DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI – UP THE OHIO – UP THE CUMBERLAND

As we continued rolling along the Mississippi (Cue the music – “Rollin -Rollin – Rollin down the river!”), we left Alton Illinois and started our Looper Leg 29 to the infamous Hoppies Marina. At this point, Elba joined us and we went through 2 locks: The Mel Price Lock and The Chain of Rocks Lock and Canal. As we approached St. Louis where the Missouri River flows into ole Miss, we spotted the St. Louis Arch where we had to take the obligatory picture of our boat in front of the arch. We then continued onto Hoppies. Did I mention that Hoppies is infamous in the Looper world? LOL! Hoppies is actually a series of three (100 foot barges) all lashed together and secured to a high stone cliff with cables. The plus is you can get fuel here, plug into power, and are provided with a thorough briefing of river expectations down the way. Lil Hazy Thing and Compass Rose joined us at Hoppies and we became a traveling party of four Pleasure Boats. The nice thing about traveling with a group, is that you have a lead boat who takes on the responsibility of contacting the Tow Captains or the Lock Masters for the group. It is actually preferable that you do it this way to prevent a lot of communication confusion.

After leaving Hoppies, we headed to the Kaskaskia Lock Wall. We tied up to the Lock Wall and settled into Docktales before heading to bed for the night. No power tonight and it is going to be cold. Brr! We ran our Generator before bed, then shut it down for the night. The next morning we ran it again just to take the chill off before heading to Cape Girardeau to anchor out with no power again. LL32, Friday October 21, we headed down the river and it was slowly warming back up. We encountered barges and tows right away and we had to be especially careful as the river is very winding along here as well as being historically shallow right now. There’s actually an area called Tower Rock that is always under water, but now people are able to walk out on it due to the drought! There are areas located on the side of the river called Wing Dams. They help to force the water into the center of the channel. This helps to reduce the sediment accumulation and helps to slow the water on the riverbanks as well. But once again the water level is so low, that a lot of these Wing Dams are dried up and sticking out. We ended up anchoring at Olmstead Lock and Dam overnight. It was very rocking and rolling all night long from the wakes caused by the barges passing through the Lock. We were especially rocked about around 2:00 am when a huge lit up Riverboat called The American Countess entered the lock. Pete and I got up and watched it go through the Lock. The next morning we went through the lock and continued down the Mississippi, then up the Ohio to our next destination of Paducah, Kentucky. What a difference the current makes! Running our twin Diesel Penta Volvo Engines at 1430 RPM, you can see the difference the current has on the speed of the boat.

Mississippi vs Ohio

9.4 Knots 5.1 Knots

We were so happy to finally have arrived at Paducah and to be able to get fuel! The last 3 days had been hard without power sources and we had to be cognizant of our fuel consumption. We still had to be careful with water usage because we needed enough water to flush toilets, to wash dishes, and to wash up for the day and Paducah had shut their water supply down due to the cold weather and fear of freezing pipes. But we knew our next stop would have all the resources we would need so we all took showers! Wow – Captain Pete had gotten a little Sea Captain like with his graying unshaven beard. There was a Fall Festival in town and there were lots of high school kids milling around in Homecoming Garb. We walked along the streets and saw the beautifully painted murals depicting the history of the town. Our group ate at Broussard’s Cajun Restaurant before retiring for the night. The next morning, LL 34, we headed to Green Turtle Bay Marina on Lake Barkley – our final destination for this segment of the loop! Elba had left earlier than we did so we meandered Up the Ohio and then Up the Cumberland River by ourselves. It was a very quiet, calm day and we only encountered a couple of barges and tows along the very winding Cumberland River. We got right into the Barkley Lock without any waiting – Yeah! Pete drove the boat in and Cheri hooked the line over the bollard. This lock was huge!!!!