Livin' Life

The next morning, after eating breakfast, a local businessman  (Mike Cates of Brickyard Motor Co.) offered the use of his car to drive to Wal-mart, it was a pretty good distance. You see, we needed oil for the motor – a continuing concern. Tom would have walked but the guy insisted which was really nice – he and his son were at work next to the diner, just an example of how nice folks are along the river. Tom told me later that when he came out of Walmart, he had forgotten what kind of car he had driven there – it took him a few minutes to remember…..

We kinda felt ready to move on and cover some miles, but it turned out to be a slow day – extremely strong headwind to hold us back.  Not many pictures taken, again battery charging issues – we left wondering if we would make our 30 mile minimum, but it really didn’t matter – just to be on the river.

At lock 22 there were 10 tows waiting to pass, the lockmaster said it was the most he had seen in 10 years at one time – maybe the economy is picking up..

The headwinds were very strong today which created waves that crashed over the bow. We hugged the shoreline to reduce the effect of the wind. Near the 279 mile post, we began experiencing the ‘jumping fish’ (Asian carp), a few even made it in the boat. These wer BIG fish, it was very amusing as they jumped all around us.

 We located a lagoon at Two Rivers Marina across from Louisiana, Mo and waited until evening for the winds to die down further – it was nice to be all showered and have a mixed beverage while waiting.

  Mini Yard tow at Two Rivers Marina