Tuesday, September 4, 2012

We had a short cruising day today.  We are tied to the lock wall at the Kaskaskia Lock.  When we asked Fern at Hoppies where would be good places to stay the rest of the way down the Mississippi River, she told us to stay here tonight and then there is no good place to even anchor until we get to Olmstead Lock (which isn't built yet).  The problem is that it is 135 miles from here and even at 10 mph, that's 13 hours at least, not counting all the times we will have to slow down.  We are afraid we will run out of sunlight.  Time will tell.

Yesterday we passed St. Louis, MO.  We have been in 18 states and 3 countries since leaving home in October, 2009.  The Mississippi is snaky and narrow and shallow, especially this year.  We were told that the tows push 35 barges at a time, 5 x 7.  Since the water level is down due to the drought, the barges are not as full and the tows are pushing fewer barges.

These pictures are from yesterday and today. 

 St. Louis Arch.  Beautiful day, eh?

 This tow was pushing 24 barges.  That's big enough as far as I'm concerned.

Our boat docked at Hoppies.  Isn't that a cute boat boy?