December

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We were in Independence, Missouri visiting with Gary's parents. We arrived on their 65th Wedding Anniversary and helped them eat this lovely fruit arrangement containing lots of chocolate covered strawberries sent by Gary's brother, Galen and his wife, Cheryl. Mmmmm. Thank-you, Galen.

We spent Thanksgiving with Gary's cousin's family and had a lovely meal and visit with them. We had David with us as he flew in very early on Thanksgiving morning so that added to the excitement .

Unfortunately, our trip has come to a sudden stop due to Gary's mother falling on the ice and making the arthritis in her left knee worse. She has now decided to get the knee replacement her Dr recommended two years ago. Therefore, Gary and I will leave here tomorrow and return to the boat in Alabama. We should arrive late Saturday and then Gary will leave Tuesday to return to Independence with his cousin, Jackie who lives in Huntsville. I will then return to Maryland and make plans for Christmas. Gary will join me in Maryland on 18th December and we will spend Christmas with David.  David is running his first marathon at Disney World on 11th January and we hope to be able to cheer him on. We are not sure yet if Gary will return to help his mother after her knee replacement on 29th January or if his brother and his wife will fly out and assist her with her second knee replacement.
There is not much to tell about our journey to Missouri. We did pass a true trailer home-

I do not think I would like to live in this type of home. I wonder if they got their furniture from "Crate and Barrel"!!
We went through two very large locks, not as large as Carillon in Canada but still quite a hike up.

Tennessee River

Howdie,

It has not been the most interesting of weeks so I have not a lot to say (or type) and do not have many photos of interest.
We are now on the Tennessee River after traversing the Ohio and the Cumberland Rivers.  We have stayed at two very friendly Marinas - Green Turtle Bay and Mermaid. Both had wonderful owners/employees who were very hospitable and helpful. The Mermaid had just recently been bought by Betty and Barry in the last three months and we wish them well. The Tennessee and Kentucky accent was a delight to listen to and I could have stayed and talked to them all day.
An interesting occurrence happens at the end of September of every year as the water is let out of Kentucky Lake in preparation for the upcoming winter. This makes a significant difference to the depth and current on the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. The depth drops significantly making some marinas unable to take boats that have a draft of 4 feet or more. The current may increase to 2 knots/hour flowing north (against us).
We went through several locks, one (Barkley Lock and Dam) with a lift of 57'. We have been through one other lock, The Carillon in Canada which was 65' and will go through the Wilson Lock (at 93') and the Whitten Lock (at 84'). We passed Olmsted Lock, a lock in construction (to be finished in 2014 maybe) and were interested to see the cranes and tugs needed to complete the work on the new lock. The new lock will  replace two old locks, one of which we waited for over 3 hours to get through. We heard on the radio that there were 45 tows ahead of us (they take priority over pleasure craft) and planned on anchoring for a long while. We were let through with 3 other pleasure boats ahead of our turn, which we did not object to.

                                     The new dam under construction.

                         One of the huge cranes leading down to the river.

We think this was the lifting mechanism for hoisting pieces of the dam into place.
We saw several tows/tugs but not half as many as we saw on the Mississippi.

                                                   A mini tug!

                                               A washed up tug!

             We think this tug was towing the lock gates for the new Lock.

 We saw several tugs carrying loads of mulch. This must be where they are picking it up from. I wish they would deliver it to Pasadena!!!
Being in Tennessee we are seeing lots of work completed in the early 1930s by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The TVA was established to help areas hit hard by the Depression and covered most of Tennessee, a portion of Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky and a small slice of North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia. They were responsible for helping with navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertiliser manufacturing and economic development.

Steam plant built by the TVA. I guess it produces electricity, but I am not sure.
The homes along the rivers continue to built on stilts due to flooding. We saw the following house and think it was designed to rise with the flood water.

We also passed many trees with mistletoe growing on them. When you think about it - the plant is parasitic and sucks all the water and nutrients from the host tree, killing it in the long run - why would you want to hang mistletoe up at Christmas in the hopes of getting kissed!!!! Who came up with that wonderful idea? They must have been a sucker!!!!

I shall finish with a few photos I thought were rather nice:

I tried to come up with some puns to accompany my photos but was unable to despite "pund"ering for a while. I could not come up with "mulch" even though I "reflected" for several minutes and had to "tug" on my thoughts. I was "moonstruck" for puns, to no avail.
I would like to finish with offering my condolences to those who lost loved ones and friends in the tornadoes that hit the United States yesterday. You are all in our thoughts and prayers.
 
Kingston Rover Loop Map

The Mississippi

We are now on the Ohio River going North after negotiating the busy Mighty Mississippi. We averaged about 10 - 11mph due to a strong flowing current of approx 3mph going with us. I said to Gary we should have turned the engine off and just floated down river like Tom Sawyer's raft!! We could have saved some diesel consumption!!

The Mississippi has many man made structures to prevent the erosion of the banks and to keep the shipping lanes open. Some of these are called wing dams - piles of stones dumped perpendicular to the river on which the silt will deposit in front and behind them as they slow down and direct the water flow.

These wing dams can be seen above water but are also below the water level of the river. Luckily, they are at a depth that does not bother our boat.
Whilst on the Mississippi we stayed at Alton where we met up with an "old" friend of Gary's, Joe H. We guessed it had been about 27 or 28 years since we had seen other and, of course, we did not look a day older. It was great catching up on the news of Joe's family and his grand children. Because the boat was still having generator problems we had to rent a car which allowed us to see something of the town. There was a wonderful mural depicting life on the Mississippi on the side of a building.

There also were two signs that tickled my funny bone -

                Have they had a problem with dead bodies littering the street?
We passed a bar named "Fast Eddies" which brought a smile to Gary's face. It made him think of his Wednesday night drinking buddies at the Cancune Catina organised by Ed S.

Hmmmm, so why are you called Fast Eddie, Ed!!!!
We have passed may tows most of which are captained by pleasant, helpful skippers. I got the only miserable one on the radio yesterday. He misunderstood the words power cat for power plant and rudely told me to get a map. I was tempted to tell him to get a hearing aid!!! I took a photo of a tow pushing a casino boat. I wonder if he was taking a gamble!! Hurrah for that pun!!!

The above tow was pushing a huge amount of stone as well as a drilling rig.
We passed St Louis but were unable to stop due to there being nowhere to stop on the river. So I arched my neck and took a photo of the arch.

 We also zoomed by Cape Giradeau which had an interesting mural along the waterfront.

One of our last sights on the Mississippi was this strange photo.

I did not think the house looked like a "dive"!!!
Well, no blog is complete without either a bird photo or a sunset photo. So, today you have a sunset photo.    Good night!!

Oops, I nearly forgot, tomorrow  is Veteran's Day. Gary and I would like to say a big thank-you to everyone who has served or is serving their country. Freedom should never be taken for granted. If you should know a serviceman or woman, thank them for your freedom.

Kingston Rover Loop Map

Return of the blog

Well, howdie - here we are again rollin' on the river!!

We both have had a nice break from the boat to attend Nathan's wedding and to see our respective parents. I stayed nearly three weeks with my parents in the UK and the weather was 'orrible to say the least. Out of 20 days in the UK, it rained for 17. However, it was mild for the time of year so I cannot complain about that. It was really nice to see my parents, my brother and his family and catch up with "old friends". Whilst I was there Dad gave my Mum a bunch of flowers which contained ornamental cabbage. They looked just like roses and lasted for a long time. I am curious how the grower managed to grow such long stems - at least 12 - 14".

We have left Peoria after having lunch with Gary's cousins, Skip and Doug and dinner with Perry and Bert. It was really nice catching up on all their news and meeting Michael, Perry and Bert's son. Michael is a pilot who crop sprays and takes biologists on rides to count the waterfowl in the area. Some of his flying takes him as low as 5 feet above the ground which would scare the heck out of me. I thought it might be interesting to accompany the biologist on his bird count until Mike told us the biologist is sick more than once on the flight.
We left Peoria, IL on Friday in cloudy, cool weather after we had pumped out the holding tank. By now you know my weird sense of humour as I noticed the pump out machine was called a "Jonny Trap". Does that mean the Jonny's are full of ....!!!

The Illinois River is a working river with many tugs called tows (no kidding) either pushing or pulling many barges. Large ships cannot get up the Illinois due to the depth of the river.

This barge was being unloaded of salt onto a lorry/truck. Can you tell which end has been unloaded first??? Only joking!!!

 

The Illinois River is home to many bald eagles and I guess we have seen at least 2 dozen or more. We have also seen wild turkeys and herons.

These turkeys are not fat enough to eat at Thanksgiving so they are safe from the hunters for the moment.

Fall has arrived (I was afraid I would miss it with being in the UK) and it is absolutely splendid when the sun is shining.

The river has been known to flood and I believe the last time it broke its bank was June of this year after a very wet spring. Many of the houses are built on stilts at least 10 feet above ground. When you take into account that the stilts are built on the land above the level of the river it makes you realise how dangerous the river can be.

The river is so powerful it creates sand banks on the shore after the silt is washed away. I should have brought my bucket and spade with me!!

We stayed last night in a side creek off the river as we like the peace and quiet. When we woke up this am it was 34 degrees in the upstairs cabin and 52 degrees where we sleep. Our generator was not working so we had to use two blankets and a bedspread to keep warm. We even had frost on the outside of the boat and fog along the river.

When I went outside the boat this morning I shrieked with delight as there were geese "swimming" not too far from the back of our boat. I ran for my camera, took a photo and was surprised to see the geese did not fly away. Why, you ask, did they not fly away. 'Cos they were decoys, that's why. I love geese as they mate for life, I believe and, if one is injured another goose will stay with it until the injured one gets better or dies. I just LOVE to hear them honking in their V at night. I think, what are they  talking about? We did not hear the owner of the decoys pull up behind us and plant the decoys. We did see him however, hiding in the bushes - boooo hissss!!!

Further along the river we came across more decoys. The owner of them even had an electronic whirligig thingy to attract the geese - booo hissss!!

I mentioned earlier that the morning was very cold. Well, it took it until 4pm this afternoon to reach 70 degrees in the upstairs cabin area. We wore multiple layers, gloves and a hat (me). We passed a restaurant and people were eating outside. These Illinois folks are a hardy breed as we guess the temperature to be no more than 55 degrees - brrrrr.

We passed the 50 foot Our Lady of the Rivers Shrine near Portage des Sioux. It was built after the disastrous flood of 1951 as gratitude for the water stopping just short of the village. Mid July of each year the blessing of the fleet is held at the shrine.

We also passed an old paddle wheeler being restored. It looked to me like they had a lot of work to do.

We ended today's journey at Alton on the Mighty Mississippi River. Not too far north of Alton were high cliffs with beautiful fall foliage.

The river was rough but not anywhere near as rough as Lake Michigan. There was also a strong wind blowing causing sailboats to enjoy a final day's sail before winter sets in.

Leaning over the edge of my boat does not appeal to me at all. However, Gary, I think would enjoy it.
When I was home in the UK in May I bought a pretty vase from a junk shop - I mean an antique shop. It was decorated with a peacock. I could not bring it back to the States with me because of being over packed so I intended collecting it on my next visit. Now, my Dad believes that peacocks can bring bad luck to their owners -the feather contains the eye of the devil!!! So, I brought the peacock vase back with me in my hand luggage. The planes arrived safely - phew and the vase is now on the boat wrapped up safely so it does not break. Well, since the vase has been on the boat the following has happened-
The port engine would not start so we had to bring a mechanic in to look at it. The problem was very simple - Gary had left the engine in gear causing it not to start.
At a lock, I was given a rope by the lock keepers and tied it off on a cleat forgetting that the boat would drop 10 feet as the water was pumped out of the lock. The boat dropped 5 feet and then started to pull on the cleat. The only way to stop the cleat being pulled out of the deck was to cut the rope and release the boat. We dropped about 2 feet to greet the water below us.
The generator stopped working on Thursday morning just prior to the cold spell hitting the mid west. We now have no heat, cannot use the microwave and anything else requiring use of the generator.
Do you suppose my Dad is right? Should I get rid of the peacock vase????? 

Kingston Rover Loop Map