Home Sweet Home

The beautiful scenery and clear skies continued through our final three cruising days.


We still had a few locks to go through, but we had no delays.

During the trip, we wondered if we would still appreciate our home cruising grounds after all we saw. In fact, we were asked more than once, usually by the "salt water" boaters, if people really boated on the Upper Mississippi. We tolerate a short season, locks and trains, but are rewarded with beautiful scenery, daily bald eagle sightings, no crowds, and friendly towns.

On the shores of Lake Pepin, we stopped to visit long time friends and Gold Loopers Mark and JoAnn and were treated to a fabulous dinner and great conversation.

Our final stop was Treasure Island Marina located on a beautiful backwater above Lock 3. We filled up the fuel tank for the last time and tied up at the mostly empty transient dock.

Later that evening, Larry arrived in WyLaWay, a 25' Rosborough in which he and his wife completed the Loop a few years ago. We enjoyed meeting him and having more "Looper Chat".

The Army Corps of Engineers is doing a major revision of the upper approach to Lock 3. They were hard at work loading sand from this huge pile of dredgings and bringing it to the construction site for fill.

As we neared home, the welcoming party aboard the Spirit of 76 appeared ...

... with neighbors Mark and Cheryl and Mark's parents Bob and Rose aboard.

Mark took excellent care of our lawn, plowed the snow, and kept watch over our house while we were gone and it all looked great as we approached. Thanks Mark !!

Lucy didn't want to come up to the house at first, so we went up without her and found a bucket of mail and welcome home package from Sue and Ron, who managed our mail all year. Thanks Ron !! Our friend Debbie gave us a most welcome going away present last year ... she cleaned our house the day before we arrived home and it looked great ... what a treat to come home to a clean house. Thanks Debbie !!

Here are few statistics from our trip:

• miles traveled: 6705 miles
• locks transited: 148
• fuel purchased: 2111 gallons
• average fuel consumption: 3.2 mpg (with generator use) or 2.13 gallons per hour (gph)
• gone 347 days and traveled 181 of those days (52%)
• averaged 37 miles per travel day at an average speed of 6.8 mph
• stayed in marinas 181 nights (52%)
• anchored out 86 nights (25%)
• tied to free docks (including Erie Canal walls) 26 nights (8%)
• floated on mooring balls 14 nights (4%)
• spent 28 nights at the rented house at Cudjoe Key (8%)
• tied to Canadian Park canal walls 11 nights (3%)
• visited 20 states and one Canadian Province
• stayed within our budget of $100/day overall
• had only one significant mechanical problem (never had to be pulled out)

We've been home for almost a week now and are adjusting to "life after looping". Our house feels like a mansion and we love the daily conveniences like a car, big frig, our own laundry and unlimited water and electricity ... and watching the Twins on HD. We're looking forward to attending our first game at Target Field, thanks to nephew Jim and Pam.

It truly was the "trip of a lifetime" and writing the blog has been very fun for me (Liz). We've enjoyed all your comments and e-mails and we were glad that we could share some of it with you. If you want to read more about the loop, visit http://www.greatloop.org/ and you can find a list of other public looper blogs to read ... and if you dream of looping, go for it. Safe cruising to all !!!

Minnesota !!!

After exiting the lock at the Quad Cities, we waved good bye to great Looper friends, Tom and Diann (Noah Genda), as they headed for Lindsay Park Yacht Club to make their triumphant return.

We had stayed the previous night at the Muscatine Municipal Marina. There was no one at the gas dock to pay, thus beginning a string of six "free dock" nights.

In the Quad Cities, we stayed at Isle of Capri Casino Marina ... no charge for dockage, but paid $10 for electric ... also ate a good $11 buffet at the Casino.

Although the current had let up a bit, we had three days of strong south winds. During the worst of it, sustained winds were up to 25 mph and gusts to 35. The autopilot has a difficult time steering the boat in following seas and that's what we had ... a disadvantage of the single engine ... the human pilot and first mate didn't like it very much either.

Since then, however, we've had a great run of mostly sunny days with cool nights. At Sabula, we found this small public dock available, but the ramp to shore was missing ... we stayed anyway.
With all the great new places we've visited in the past year, we almost forgot about the beauty of the upper Mississippi. The shoreline is mostly undeveloped except for the small towns and a little industry. It is unfortunate that most Loopers experience the Mississippi only on the stretch from the Illinois River to the Ohio River intersections, not the most cruiser friendly segment. It's alot different on the upper Miss, but it's a long "side trip" and not many cruising boats come up here. There are few pleasure boats after Labor Day and the barge traffic has also diminished so we are pushing through the remaining locks in a timely manner ... eat, sleep, drive.

We had locked through behind this graceful tour boat during one of the strong wind days. We provided a little entertainment for the passengers as we worked to keep the boat on the lock wall. Steve kept the engine running in reverse, but we still were holding onto our ropes with all we had. The next day, they passed us going back downstream in calmer waters.

In Dubuque, we stopped at the "Ice Harbor", where entrance is through these double gates into the man made basin. The town is protected from high water by a tall levy and the gates can be closed to complete the barrier during a flood.

Along with a few commercial boats and USCG boats, there are 24 brand new slips, no charge, mostly empty. The very new National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium is adjacent to the Harbor, so we paid a visit. We've been in many museums on this trip and this one rates among the top we've seen. Very interactive and high tech, with all sorts of exhibits about our river system. The humongous blue cat fish in the aquarium are absolutely worth the price of admission ... we couldn't see it all in the two hours we had left until closing.

The museum is at MM 579.5. These day markers are alot bigger than they appear to be when you pass them in your boat.

The William M. Black is an old steam powered dredge boat that can be toured at the museum.

There are also 3D theaters, a working boat shop, and several more exhibits that we'll have to return to at another time. After a walk through town and a dinner aboard, we let Lucy out for her evening exploration, from which she always returns ... but this time she didn't. We searched for an hour and it was getting dark. Out on the dock, we both heard a faint little "meow", then heard it again. We hung our heads over the dock and there she was, wet from her fall in the water. but she had rescued herself by climbing up onto the black plastic floats under the dock. What a relief to find her and pull her out ... that was the evening I was going to blog, but couldn't get it done after the stress of not being able to find our loyal boat kitty. The next day was a little cloudy as the gorgeous high rock bluffs that are prominent in the river banks above Dubuque started to appear.

We passed by this concept boat that has been built by http://www.rivercitiescondos.com/ as a single condo model for their grand dream. They want to build a boat of individual condos that will cruise the river systems year round and are traveling the rivers to promote their interesting idea. Maybe we can all sign up after we are unable to pilot our own boats ...

Next stop was in Guttenberg, one of our favorite towns. Last fall, they had started building their municipal marina and now it's done, so we grabbed a slip and went in search of someone to pay. We ended up at City Hall where we learned that overnight dockage is FREE this year since it's so new. It's a dandy little marina.

Last night brought us to Lansing, last town in Iowa, where we pulled up to this concrete wall and tied off for the night. The historical building is a little inn.

This morning we were allowed to lock through between two single tows heading upstream, very nice.

We stopped tonight at the Sunset Marina in Trempealeau, WI to visit Joe on his Lord Nelson Tug. Joe and Arvilla did the Loop a few years ago, so it was fun to share stories with him. As Steve was walking down the dock, one of the guys at the Saturday night dock party asked him where he was from. When he answered "Minnesota", the guy said, "you didn't come very far". Steve paused and said, "well, actually....."

Mississippi MM 404.5

As soon as we turned the corner into the Mississippi, we knew it was going to be a long, slow haul. The current was about 2.5 to 3 mph, so our SOG (speed over ground) was reduced to 5 to 5.5 mph ... a 30% reduction in our baseline speed, which is pretty slow to begin with. The water has been high on this stretch since June, and everyone we met told us it was almost back to normal, but the current persisted for the first four days of our upstream trek. With the high water and swift current, the river bottom has been rearranged and is shoaling all over the place. We saw this Army Corps of Engineers dredge at work bringing the channel back to its 9 foot depth so the tow boats can get through.

We waited 2 hours at both of the 2 locks we went through the first day. Along with a fuel stop, we traveled only 40 miles in 11 hours ... a new record of slowness. At the first 4 locks we went through, the dam gates were all wide open, sending as much water downstream as possible. Those locks normally have a 10-15 foot lift, but we only went up about 6 inches in each of them. The second day we heard a Coast Guard announcement on the radio that the river was "closed" due to dredging at mile 305. The announcements of areas being dredged usually say "mariners should transit with caution", so this was a concern ... would they let us through? As we approached the "closed" section the next day, we saw these 4 double tows pushed to the side waiting to transit.

We called the dredge boat on the VHF and received our instructions on where to transit the area ... whew !! They were dredging with a "scoop", unusual on the river, it must have been quite shallow as the scoop didn't look like they were dropping it too deep into the water.

After each barge was filled with "spoils", a smaller tow boat hauled it away.

We had heard that the Des Moines River was the main source of all the extra water coming down. The Des Moines joins the Mississippi just below Keokuk ... as we approached, the current increased another mph. Now we were really crawling, and as we passed the mouth we were pushed sideways as the Des Moine emptied its water into the Mississippi. At Keokuk, there is a highway bridge, a RR bridge with low clearance that we needed to open and then the doors to the lock. The lock is also unique as it is 1200 feet long (most of the other Mississippi locks are 600 feet) so that a double tow can go through all at once. It also has a high lift of 38 feet.

Above the lock is this hydro electric plant, one of the few on the Mississippi.

Keokuk Lake is a wide area of the river and the home of the Keokuk Yacht Club, our destination for the night. A very active bunch of boaters, they were celebrating their "Summer's Over Bash" with a steak fry and a live band. It's definitely one of the best boating stops on this section of the river. Looper friends Tom and Diann (Noah Genda) were also there with family aboard for the weekend and we all enjoyed a good steak dinner.

Tonight we are in Burlington, IA, another one of the places we stopped last fall on our way down. Here's the downtown as seen from the river. It's a cute little river town, but we probably didn't fully appreciate its charm last fall ... this was the place where we had our one and only breakdown ... stuck for a week in 40 degree temperatures.

The weather is perfect and with "normal" current, we are traveling at 7 mph. Burlington marks about one third of the way ... started from ~ mile 200, now at ~ mile 400 and home is mile 830 ... so we're still aiming for mid-September.

Grafton Harbor

Grafton Harbor offers a great "stay 4 nights, get 3 free" deal, so we decided to take full advantage of it while we waited for the Mississippi water levels to drop. With 7 Loop boats in the harbor, a potluck seemed in order ... delicious as always and we assembled after dinner for this group shot.

The next day, we launched the dinghy to have a look at the current. Here's a view of Grafton Harbor from the water. The small white building at the top of the hill (above the apartment building) is Aerie's Winery and Restaurant. Diann (Noah Genda) had arranged for their shuttle to pick us all up for dinner that night.

Out on the main Mississippi Channel, our hand held GPS measured a current of 2.5 mph.

The weather is hot and the pool is delightful.

The shuttle from Aries picked up 8 of us for dinner ... great view. The islands in the middle separate the Mississippi from the Illinois, with the Illinois River in the foreground. The two rivers run almost parallel and curl around at the confluence.

Great food and good company.

Here are 5 of the Looper boats at the marina. We are situated right across from the gas dock and the runabout dock ... this weekend was busy, busy. People are constantly in and out, gassing up, eating at the restaurant and walking through town. It's was quite entertaining sitting on the boat watching the action.

As of today, all but us and the red tug (Freedom) have left. Of course, all but us and Noah Genda are heading south, so it's a bit sad and nostalgic to watch them go. We've met so many wonderful new friends on this trip ... sure will miss them and all the adventures.

Great Loop Complete !!!

We set out early to make it through the Peoria Lock and after only an hour wait, we made it through with 4 other Looper boats. This was the lock under repair and currently open only limited hours.

Everywhere we cruise, there are recreational boaters out enjoying American and Canadian waters and the Illinois River is no exception. Even with the Asian carp jumping in the wakes of almost every small boat we see, these folks are still out boating on the weekend.

The heat wave broke and we've had beautiful weather with 80's by day and 60's by night ... worked out well for us since the lower half of the Illinois has very few marinas, so we had to anchor out for a couple of nights. The mornings were cool and lovely.

We locked through our last lock on the Illinois with this small tow. In all our years of boating on the Mississippi, neither Steve nor I could recall ever locking through with a tow.

Here's one of the old deserted Illinois River locks.

There are also alot of abandoned sunken barges on the Illinois. Judging by the size of the trees growing in this one, we'd say it's been here for quite a while.

We pulled into Grafton Harbor with our good Looper friends, Tom and Diann (Noah Genda) who had began their Loop at their home port near the Quad Cities (on the Mississippi). We were all pretty excited because Grafton marked the completion of the Great Loop for both Noah Genda and Shingebiss. We had ordered our gold burgee (signifying successful completion of one Loop) to be sent to Grafton Harbor. We decided to have a spontaneous "gold burgee raising ceremony" and invited the crews of the six other Looper boats that were in the marina to come and celebrate with us. Here we are with our new burgee.

Grafton Harbor is located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers where the waters are wide and filled with small islands. As we approached the marina, the current increased from about 1 mph to 3 mph because the Mississippi is flooding north of here. Even though we've completed our Loop, we still have to travel 600 upstream miles on the mighty Miss to get home. We're watching the river levels, both on the NOAA web site and via a mark Steve put on the spud pole in front of us, and won't be leaving until the water drops significantly. While we wait, we're enjoying our leisure time and all the accoutrements (including great WiFi, pool, and courtesy car) at this neat little marina.

If you are still following along, here's a little refresher map showing where we were at the beginning of each of the past 12 months. The black line traces the waterways we traveled. The lighter lines show alternate Loop routes.

The Loop is complete, but the blog will continue until we get home ... hoping for mid-September.

Flat Brown Water

One more look at the Monroe Harbor breakwater as we head toward the Chicago Harbor Lock for our much anticipated cruise through downtown Chicago. We had experienced one of the Chicago Architectural Boat Tours with our friends Sue and Ron, so we knew it would be a very special part of our Loop.

The Chicago Harbor Lock is right around the corner from Monroe Harbor. Note the large metallic structure on the right. Designed to resemble a Great Lakes ship, it serves as the Lockmasters Building.

After the Lock, we passed under the Lake Shore Drive Bridge. We will go under 40 bridges in the next five miles.

We are now in the Chicago River with both banks lined with sky scrapers and a river walk running along side. This was our view to port ...

... and this was our view straight ahead.

Tucked among the sky scrapers are older brick buildings and many restaurants overlooking the River.

About two miles inland the River forks into the South Branch and the North Branch. We turned into the South Branch which looked like this.

The South Branch goes right by the Sears Tower, seen in this picture looking back.

This Amtrak Bridge is only 10' off the water and it does not lift during rush hour, so we timed our arrival to be after 9 am.

After this bridge the River takes a turn to the southwest, and the industry begins. Here's a sample of one ... a power plant.

The Chicago River is linked to the Illinois River via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. In the early 1900's the good people of Chicago realized that taking their drinking water out of Lake Michigan and also sending their sewage that way via the River was not such a good idea. So the Chicago River was reversed via locks and canals, and eventually routed into the southern flowing Illinois River (and then the Mississippi). At the same time, the shipping canal was created and Loopers now have a way to return to the Rivers from the Great Lakes. The old canal walls are kinda neat, but there are signs all along this section that caution against swimming, jet skiing, wading, tubing or any human contact with this water .... hmmmm ...

The current Lake Michigan challenge is to keep the Asian Carp from entering the Lake. The Army Corps of Engineers is maintaining an electrical current "fish barrier" on the Illinois River that is either working or it's not, depending on who you talk to. There is a sign telling boats to call the Coast Guard on their VHF radio before they transit the barrier. We heard other boats call and the CG read them the rules for passing through the barrier. For example, boats under 20 feet cannot pass, passengers must get into the cabin of the boat (or wear a life jacket) and remain seated, and give a security call on your radio before you enter ... so we did because we didn't want to face fines and/or imprisonment.

We stopped for the night at Joliet, where the city has a free wall, with electric. There is alot of barge traffic and they passed quite close to us here.

It's a bit of a relief to get off Lake Michigan's big waves, although we miss the beautiful water and Steve really enjoyed the planning necessary for "big water" cruising. We've been staying in marinas because they are reasonably priced and we need the AC once we stop for the night. We've been traveling for a few days with Woody and Judy, from Maine. Woody is a retired lobsterman who bought the hull for their boat and built the rest himself.

The waterway runs 327 miles from Chicago to Grafton where it enters the Mississippi. We're currently about half way and the shoreline is much less industrial and quite pretty in parts ...

... some big rock cliffs.

Most of the tows are three long with one towboat, so they put the three barges in the lock and unhook the towboat and put it into the lock beside the barges. We've had to wait an hour or more at almost every lock. At one they told us to tie up to one of the "dolphins" above the lock to wait. Lucy had to get out and eat a little grass that was growing in the cracks.

Captain Steve is back in his element passing tow boats.

We passed by this marina where the owner is collecting old paddleboats.

The Illinois River is low as shown by these exposed tree roots.

Our next lock is Peoria where the lock is under repair and boats are only being locked through from 5 pm until 7 am. With the amount of barge traffic, they are busy with barges all night and we don't want to run at night anyway. On Sundays, however, they lock boats through all day, so we are spending Friday and Saturday night at the Eastport Marina and taking a little break from our long days of travel. Tonight we had free tacos at the bar and a swim in the pool, so it's not a bad place to wait it out. Here's a 13 second video of the Chicago River skyscrapers, a definite highlight of our trip.