Rollin’ on the River

. . . Life on the Mississippi

Mark Twain might not recognize the Mississippi River today. Huck Finn would have a hard time poling a raft down it now. The river has been dredged and narrowed to allow river traffic year-round and had dams built to somewhat control water levels. 

But it hasn’t been tamed.

We’ve experienced rip snortin’ currents of up to four miles an hour. Throughout the river, the current swirled, causing us to constantly correct our course. It would be amazing at higher water levels. Like the Illinois River before it, our trip on the Mississippi was at low water.

Today, we covered 76 miles in just eight hours with four miles per hour of current! It's an all-time record for us.

The morning light hits a western-facing bluff 
on the Mississippi River.

What we’re seeing and hearing are sandy banks, not mud as on the Lower Mississippi (below Cairo, Ill.), the constant sound of thousands of cicadas, an occasional thump, thump on the hull as we hit waterlogged branches and small logs, and surprisingly beautiful scenery.

The Trail of Tears crossed the Mississippi River in this area of big bluffs.

Asian carp are still everywhere. At the mile 78 anchorage, the carp were so thick you could almost walk to shore on their backs.

Leaping Carp! Carina hadn't scored any Asian carp until a huge tow passed us with a loud engine. We heard plop-plop and found our first carp in the dinghy. Kent gave it a river burial at Hoppie's Marina.

At the Start: Leaving the Illinois River (Hooray!)

Between Grafton and Alton, Illinois, the Illinois River ended as it flowed into the Mississippi River. This rear view (upstream) shows the Mississippi on the left and the Illinois on the right.

Not only did the Illinois River end between Grafton and Alton, but Ice Age glaciers did too.  The dockmaster at Grafton Harbor told us the Mississippi Palisades, a series of bluffs, were where the glaciers stopped. Most of the countryside (that we could see over the Illinois levees) was fairly flat up to then.

We spent a night in Grafton to celebrate Aurora (crew front left) and Bucket List (crew front right) cross their wakes, before we moved on to Alton for two nights, 

David (left), Kent’s first cousin from St. Louis, met us at Alton and took us to see some of the sights and to Pere Marquette State Park for lunch. The buildings were created by the Civilian Conservation Corp during the depression and are still stunning.

The great hall at Pere Marquette featured huge beams, tapestries, games such as oversize chess pieces and checkers, and wonderful ambiance, we'd call it.

Alton was where Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln held their last debate in the race for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois . The debate is memorialized in a downtown park. Alton must have been a political springboard because two years later Abe Lincoln was elected president.

Hoppie’s is a hoot!                                                                                    

Hoppie’s Marina consists of three end-to-end barges tied to shore.  It’s the only marina in the 200-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that the Great Loop follows, and it’s located in the first third of that section. Anchorages are few and far between after Hoppie's.

Hoppie’s reminds us of Bobbie’s Fish Camp in south Alabama because they are both very local and very colorful. They are both the only source of fuel and to dock for miles. The difference is that Fern (far right) who runs the marina with her husband, Hoppie, is extremely helpful with her daily Looper meeting and advice. Bobbie’s daughter who runs the fish camp now is not so much.

Up the hill from Hoppie’s is Kimmswick, Missouri, and the Blue Owl Restaurant. We expected a “meat and three" café and instead got Southern Living quality. The food was excellent and desserts even better, especially the Levee-high Apple Pie.

Mary Hammond (middle) started the Blue Owl restaurant around 25 years ago. Today, it’s a stop for bus tour groups. Mary showed Jane (left) and Grace (right), Sea Glide, the entire pie, not just the slice they ate. The pie weighed about seven pounds! 

When Do We Get to Relax and Float Around the Boat With a Sundowner?

The line two-thirds of the way up
this barge tie up is actually the 
normal pool level. We're about 
10 feet low.

That’s actually the question another Looper had. We rushed through Canada to get to -- and through --Lake Michigan before the lake became nasty (right about now). Then, we rushed through the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers because they are really low and getting lower, meaning there are few places deep enough for us to anchor and few marinas deep enough for us to dock. Actually on those two rivers, there are few marinas period, even for fuel.

After motoring upstream for more than 60 miles on the Ohio River, we will go to the Cumberland River and Green Turtle Bay Marina for about a week of R&R. We’ll have the mast raised. We’ll wash and wax the boat at our leisure. We’ll go to the grocery store at our leisure. We’ll do laundry at our leisure.  We’ll take long showers. Best of all, we’ll float around the boat with a sundowner, at our leisure. And best yet, we've learned that many of our pre-Loop sailing friends will be there, too.

Eagles soar along the Mississippi River. What
better way to end this blog post?!

Next: Crossing our wake