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 !!!