogether.
Hannibal waterfront
weather cover on the paddle wheel
up river
The train only had TripleCrown cars, over 100 of them. Truck wheels hang from the bottom of each car.
Triple Crown (TC; a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern), is a bi-modal transport network servicing the eastern part of the United States. It uses a hybrid technology combining specifically designed trailers with rail bogies (called RoadRailers) to form trains. The trailers also have truck wheels. The load units (trailers) are not transferred from road to rail (and vice-versa) like a usual train. Instead, the load units (trailers) are simply assembled in rail convoys at the origin and disassembled into truck trailers at the destination.
Inside the levee.
I wonder how they get insurance
Outside the levee
Lock 21 – mile 32,5 Quincy, IL. Most of the locks on the Upper Mississippi River follow a similar design. They have an iconic set of 4 large pillars near the center of the lock.
4 large pillars near the center of the lock (on left side)
The buoys have take a beating this year. So many are missing and so many are out of places.
wrong
The two reds are wrong. The green is correct.
wrong
The problem with river living
wrong again
Lock 20 – mile 343, Canton, MO
I wonder how the logs got on the top of the pole?
Lock 20 Illinois side
iconic set of 4 large pillars
nice little lock garden
Heartland
It fell off its stilts
Warsaw Brewing Company
log jam from an earlier flood
Happy 3rd of July
Pelicans
Many of the towns along the Mississippi River through Missouri, Illinois and Iowa remind me of ‘Steampunk Cities’.
Keokuk
black and white loads
pure steampunk
Coast Guard can setter and supplies store
Lock 19 – mile 364, Keokuk, IA
Construction of the privately built Keokuk dam began in 1910, and was completed in 1913. The movable portion of the dam is 4,620 feet long with 119 separate 30 feet rectangular, steel-skin plated, sliding gates. The gates are either installed or removed and river flow is controlled by the number of gates installed. They are removed by a gantry crane that travels on the service bridge above the dam. At the time it was completed it was second in length only to the Aswan Low Dam on the Nile River.
Barge exiting the lock
Stupid pelican MOVE!
Stupid little boat MOVE!
Stupid little boat! The tow captain was most unhappy with the stupid little boat. The little boat sat right in front of the barge to watch it come out of the lock. The tow captain knew the little boat was there but the little boat was too close to the tow for the captain to be able to see him.
After the tow’s initial 1 prolonged blast warning I am leaving the lock the little boat did not move out of the way. The tow captain had to issue two different sets of 5 short blasts (danger!!!) before the little boat finally moved. Stupid little boat!
Keokuk Lock. I like this lock. It’s interesting.
Fort Madison IA
Fort in Fort Madison
beach party
flag “The beatings will continue until morale improves”
heartland
Evening settling in
Sunsetting on a PLATIMUM Looper flag 🙂
collecting up the tubers
typical for the day … lots of people on boat
Good Night
When we stopped to drop anchor we were inundated with thousands of small, < 2 inch long white mayflies. It looked like it was snowing.
It was a pretty little bug
Thankfully mayflies flew off about 30 minutes after landing.
Happy 3rd of July fire works. We were on the wrong side the island for the big show.
Drolleries and Yuks
Why are frogs so happy? ~They eat whatever bugs them.
Ewh. What happened last night?????? A mayfly hatch. I had to sweep them off to pull lines. There’s going to be a lot of fat baby birds around here.
neighbors
Morning flag check.
Good to go. We started heading for Minnesota at exactly 6:02pm. We left the marina running 10 knots at 1200 rpms. yes dear… was surfing down the Illinois River towards the Mississippi River on the current.
Goodbye Grafton
The Mississippi Palisades to the south are calling… “Go again. Go again.”
Once we rounded Illinois River – Mississippi River confluence we ground down to 5.4 knots at 1600 rpms. It’s going to be a slow ride back to Minnesota.
<—- Mississippi River Illinois River —->
river living
I wonder if this guy has mayflies on his tent?
smaller cliffs heading north on the Mississippi
Lock 25 – mile 241, Winfield, MO. The lock lift is only 1 foot today from all the rain. Normally it’s ~15 foot lift.
The Mississippi River is exceptionally muddy. Silt from wave splash was settling on yes dear’s… swim deck. I’ve never seen that before.
There are a lot of wing dams on the Mississippi River to help direct the water. Some are U shaped and others are simple line dams.
wing dams on chart
U shaped dam
U shaped dam
Land of levees
and log laden buoys
We chased this tow up the river.
One great thing about traveling the Mississippi River is that statue miles are clearly marked on both the charts and corresponding daymarks.
still chasing the tow
wing dam with logs caught on it
river life
logs
passing a tow
wing dam
fishing inside a U shaped wing dam.
Lock 24 – mile 273, Clarksville, MO. The lock lift was only 6 feet today from all the rain. Normally it’s ~15 foot lift.
logs caught under the gate
Lock 22 – mile 301, Saverton MO (no Lock 23). This was a little high, but close to normal lift.
The lock master said we could float through and didn’t need to tie off. Raising and lowering locks create strong currents in the chamber. We still fender one side incase we need to catch a wall.
Unfortunately they let Saverton’s village idiot in the lock with us. He positioned directly on our port side, the side that I had fendered. Dale pulled forward. He pulled forward. Dale pulled forward. He pulled forward. I politely asked him to move either in front of us or behind us. He might be a good fisherman. That’s all I going to say.
one waiting to come in
I was looking at the logs when I took the above picture. You can tell the water has recently been high. What caught my eye was all the lines with hand holds, safety lines in case anyone fell in or was swept in.
Shortly after we cross the lock we dropped anchor for the night.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The Ascent. Lock 25 – mile 241, Winfield, MO to Lock 2 – mile 815, Hastings, MN
Drolleries and Yuks
When does it rain money? -When there is ‘change’ in the weather.
