Wheeeeeeeee! We Whiz Down the Mississippi and Beat Up the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers

A restaurant and shops in Grafton

High water mark from '93 flood

Illinois corn fields

Milana, you need a floating pool!

We spent our last day in Grafton doing a little sightseeing. We walked around the town which had lots of little shops calling Jane's name. Being a river town at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, Grafton has seen it's share of flooding. Like we remember the years we suffer major hurricanes on the Gulf coast, Graftonites recall the years of major flooding. All around town there are high-water mark signs showing the year and the flood depth. We returned to the marina and used the courtesy car to make a run for provisions. The major shopping in Jerseyville, IL about 15 miles away. Jane is always fascinated by midwest farm fields and is always snapping pictures of corn and soybean fields. Capt. Larry grew up on a midwest farm shudders at the thought of all of the hours he spent working in such fields. Anyway, we got the things we needed and returned to the marina. A little later in the day, loopers Mike and Denniese Liles aboard Lifestyles II, berthed their boat beside us. We decided to get together that evening for dinner at the marina restaurant.

Limestone cliffs along the Mississippi

Interesting formations

Arriving at the Mel Price Lock and Dam

Mel Price lock

The next morning we were up early ready for our run down the first leg of the Mississippi. The goal was to make it to Hoppie's Marina in Kimmswick, MO, about 20 miles south of St. Louis. We had 60 miles and two major Mississippi locks to go through. If we encountered tow traffic at the locks, it could be a long day. While there are some marinas at the first stretch of this run, there are no facilities for recreational boaters in the vicinity of St. Louis. Although they had a slower boat, Mike and Denniese decided to go with us. We left Grafton at sunrise and immediately entered the Mississippi River. With the engines a little above idle speed, we were doing 9-10 knots down the river, because of the 3-5 knot current. The upper Mississippi is very scenic with river-carved limestone cliffs along the banks and we had an easy ride to the Mel Price Lock and Dam. This is a very busy lock for commercial traffic with 30 percent of the world's grain (are U.S. farmers amazing or what) passing through it. Lady luck was with us and we only had to wait for a tow with no barges to finish locking through when we arrived.

Wheee! We meet the Missouri

They aren't kidding!

Coming to St. Louis

Just beyond the Mel Price Lock we met up with the Missouri River. At this confluence our speed shot up to over 12 knots and the water became very turbulent. Capt. Larry was so busy shooting pictures, that he almost missed the Chain of Rocks Canal that bypasses a very turbulent section of the Mississippi. There is a waterfall in this section at a low water dam over which a 44 foot trawler passed and sunk, at the base of the fall, and is still down there. Glad we weren't the second boat! In the canal the current subsided an we cruised leisurely to our second lock, the Chain of Rocks Lock. Again we were fortunate in our timing with a large tow exiting the lock just as we arrived. The wind was blowing hard and Lifestyles II was having a difficult time getting tied up to the wall. He started to starboard, then decided to switch to port at the last minute which caused him to get sideways in the lock. He was all over the place and having trouble when the lockmaster closed the gates and started to empty the chamber. He tried for a starboard tie again when Capt. Larry yelled at him and told him to just float in the center, because we were going down 24 feet. Mike had a hard time controlling his single-screw trawler in the wind, but chamber emptied and the gates opened just before he ran out of room! We exited the lock and followed the canal to where it rejoined the river just north of St. Louis. Our speed shot back up as we entered the current and we were again "rolling down the river."

Gateway Arch

Picture perfect!

St. Louis does not have the prettiest water front with all of the commercial terminals, but the Gateway Arch and the buildings and skyline did provide some photo ops. It was challenging, though, taking pictures and dodging tows and anchored barges along the way. All along the river there are wing dams and weir dams to control erosion and water flow. These dams can project above the surface of the water, be just below the surface at running gear depth, or be deep enough that boats can pass over without hitting them. In any event, these structures require strict attention to running in the channel. As we were coming down the river, we noticed that Lifestyles II had a tendency to run outside the channel where the current was less, but the wing dams were present. Capt. Larry thought about a yell out about the wing dams to Mike, but figured that since he was just a few days from completing their loop, he was aware of the hazards. We continued flying down the river arriving at Hoppie's in the early afternoon. Getting into Hoppie's was tricky. We had to go past it about a quarter mile, then turn up into the current and ease our way to the fuel dock. It was white-knuckle docking, but Fern Hopkins and husband Hoppie were very experienced at handling the lines and guiding us in. We topped off with fuel and got the boat secured at the dock then got off to meet the other boaters there.

Attending Fern's seminar

All happy at Hoppie's

Fern autographs Hoppie's pic in guide

All lined up at Hoppie's

Among loopers, Fern and Hoppie are legendary. Because the Mississippi River is almost exclusively geared to commercial traffic, the clientele that patronize Hoppie's Marina are largely loopers. The marina is the last gas stop and only marina for 238 miles to Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, KY. Since there are no marinas or anchorages in the St. Louis area for recreational boaters, everyone stops at Hoppie's. Fern and Hoppie are also a fountain of river knowledge that they share with loopers every afternoon around 1700. Fern gathers everyone around and tells them what and what not to do further down the river. She warned about wing dams in certain areas that cause considerable turbulence, and even whirlpools, and how to negotiate them. She talks about how to interact with and pass the large tows that navigate the river, and also tells you where to anchor and how to get into the anchorages. She is no nonsense, straight talking, and we found her descriptions and advice to be right on the money. After talking with the four other boats that were docked with us, four of us decided to leave early the next morning as a group to make the 111 mile run to an anchorage in the Little Diversion Channel near Cape Girardeau, MO. Lifestyles II decided to go alone and stay at some closer anchorages.

Leaving early

Bye, bye Hoppie's

River scenery

We meet a whirlpool and turbulence!

Trying to avoid the whirlpool

Meeting a 6 x 5 tow

Tree stuck on a wing dam

Tower Rock

Passing a 6 x 6, they just get bigger!

Coming into Little Diversion Channel

We arrive at our anchorage

The next morning four boats pulled out of Hoppie's at first light. Fred and Julaine Eddy aboard Boreas, Doug and Barb Caddaro aboard Tropical Breeze, and John and Rita Holman aboard Brandy IV. It was an experience leaving with so little light and being caught by the current and whisked downstream. The trip was uneventful until we got to the first trouble spot that Fern had warned us about. Here the river made a sharp 90 degree turn and the wing dams caused so much turbulence that we were facing 2-3 foot waves, whirlpools half the size of the boat, and really fast current that rocked the boat from side to side. Thankfully, there were no tows in the area, because we weren't really sure how we would have passed them. We continued on dodging the tow traffic until we got to our anchorage. Because of the current, getting into the anchorage was going to be tricky, but Capt. Larry followed Fern's advice and went downstream about a quarter of a mile and beat back up against the current. To keep the current from pushing him into the bank, he kept the port engine revving about 1000 rpm's faster than the starboard engine giving him a lot more control. We made it into the anchorage and got the hook set. We enjoyed happy hour by ourselves on then boat and then grilled some pork chops for dinner. We kept an ear out for some predicted thunderstorms, because our anchorage was a storm drain for the town of Cape Girardeau and was susceptible to flash flooding if it rained hard. Fortunately it just sprinkled during the night!

The I-57 bridge

Meeting the Ohio at Cairo

Up the Ohio we go

New Olmstead Lock under construction

Lock 53 under water

Passing over the Lock 53 dam

Lock and dam 53 at high water

A 6 x 6 with 4 on port side (40 barges!)

Going over our second dam

So this is retirement!

The next morning the four boats left again at first light. Two of the other boats were talking about anchoring that evening in more exposed areas of the Ohio River, but Capt. Larry argued that we should be able to put in a long day and make it to the Cumberland Towhead at the mouth of the Cumberland River. None of the anchorages the other captains were considering showed much safety in his mind, and he was determined to go to the towhead with or without them. To make it to the towhead we would have to travel 109 miles with 48 miles downstream on the Mississippi, and 61 miles upstream on the Ohio. The Ohio River was also up considerably, so the current would be stronger than normal. The silver lining was that two Ohio River weir locks had their gates down and we could pass over the dams without locking through the locks. This would save at least an hour's time (or more). To make this happen we would have to travel even faster with the downstream current on the Mississippi than we did the day before. And away we flew! Along the way we went under the I-57 bridge which we cross over every year on our trip to the Indianapolis 500. For the past two years we thought about passing under the bridge as we did the loop, and here we are. We made it to the mouth of the Ohio River by 1030 then turned up the Ohio. Our speeds dropped around 5 mph to a snail's pace 8 mph. There was also a lot of tow traffic that we had to watch out for. We crawled our way up the Ohio with the engines around half-throttle. We got to our first lock and radioed the lockmaster who told us to just drive over the dam (we didn't even have to slow down). We looked over at the lock and it was completely under water! We passed the second lock the same way. Capt. Larry noticed that some of the bars that the other captains had considered as anchorages were under water, so the towhead was going to be it for the night. We got into the Cumberland Towhead around 1700. As we were coming in, we heard the Coast Guard exchange with a boat captain on the Mississippi that was in distress. It turns out that it was Lifestyles II who had run aground about 10 miles from the anchorage we had left that morning. Because of the distance, we could only hear the Coast Guard's side of the conversation so we weren't sure what the full story was. Our three boats were joined by a fourth looper, Floyd Walpole and Linda Hoobler aboard Tumbleweed from Wichita, KS. What a relief to be in this anchorage! We hollered out to the other boats, had a drink or two, and made something easy for supper.

Heading up the Cumberland

Cumberland River scenery

Barkley Lock and Dam

Up 54 feet!

Closing the gates

Almost there

Lake Barkley- we made it!

The next morning we had about 30 miles up the Cumberland River to the Barkley Lock and Dam to get onto Lake Barkley and our marina at Green Turtle Bay. Tumbleweed got a really early start and the remaining boats left around 0800 with Boreas in the lead. We had a scenic and leisurely cruise all the way to the Barkley Lock where Tumbleweed was waiting for use. We no sooner arrived at the lock when the lockmaster opened the gates and allowed us in. This was our biggest (up 54 feet) and newest lock on the trip. We exited the lock into Lake Barkley and had a two mile run to Green Turtle Bay. It was such a relief to be here and it felt that we had finally arrived at the oasis that we were striving for for the past 3 days. Jane was particularly happy to plant her feet on terra firma as they had not touched land for almost 60 hours! We got the boat secured in her slip and everyone enjoyed a major happy hour aboard Tumbleweed, before we were picked up and taken to dinner at the world famous Patti's Restaurant. Patti's is renowned for its 2-inch thick pork chop and desserts. It was a great evening and everyone had a good time.

Peekaboo, I see you!

Sunrise over the Mississippi River