Trip Up the Northern Mississippi to Wisconsin (Locks Galore)

8/30/02 Friday night 2 AM Leave for Nauvoo, Mississippi Trip 520 miles Many dams, waiting with 6 refuelings 8/31/02 Sat 6:30 Arrive Ft. Madison, put in at marina next to the Shafer Pen building, traveled down to Nauvoo to begin where we ended last year’s trip from Kansas City. We wanted to start in the same spot and continue north. Sunny day, no wind, warm. Burlington was a large town on the river, Mansker recognized a restaurant he and his family visited, we planned to eat there coming back. Muscatine was another big town; we had a late lunch up the street while a large excursion boat was leaving the small marina area. Mansker went down to make sure our boat was still there while I paid our bill. Made it that night to Rock Island marina but some good people on the boat next to us told us there were no hotel rooms around the marina. We called up past the lock and dam, the Radisson had a room right off the water. Good night and food at TGI Fridays restaurant. The John Deer Museum and Corp. Headquarters were across the street and we looked in the windows at the tractors. 9/1/02 Sun Moline, we took the long chute out of town, Scott drove while I cleaned up around the boat—talking speed which we call an ‘African Queen’ clip. Coming out of a side lock for cruisers, we found a houseboat for sale that had a homemade paddle wheel at the back. It was driven by chains, large ones. Took a picture, loved it. Must have made a heck of a racket. Stopped at Bellevue (lunch) and visited interesting city history sites like the Brown Hotel war: Seems a number of ill-bred rascals formed a band of robbers and held up in the Brown hotel next to the river. The town’s people had enough and came at them with guns blazing, the surviving robbers were given a trial and sentenced to a beating then tied to logs and sent down river. We imagined a story where the robbers became the future mayors and school superintendents of Ft. Madison or Yellow Banks. We were 68 miles from Moline. Sun was hot, needed some kind of shade on the boat. Passed through a number of locks, got behind a tall riverboat painted blue, almost swamped us when she moved off the Lock wall. Traveled across large lakes formed by the dams. All went well. Approaching storm with Russ at the helm Sunday night camped on an island, stormed that night (found out later the storm became a tornado further east). We ate tuna and crackers. We read from the B/M and some of Mark’s book on his trip down the Mississippi about 1993. Sounded like rain on the tent but when we turned off the light it stopped. It was the bugs hitting the tent. 9/2/02 Mon Labor Day First light got up and cleaned the boat on the run, everything was wet. More locks and dams. On the way up, we stopped at a marina we read about in Mark’s book. We filled our tanks and asked if the owner was there, the man Mark had mentioned (we felt like we knew him). He told of the owner who enjoyed working his marina and we could understand many of his feelings. We found out that his wife was running the place now and that he had died in a scuba accident on the Great Lakes about 5 years ago. Odd how things go. Tied up here for lunch and a rest, high winds all down the river. In the lower right hand corner you can see a boat very much like the one we would buy and restore three years later. Turned around at Prairie du Chien 259 miles from Madison, Scott got some batteries at a little market, no duct tape. Lots of bikers for the holiday, we ate at a good place on the river. Had hamburgers, I was hungry. Strong wind out of the south, about 30 MPH. Going slower, we were down a little at the bow because of the speed, water was coming in the boat through the bolt holes for the front eye bolt. As we went faster, the waves kicking up the stern came into the boat on the handrail. Need to seal those fixtures. We kept filling up with water; too many things to do underway during rough weather to be bailing out the boat. Look into a deck mounted pump next time. Came on some kayakers making their way down river. We wondered at their strength and the wind that was forcing us around. It was rough out in the channel. We saw them take a safer chute or slough to our left. Windy day coming back from McGregor, had to fight the waves and keep speed up to stay with larger cruise boats, after making it through the lock on the other side of a big lake, talked to the crew of one boat that told us where to eat in the marina at Dubuque. Nice folks. The restaurant in Dubuque had the least favorable food of the trip and the loudest music. Camped that night on a sandy beach, high wind caused us to get up and tie the boat off to sand buried logs. Slept like I was dead. 9/3/02 Tue Got up at first light, threw everything in the boat and took off. Traveled slowly while cleaning up the tent and boat. Breakfast at the Bellevue diner, got gas. Coming into Moline, I missed the chute to the hotel marina and tried to go across a flooded rock dike. I hit the bottom of the boat and scrapped across the ROCKS until the prop hit. The rocks took a big chunk out of one blade but the motor still ran okay. We didn’t make any repair. I was still smarting over hitting the rocks; I did that last year in Jefferson City. I mentioned to Scott that I wouldn’t feel so poorly if he would occasionally hit something underwater too. He let my self-pity linger by pretending it wasn’t that bad of a hit. We stopped again at TGI Fridays for dinner, ate a big meal. The air-conditioning of the restaurant felt good and our legs were very tired (need some way to sit down). Decided to travel all night—I wondered how well we could find the channel but seemed a wonderful adventure. Ran downriver and passed through an old abandoned lock. It was small and short, maybe 50 feet wide and only 300 long. The doors were removed and water just passed along as if it were a chute. The depthfinder showed a very deep hole where the doors would have been plus great big hard looking stuff scattered on the bottom. Went to the next lock, sun was low and we got there behind a tow, waited to go through—by then it was full dark. Coming out of the lock at Muscatine, we almost ran into the “Don File” Tow around the bend by the refinery plant. The lights of the plant were ahead of us and masked the towbarge. Their lights blended in with the refinery and it was slow moving. Never saw them until we were along side near the front when Mansker saw the bow wave. It scared me when they turned on their big light, I never saw them. Traveled through night. We had enough gas aboard to get from Bellevue to Ft. Madison. Night of a Thousand Fogs  Towboats tied off to islands till morning. Talked to the captain of the Mary Celeste on the radio, he asked if we were going downriver in the fog? Would we call him back with word on conditions? He lighted the way with his big lights and helped us see the markers. It was very difficult to make out the channel at night and in fog. Once we got all the way out of the markers and only came back at a right angle to the channel. With our light on the fog, it looked like false islands or banks. It also made our movement in the water seem like we were going at an angle to our real travel—very disorienting. It takes some getting used to. We continued through the night until Scott had to make a pit stop. All of a sudden we saw a dim light; it was a landing with a ramp and bathrooms. We felt providence was riding with us. I waited at the ramp holding the boat off the cement. It was errie as I heard some animal across a small pond with a mist of fog covering the little campground. About 3:30 we reached the last lock, we waited in the pond for a long time. Finally put the anchor out, Scott put the GPS on anchor alarm (meaning it would sound if we moved further than a limit set). Both of us fell sound asleep. We were just lying on the floor of an open boat in the dewy drizzle. When the GPS alarm went off, I asked Scott “what was that?” He said we had drifted toward the dam. I asked him if he could please set the limit higher? He said yes, and I was asleep again. The barge had to be broken down and reassembled before we could take our turn, it took about two hours. 9/4/02 Wed The blast of the lock’s horn woke us at 6am, last dam, dark, soaking wet, last of the fog, we headed for Fort Madison, took out the boat, got a room for showers, got food at McD’s. Five hour drive home to KC, sleepy all the way but very happy with trip. Have a few ideas how to improve the boat. The Night of Fog made the trip more memorable than most experiences we’ve had. It certainly was something I don’t know if I would have done alone. But having two of us and both being willing to take on unknown things turned the events of the trip into a wonderful journey. Although the facts of this trip do not inspire some grand statement, it remains one of the best for me. We traveled over 500 miles up and down the northern Mississippi in a boat we built. We experienced a wider range of weather and conditions than ever before with reasonable results.