MISSISSIPPI RIVER

9/20/07

We left the Illinois River at Grafton and headed out to the Mississippi. Of course we kept breaking into a chorus of “Old Man River”. There are no phone signals and it is still close to 100 degrees. It feels very remote here. There is nothing on the shore but trees. We do not even see many birds or other wildlife here. What you do see is barges, one after the other. It feels like a barge highway. Here they are called “tows” even though they are pushing the barges. Interesting to watch but you don’t want to get too close. I am having trouble recognizing them at first. When I first see them coming, my impression is that there is a big building on shore. I have to take a little time to process that it is a big thing coming at me. We went about 60 miles today then got to a place called Hoppe’s Marina.

It is a legend on the Miss. We are glad to see it because there is no place else to tie up for a long while but we are underwhelmed with the looks of it. There are a couple of barges sort of rigged together. The electricity is the same, sort of rigged up. When you turn something on, something else goes out. Also there was a hose for water but it just dripped out. But the reason to go there is Fern. She gives a talk at 4:30 and everyone there attends. She talks about how to get the rest of the way down the river. She has updated and valuable information about how to get through some dangerous curves. Our knowledge about what to do next was greatly enhanced. We walked up to the little town of Kimmswich, Mo but the only restaurant and the rest of the town closed down at 3 pm. I walked through at 4 and there was one car on the street.

 The other thing we did was go past St. Louis. There is no recreational boating around here and no place to stop. The arch was pretty and I got a great picture but it is a little bit of a surprise that such a big city does not have one slip. The Miss at this stage is industrial and that is all.

9/21/07

We left Hoppe’s at 6:15 and worked downstream to get fuel. There is no fuel for quite a while and we have to go against the current all through the Ohio. So we arranged to get fuel at Kidd’s dock. It is a small dock that a guy comes down with his truck and fills you up.

It is a bigger operation than it sounds in that he also fills tows with thousands of gallons at a time. Luckily he was nice and filled up our paltry 38 gallon tank and a couple of jerry cans. That is the one thing about having a sailboat on this trip as opposed to a power boat. The fuel range is so much less that you have to be very careful about what is available next. The other aspect is the cost is much less.

The river has many bend weirs deep underwater. These are dikes 40 plus feet below the surface. They are supposed to create turbulence so the curve does not silt in. Believe me, they are good at creating turbulence.

This is our long day, 100 miles and ended with four other loopers at a nice anchorage, although the water looks a little thick. The banks had numerous striations showing the various water levels. Fern had warned us that if it rained heavily we would need to leave as there might be a wall of water (flash flood).

9/22/07

Short day today, about 40 miles then we anchored under the Hwy 57 Bridge. This is the end of the Mississippi. Tomorrow we start the Ohio and go upstream for a while. We have not been able to get Diane on the boat as there hasn’t been a place to tie up. She did drive over the highway bridge and spotted us.

My impression of the Mississippi is that it is feared by the locals. The only access is commercial. All of the towns are protected by walls and levies. There are NO restaurants, condos etc. that look out on the river.