Glorious Grafton

We've made to another "destination" on this cruise, Grafton, IL, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers.   But first, to backtrack at little, wanted to post this picture of Lock 19 at Keokuk, IA.  At 1200' long, it's twice as long as all the other Mississippi locks.

A "double" tow (15 barges and one huge tow boat) can all fit into this lock without breaking in two like they do for the normal 600' locks.  Here's a double waiting at the door for us to exit.  As you can see there's alot going on here, an open train bridge above, the tow waiting, and the little Shingebiss sneaking out. 

The river is full of upstream double tows and we waited 1-2 hours for almost every lock over the next couple of days.  The only other pleasure boats were the duck hunters and fishermen who had Asian carp jumping in their wakes.  Guess the carp are migrating up the Mississippi, but not nearly as plentiful as on the Illinois.  We heard 'em bumping up against our hull in this peaceful anchorage above Hannibal, MO. 

The next morning as we rounded the corner toward Hannibal, we saw this amazing bank of fog ahead of us.

Surrounded by blue sky, it looked like a fluffy cloud that had dropped from above. 

After a mile or two of driving by radar at a very slow speed, the fog cloud lifted and we were greeted by this beautiful bluff. 

Our final anchorage on this leg was also very peaceful and calm, with this panoramic view.  Note the entire double tow can be seen. 

The bluffs are back, the weather remains sunny with highs around 80 and lows around 50, and as we  are just north of the St. Louis area, we are seeing more pleasure boats.   These boats are replicas of the Nina and Pinta and are traveling the river systems.  I spoke briefy to one of the captains in the laundry room today.  He told me they have already done the Loop three times and were up the Mississippi and to Hudson, WI last summer.  We hadn't ever heard of them before, but they were doing a brisk business giving $8 tours of the boats and said they gave 10,000 tours in Hudson. 

Almost all Loopers stop at Grafton Harbor as it marks the end of their Illinois River cruise and the start of their experience on the mighty Miss.  It's a good place to reprovision, do some laundry, and fill water tanks. We did all that today along with a Looper Social Hour with crew from Inconceivable and Blue Line.  It's great to again sit around and talk boats and cruising the loop. 



from Hannibal

The weather took a turn for the worse as we cruised to the Quad Cities.  Pouring rain, so we were driving at the lower helm.  I went out to place the fenders for Lock 14 and oh dear, the bimini top on the flybridge had blown down and looked trashed.  After a dismal lockthrough, we pulled into Safe Harbor where Looper buddies, Tom and Diann have their condo and adjacent dock.  Readers might recall them from our Great Loop Adventures.  It was great to see them again and be so warmly welcomed into their first class harbor and gorgeous condo.  Tom and Steve went to assess the damage to the bimini, it wasn't as bad as first appeared and Steve thought he had a way to fix it.  We all took a ride to the grocery and hardware store.  Diann is a great cook and she served us a delicious dinner and breakfast the next morning. 

Steve and Tom went to work on the bimini and Diann and I did a little yoga.  More rain was forcasted and after a week of travel days, we decided to take a break and stay another night.  Bimini repaired and all relaxed and refreshed, we went to dinner at the Lindsay Park Yacht Club, joined by Tom and Diann's neighbors and good friends, Ron and Carol Lee.  Great fun, great food and lots of good conversation.  We bought fuel the next day at about $1 more a gallon that we had paid on our Loop.  We passed by Muscatine the next day, one of our favorite stops on our previous fall trips, but their harbor is too shallow to get into. 

On to Burlington where again our usual stop did not have enough water for our shallow 3' draft, so we stayed free at Big Muddy's Restaurant dock.  The next morning, SUN came out. 



The Fort Madison Bridge (trains on the bottom, cars on top) is one of the few bridges we have to  request to be opened.  



We passed by Navoo, a huge historic Morman temple and early settlement.

We stayed at the Keokuk Yacht Club, a fun little place with very narrow entrance.  

Tonight we are anchored above Hannibal, MO because their Municipal Marina is being dredged.  The weather was in the 60's today, but sunny and calm.  It was a long day, 55 miles and three locks, at 2 of them we waited over an hour.  I uploaded these pics while we waited for one, so I'm going to post this now, let Steve have the air card, and will have more pics when we get to Grafton.  Should be there in two more travel days.  This part of the River is pretty desolate with towns and marinas few and far between.  The banks are still lined with trees and a few cabins, but the bluffs are gone and the scenery is rather monotonous.  The good news is that the downstream current is giving us a another couple of miles an hour.  Last fall when we brought the boat home in an unusual fall flood, it took away at least three miles an hour.  So with our base speed of 8 mph, we are traveling about twice as fast as we did last fall.  Downstream is GOOD.

Back on the Mississippi

The Shingebiss and her crew of Captain Steve, Admiral Liz and Lucy the Boat Cat are back cruising. We've missed the cruising life so decided to take the boat south and find a place to winter aboard. Currently she is "For Sale" (see trawlersmidwest.com for our listing). Yes, we want a bigger boat and would like to spend more years cruising, but if she doesn't sell, we might as well enjoy the waterways on her. It was great to be back out on the River with the towboats.

The first two cruising days were warm and sunny. This is Red Wing, MN, one of the delightful river towns that are a favorite stop for cruisers, bikers, and tourists.

Wabasha, MN, boasts the National Eagle Center, a gorgeous building on the banks of the river. Wabasha's other "claim to fame" is that the movie Grumpy Old Men was filmed in their town.

The Eagle Center has beautiful landscaping with a waterfall flowing right into the river.

Wabasha was decorating the town for Halloween with these whimsical pumpkin people. We loved them and had post a few in the blog.

After two days, the weather turned cloudy and cool, although not as cold as our trip down in October of '09. We haven't seen many other boats out, but did pass the Wyaconda, the US Coast Guard Buoy Tender that works from Dubuque, IA to the Twin Cities, placing the red and green buoys that mark the channel.

Every now and then we got a break in the clouds. The stretch of river between Dubuque and the Twin Cities is lined with bluffs, thick green trees and lots of beauty. There dozens of inviting sand beaches, possibly left after the exceptionally long (5 months) of high water this past spring.

We've been staying at marinas (so we can run the heat at night), but yesterday our plans to stay at the Dubuque Ice Harbor, one of our favorites, did not work out as the docks are under construction. It was early, so we moved on to this courtesy dock in Bellevue, IA. We hadn't visited Bellevue before, so walked up the stairway to town and had dinner at a local cafe. No electricity at this dock, but we were toasty sleeping with multiple layers of fleece and down piled on. First thing in the morning the generator is fired up, followed by heat and coffee. Then it's up to the flybridge for another day's cruise.

This lovely tour boat passed us by today. More clouds, cool weather and even some rain.

We stopped early today at the Clinton Marina, a great little harbor where we met some of the local boaters, showed them our boat and shared tales of river cruising. We are now about half way to Grafton, IL, where the Illinois River flows into the Mississippi, and then we will be back on the Great Loop. Even though we are not headed for a second Loop completion at this time, we're still Loopers and looking forward to meeting any current Loopers on that great waterway.

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....."