First Segment Complete

Just letting you know that we have completed this segment of our journey.  We are in Iuka, Mississippi
at Aqua Yacht Harbor and we are leaving here by car tomorrow for IA and the BIG wedding!  We are both ready for a "break" and really anxious for all the celebrations and to see friends and relatives.  It will be a couple of weks before we blog again.

                                       Clifton, TN - small historical river town where we stayed

River Scenes

Here's the Pickwick,TN Lock 

1st mate doing her job - keeping the boat off the wall of the lock with her boat hook.

Beautiful roses everywhere....

Wildlife, too......

Tennessee River

We finally got some internet access, after going without for 4-5 days!

Smooth, calm water - we love it for travelling!

We are enjoying the Tennessee River.  It is beautiful scenery, hardly any barges and lots of fishing boats!
 It  is a lot of familiar territory.  Good times with friends and relatives from Jackson, TN. 

Lots of scenic vistas

Many more housing developments along the river than when we were here 15 yrs. ago.

                                        Our undeveloped Kentucky Lake Lot (in the middle of pic) 

                                 Fog many mornings as the air temp (47) is cooler than the water temp (65) 

                                                                 Memories..........

Captain in training - Luke Spain, our great, great nephew!

Don walking the beach where we overnighted (see the volleyball net!)

                                                      Floating Houses at Perryville, TN

That's all, folks...........till later............

Pictures

Here are a few more pictures, now that we figured out how to post them.

Along the Mississippi River

 We're not on this picture -

Hoppies Marine Service

Lock and Dam under construction on the Ohio River

Fellow LOOPers at Green Turtle Bay

Observations

Another Blog??  Yes, we decided we needed to do some explaining, clarification of what we're actually doing.  Now that we've been out here about 6 weeks and meeting more LOOPers, we're becoming more aware of exactly what all is involved, as we travel the Eastern America waterways on the Great Loop or Great Circle Route.

What is the Great Loop?  It's the waterway that goes from the Great Lakes, through Chicago followed by several inland rivers: Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee.  This leads to the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile Bay and then travel continues either through or around Florida.  then it's up the east coast of Florida (by way of the Intracoastal Waterway), on up the Cheasapeake Bay to New York, on into the Inland waterways ( Hudson River, Erie Canal, etc.).  Then travel is through parts of Canada (Trent-Severn, Georgian Bay, North Channel) and into the Great Lakes again.  It can be completed in 80 days, a year or multiple years, depending on what your plans are and how fast you travel.

Some interesting tidbits:  A couple of days ago a boat pulls in right beside us and we can see from his license, he's from IA (1st one we've seen from IA!).  Upon gettting acquainted with them - they're  from Pella, IA.  What a shocker!
                                    As we are spending more time here in the south, we can remminisce about our years living here.  The "laid back" way of life, the accents (Don says even I have reverted back!), friendly people, the "bubbas", Bible Belt, Guns, Patrotism & Honoring the Military.  We're hearing "Yes, maam", "Yes, sir", Ya'll, Fixin, Honey and more......
                                    We are managing to live aboard our "little" boat, have tried different meals, methods of doing things, even survived a bout of back pain and a lingering head cold. We do lots of walking and grocery shopping by bike (most of the time). tb

           Some people have asked about the boat.  Our boat is verily small for this kind of cruising but it works for us.  The hull is 27' and overall length is around 31' after you add the bow pulpit (the part out front that holds the anchor), the swim platform at the back and the 8' dinghy set on edge with brackets beyond that.  We have a small head (bathroom) with a stool and sink.  It's not very comfortable to stand up in so we sit on the stool when we use the sink.  It also has a shower that you can only use while sitting on the stool.  It makes everything wet so we use the showers at the marinas.  Waste from the stool goes to a holding tank which on our boat is portable.  To empty, it must be uncoupled and dumped in the bathroom at the marina.  This is done after dark as it's not "cool" to be seen walking around the pier with a bucket of ----.  The galley (kitchen) has a sink, small frig, microwave and a two burner electric stove.  The stove only works when we're plugged into "shore power" (AC household current) at a marina.  The frigs works off both AC and DC (batteries) current.  The microwave is AC but we have an 1500 watt "invertor" that converts DC battery power to AC household current so it can be used while under way or at anchor.  We also use a propane camp stove while at anchor.  Across from the galley is a cafe type table that seats four.  The master stateroom (bedroom) is a v-berth in the front of the cabin. That is where the TV is.  We also have a midberth at the back of the cabin.  It has a low ceiling and fits under the helm area (steering, etc.) in the cockpit.  We converted half of this area into a closet but left room for one of us to sleep if we're restless and bothering the other one in the v-berth.  The cockpit is the open part at the back of the boat that includes the helm, seating area, a small portable table and an ice cooler.  We have camper canvas that allowes the entire area to be enclosed.  This is our living room.  You get the idea - it's something like an RV on water.  But it is NOT a houseboat which usually are not much more than  camping trailers that float.   Ours is a real boat.  This blog is long enough.  Later we may try to explain the why's and how's.   db

Inland River Cruising

Yes, it was an interesting week!  We had two good days at Grafton, IL Marina - quaint little river town.  Replicas of the Nina & Pinta (two of Columbus' boats on his journey to America) were moored there and lots of school kids and people in town for that.

At Grafton, we joined the Mississippi - lots of water, barges and looking for the red & green buoys (keep the red to the left, green to the right to avoid running aground and wing dams.  Htting bottom can ruin a good day; expensive too!)   About 10 miles down river from Grafton we cruised by St. Louis.  It's impressive from the water - arch and all - Gateway to the West, but there was no place to dock the boat. We took lots of photos.   We stopped for the night at Hoppie's Marine Service below St Louis.  This is a important stop for LOOPers as it is the last place you can get gas for the next 270 miles.   The owner's spouse, Fern, conducts a class every afternoon giving instructions for navigating the next several miles, where to anchor for the night, where not to meet a barge, going through locks, etc. Very valuable information!   We didn't have enough fuel capacity for the 270 mile run to the next fuel stop if we ran at our normal speed of 25mph (3600rpms) so we filled 4-5gal fuel cans and tied them down on the front deck and cruised for the next 176 miles at 8mph (1000rpms).  2 1/2 days of "very boring" - we took turns at the helm to help break the monotony.  We arrived at Green Turtle Bay on the Cumberland River Wednesday noon. What a relief - we plan to stay for a week to rest and heal - Theresa's back, my cold.  This is a resort marina with all the amenities - heated pool, cable TV, spa, great food, etc..

As this is the place where most every cruising couples stop you have opportunity to meet interesting people.  The boat next to us is a young family of four from Virginnia.  Mom home schools the kids (10 & 11yo.) and dad is able to do his work on the computer from the boat.  They have cruised about a year and plan on one more year before they again become land based.  Met a couple last night at a get together for cruising boaters who are taking their sail boat from  Michigan to the Caribbean for the winter.  The most interesting boaters we've met are a couple from Hamburg, Germany who are doing their second circumnavigation of the world in their sail boat "Magic Life".

What most impresses us is how friendly and helpful cruising boaters are.  Doesn't make any difference on the size or value of your boat or your status in life.  Everyone's "just boaters".   A few churches could learn from observing the boating community.  We'll plan to leave and head further south the middle of next week.

Yes, we have spent this week on the IL River - seeing many barges (moving, discarded, being loaded, repositioning and exchanging crews).  We have met them and passed them and heard them pass by in the night.  There are many more barges than pleasure boats this time of year.  Many are being loaded with the grain harvest of the midwest, to be shipped down to New Orleans and beyond.  It makes one pause and think about being here in the "breadbasket" of the world.

We have met many interesting people in the small river towns and fellow travelling LOOPers. Last Sunday, we walked to and worshipped in a church in Henry, IL - very nice communion service with fellow Christians.  They were offering us rides to wherever we might need to go, as did the other locals. 

Boaters we have met include couples from Canada, Arizona, Ohio and Illinois.  We are in Grafton, Il today - it is right at the confluence of the Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, near St. Louis.  So tonight we plan to go up to the top of the bluff here (at the reccomendation of the couple from IL) with a Candian couple, to check out a winery there at sunset to take in the view.

The weather has been great this week - sunny and warm days and cool nights!  Night before last we spent on the anchor, near an island, where there were hundreds of white pelicans stopping over on their way south.  Also, the changing fall colors of the trees on the bluffs is gorgeous! What beautiful sights to behold!

Tomorrow we will enter the Mississippi River and then in about a week we should be on the Tenneesee River ( this is where we boated when we lived in TN).  So we just keep moving on and are very thankful for this experience and the safety and good times we've had so far.

Miss Te Rae

It's been a week full of adventure, rain and finally 2 days of sunshine!  Chicago was awesome!  It was the highlight of our trip so far.  There was so much to see and do there and we stayed in the big city for 4 days waiting for the rain to let up.  Then we finally left Wednesday (in the rain).  Being there longer allowed us to go to the top of the John Hancock Center (94 stories), see Buckingham Fountain, Soldier Field, Millenium Park, Cultural Center, Navy Pier and much more. 

Another spectacular view awaited us as we cruised through the canyon of skyscrapers on the Chicago River as we were leaving the city - awesome vistas all around us!  Then eventually after leaving the downtown area we saw the commercial side of the city - barges with scrap iron, quarries with sand and limestone, abandoned buildings and tenaments.

Before the day ended we came upon tree lined river banks, parks and recreational areas.  Then in Joliet, we stopped at their Bicentennial Park and checked out the area, went for a walk before we headed on down the river to Three Rivers Marina, where we spent the next night.  That was an experience!  It was very different from Chicago.  The marina was in a state of disrepair and out in the country.  I went for a walk in a wooded area and saw a deer!  It was so quiet there - what a contrast from the night before!

Now we are on the Illinois River and passing many barges - yesterday we saw 10 -15 in a 2 hour period!
That is many more than we have seen on the upper Mississippi River at a given time.  Today we even went through a Lock with a partial barge - they were having their lunch at the time. - made us jealous.  So far we have gone through 6 Locks, without any problems.  We have a careful captain and helpful 1st mate.

The trees are starting to turn some beautiful colors and we have been admiring God's handiwork all around us.  Looking forward to more of the same as we make our way south to St. Louis.