Tuesday 6/30/09 The last day of June and we're not home yet. I thought we would have been boating in our home waters for two or three weeks by now. Oh well! We've been having fun anyway.
We pulled anchor this morning in time to get to the Muscatine Municipal Marina by 8 o'clock to take on diesel fuel. The dock is not manned on a regular basis and a call must be made to get a city employee down there to pump fuel. No sooner did I call and two men showed up to get the fuel for us. Seems they were working on deepening the harbor when the office called them and as such were in close proximity. We took on fuel and got out ahead of the north bound barge that we had passed on our way to the fuel dock. This was our first break of the day because that enabled us to get right into Lock 16 just above Muscatine avoiding a 2 hour wait. Our second break came when we got to Lock 15 in Rock Island, Ill. They locked us through in the auxiliary lock which has been closed for the past few years. Again we avoided a long wait. By 12:30 pm we were arriving at Lock 14 and had to wait only 36 minutes before locking up. Probably the biggest break of the day came at Clinton, Iowa when we were able to get the train bridge to open for us. It seems that every time in recent memory that 100 plus year old bridge has been broken down or we have had to wait for a train coming from Omaha. We cruised on up to Lock 13 and our luck ran out. They had just started a southbound double which meant an hour and a half wait minimum. The anchor was dropped and we got cleaned up for what was going to be the highlight of our trip home once we got to Savanna, Ill. Finally at 5:26 pm we left Lock 13 for the last leg of the days travel.
Once we arrived at Savanna we dropped anchor and launched the raft. We were off to Mannys Pizza. A rough and tumble old bar that serves up the best thin crust pizza and tacos around. Needless to say we stuffed ourselves. This is one place where Pam can out eat me! No small task. You'd swear she was a trucker the way she scarfs the pizza down. It's almost embarrassing.
After returning to the boat we sat in the cockpit and enjoyed the rest of the evening with a sundowner.
Wednesday July 1, 2009 Today we slept in which for me means 6 am and for Pam 7. Once underway we backtracked a couple of miles to Island City Harbor in Sabula, Iowa. The winter home for Tourist when she's not roaming the high seas. We took on fuel and off loaded waste before pointing North for the last leg of our journey home. We passed the eagles nest that has been in a dead tree beside the channel for several years. Just as before there was an eagle keeping vigil over the nest. We arrived at Lock 12 in Bellevue, Iowa around 10:45 am and left at 11:30. Lock 12 was the last of 60 lockages we made on this trip. We cruised past Chestnut Mt. ski resort and pulled into Midtown Marina in East Dubuque, Ill. at 1 pm.
Since November 1, 2008 we have travelled 5608.3 statute miles. Burned 5076.3 gallons of diesel fuel. And passed through 60 locks and over 2. Tourist performed like a champion and delivered us safely back home. An oil change and a wash job and she'll be ready to go again!
Glad to hear you are home and safe! We have been too busy to check your blog - lots of family from out of town. Thanks for checking on Broulee, our plans are to head down next month or so to bring transmission back. Rick pulled it when we left her and is in the process of rebuilding it. I do not envy the trip north on Mississippi - maybe we will do it again in a couple of years. Izzy is 70+ pounds and growing. Thinking of maybe doing the U.S. Virgins and BVI's this winter - not sure yet.
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