To the Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, Kentucky

Today we traveled forty plus miles; 10 on the Ohio and 30 on the Cumberland River.  The Cumberland is a much narrower river so therefore the tugs tow loads that are only 2 barges wide, instead of three to six wide on the other rivers.

We saw many barges along the sides but hardly any were moving.  Recreational boats were almost totally absent.  The scenery was not as wild as on the other rivers and you could actually see some farm fields through the foliage of some of the trees; gravel operations were plentiful.

The one lock at Lake Barclay brought us up 57 Feet!  This dam is the one that forms Lake Barclay and Kentucky Lake and the vast Land Between the Lakes from the damming of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.

The Green Turtle Bay Marina and Resort has all of the ammenities  imaginable including 2 outdoor pools,  exercise room with sauna and indoor pool, a restuarant, marine store, boat repair facilities, a yacht club, 2 courtesy vans, etc.

Tonight we ate at Patti's 1880's Settlement; this restuarant was here before the town existed.  The decorations were victorian, whimsical, dreamy....  hard to decribe. 
This is a dry county so we brought our own wine; by law kept the bottle under the table in an ice bucket they provided!

We like this place enought that we will stay here a few days.

Our service is not allowing us enough power to includ pictures;  we will add some pictures tomorrow by using the marina's computer.

To Paduca Kentucky

Today we traveled almost 100 miles on two rivers. 
First the Mighty Mississippi - wild with muddy churning waters and  whirlpools; the landscape dense, rugged and uninviting.  You could feel the power.
Secondly the Beautiful Ohio - big, calm, and serene with a landscape to match, and cleaner looking water.  
Because of the difference in current we traveled 48 miles in 3 and 1/2 hours on the Mississippi.  46 miles on the Ohio took us 6 hours!

The biggest surprise of all today was the town of Paduca, Kentucky.  Upon our arrival at the barge/dock 2 fisherman took our lines and tied us up.  Upon leaving the boat, Ed, a past Tugboat captain insisted that he drive us up the hill to the restaurants; instead of just a tour of the restaurants he showed us the whole town complete with an excellent commentary. 



Bunch of tugs and barges having a meeting?




Building a new Lock




Metropolis- Superman's hometown



arrows are Tugs as represented on our chartplotter

Scenes of Paduca

Lewis and Clark Statutes

Among the sites they have an fine Marine museum and a Nationally know Quilting museum.  The flood wall has beautiful murals depicting many of the aspects of the history of Paduca; this alone would justify visiting this proud city. 

On our way back to the boat, Ed Tugboat captain introduced us to 8 people who are part of his evening riverside group. 

Water over the dam!

We will return to this town.

To Cape Girardeau Missouri

We covered 110 miles today with the help of a 5 mile an hour Mississippi current.  This part of the river all the way to New Orleans is oriented toward  industry, tows, and barges with almost no marinas; so we are on our way to the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee rivers.
Tonight we are staying on anchor in a beautiful stream off of the Mississippi. Tomorrow after 46 more miles on the mighty Mississippi we enter the Ohio proceeding 46 more miles and two locks to a dock at Paduca Kentucky.

Today was a pleasant trip with fast current, turbulant waters with whirlpool included.   There were many Tows and barges to deal with but the river is so wide they were no problem to us.

Along the river; lots of beauty, industry, tugs, and barges delivering coal and chemicals


                                     



Anchoring

 Cape Girardeau is a rather large industrial town that we will not be visiting tonight as our intent is to get an early start for another big day on the water. 

To Kimmswick Missouri

The Mississippi is very wide and as a result so are the barge loads that the tugs are pushing.   The largest package we saw today contained 42 barges!


Scenes along the big river

another friendly lock master; nice guys



common size tug




St Louis skyline




Fern in the orange shirt

 Kimmswick is an historic town with lots of interesting stores, restuarants and sites.  Hoppie and his wife Fern own the marina we stayed in;  Fern insists that all who are doing the loop and staying at the marina  must show up with maps in hand so she can teach the latest news about the Mississippi.   People from all four boats obediently showed up for "class" at 4:30 in which we learned about where to anchor out,  alternate anchorages, the depths of the water in certain places, the tricky currents, getting along with the tugs and their hugh loads and much more.

We will travel only about 200 miles on the Mississippi before turning up the Ohio to reach the Tennessee River and Ten Tom.  Why?  The Mississippi from that point to New Orleans has very few suitable places to stay, shop or sight see.  The other rivers are much more interesting.

Days 2 and 3 in Alton Illinois

Labor day Parade

Lewis and Clark Community College

Bus Station

Getting ready for the block party

In the past two days we learned a lot about Alton.  While taking city buses all over town we met a lot of local people, found a Walmart, McDonalds etc. and saw fantastic mansions built in the 1800s. During the period around the civil war Alton was quite prosperous and industrial, as evidenced by the large homes of that era.  Although much of the industry has left town, there still remains several large companies including ADM the international food processing giant and Con Agra.  The city still gives you the feeling that it is a vibrant entity.  An extra treat is the statute of the tallest man in the world, Robert Pershing Wadlow.
There is a casino on the river as well as a great bicycle path along the Mississippi which goes for around 22 miles.
There is a very live night club scene especially on the weekends; 20 + bars?.  Tonight Jayne and I will visit the monthly block party at which several city blocks are closed to traffic enabling the bands from the various lounges to perform on the street.  Should be interesting.

Tomorrow we will travel to Hoppie's, a marina on the Mississippi near the town of  Kimmswick, Missouri.

Havana day 2, Anchorage in McEvers Island, Alton Illinois

We stayed in Havana one more day to do a little maintenance.  Taking a long bike ride to the grocery store and the Pamida department store  filled the pantry;  On main street we found Grandpa's restaurant; good food and a lot of fun talking with the locals.

Said goodbye to marina owner Bob and took off for a 73 mile trip to McEvers island where we dropped anchor for the night.  The setting was beautiful.

Our next day took us 70 plus miles on the Illinois River to the Mississippi River and our next destination, Alton Illinois.
Alton is in the St Louis, Missouri metropolitan area; it is a pretty, progressive town.

Yesterday's trip to the anchorage was very primitive with very few signs of human influence.
Today's trip started the same way but as we traveled on we began to see  more houses, fisherman and industry. 
Of course there were lots of tugs pushing 12 to 15 barges at a time.  The power and size of the tugs are truly amazing. 
We talked on the radio to each and every tug captain asking  for instructions as to where he wanted us to be.  When meeting or passing we want to be sure to be in the area they designate; they take 1 1/2 miles to stop and cannot get out of our path!
The Alton Marina is one of the best we have stayed and also one of the least expensive.  Their facilities include a pool, two hot tubs, laundry, showers, restrooms, and covered slips.




ADM international food company



Preparing to pass a tug



Time to leave!



A car ferry



Mansion in the hills




Grafton Illinois Marina




Grafton Water Park

Some scenery as we get into the Mississippi

Covered slips

Alton Visitor Center



Alton Marina

 Jayne and I will stay here for a few days.

Havana Illinois

Today was a day to meet lots of tugboats pushing 9 to 12 barges up the river.  One lock today; 1 1/2 hours wait. We left at 8:00 AM and arrived at 3:30 at the Tall Timbers Marina in the quaint little town of Havana Illinois; a friendly place where the residents brag about their hometown.
Owner Bob built the whole marina in the last 10 years.  He is a handy guy who is surprised that we haven't seen Asian Carp.  His advice to us: look out the back of the boat or at other boats and they will be jumping as high as 10ft.  The can weigh well over 100 pounds and therefore in addition to being slimey, bloody, and just plain messy, they can be dangerous as well!
Havana sponsors a fun (fishing) contest every year.  The fish eat plankton and jump when motors operate at certain frequencies. 
How to catch them? 
Just drive around in a boat, scare them up and use a net to catch the flying fish if they don't hit you first!  Hmmmm.



Along the way,






Waiting for 1 1/2 hours!





Coming in to our Marina



The Town

One of the people we met in town is Ted Connolly, a commercial photographer whose past employers were movie stars, magazines and newspapers. Coming back home to rest, he does a lot of his fine work for free!  We had a great time swapping Chicago and Cub stories.