The Mighty Mississippi

The Mississippi is indeed mighty.  When we arrived back at Grafton Harbor to continue our journey, the river was at flood stage and the current was running between 7 and 9 knots and in most of the 220 miles we traveled there tons of logs, missing or underwater buoys and of course so many tows.  While we managed to dodge the visible logs, the underwater logs got us and we will be under repair in the Kentucky Lakes.  
We spent the first night at Hoppies in Kimmswick, MO, about a 65 mile rainy journey with 2 locks.  Hoppies was virtually destroyed in the spring floods but they have a very rustic barge to tie up to, which is the only place to stay for several hundred miles.  The town is historic and of the 157 residences, we think at least half own small businesses in town.  There is a festival in this town about every weekend and they do it up right.  We enjoyed Levee High Apple Pie at the Blue Owl, which has been featured on the Food Channel, Oprah and a few other notable places. 

Day 2:  We left Hoppies at sunrise with ice covering the boat and fog on the river. We wanted to make it at least the 160 miles to the Ohio River to get out of the flooded Mississippi. (The next marina facilities were about 225 miles.) We dropped anchor just after turning onto the Ohio River, which was a welcome relief with its clean water & slow moving current.

Day 3 - Up the Ohio to the Tennessee River, and through the Kentucky Lock and Dam.  We are experiencing different types of Dams called Wicket Dams which during the high water you just drive right over.  At low pool, they manually pull up the walls spans to make the dam.  We waited 4 hours at the Kentucky Lock and Dam, which is a 57' rise to the Kentucky Lakes.  Luckily the weather was great and when we finally arrived at the Green Turtle Bay Marina we were greeted by a nice bunch of 'Loopers' and attended our first 'Docktails', a regular event hosted by Loopers and marinas.