Livin' Life

We all sleep well in this quiet location, only the sound of gentle snoring. Sometime around 6am we are visited by one of the marina staff, he apparently followed Gator back from the bath house. “When did you guys get here?” he asks. “Last night” Gator replies and then the receipt book comes out. “That’ll be $35” he says at 6am in the morning. He was actually a pretty nice guy just doin’ his job at 6am in the morning. Anyway, we hang around a couple more hours drinking coffee and re-organizing, you know the drill.

We hit the river around 8am and travel 20 miles downriver to Hannibal, Mo., the town of Mark Twain. We ease in to the small boat marina and tie off. It is extremely hot today and we are parched looking for some relief.

Tom and I stayed at this town back in 2009 and we had a pretty good time. We just happened to hit town during their annual barbeque cook-off and street party, good food, live bands and beverage. Gator, Ten Tows and I find a bar and grill and walk in to some outstanding air conditioning and pull out a stool up at the bar. We order some Coronas and some food and enjoy some conversation with each other. Ten tows has found the bus station here and must leave for St. Louis today. He will rent a car there and pick us up further down the river.

We say our goodbyes for now and leave him to his bus ride while Gator and I head back to the “Belle” and get back on the river. Lock #24 was a ways down through some choppy water. The lockmaster advises us of a 1-1/2 hour wait so we find a relly cool beach to hang out on. This is one of the few beaches we have seen so far so we take full advantage. We pull out our chairs and in the shade of the boat with a good view of the lock, we enjoy a few beverages and a lot of laughs.

Gator is Happy

He's Happy Too!

Happy tp be on Land!

The lockmaster sounds his horn enviting us in to the lock and we pass through with no troubles. We spend the rest of the day cruising with not much to see. We decided earlier to travel late and try to make up some miles. We do and as we are passing a tow, we catch a beautiful Mississippi sundown.

Pulling into a side slough, we find a small hamlet of riverside homes that are partially underwater. Like a lot of places on the river the marina is closed due to flooding. We are experiencing this more and more as we move downriver. We are concerned now that riverside gas will be hard to come by.

It is nearly dark as we make a decision to pull over for the night. We find a partially submerged dock and tie off. These little flooded hamlets remind me of ghost towns, abandoned and eerily quiet. Despite the heat and the occasional mosquito, I think we will get some sleep tonight.