Thursday

Departed Hoppies at 0530 headed 110 miles down river to the Little River Diversion Canal, located on the south side of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  It was a pretty uneventful day, plenty of sun, no debris, plenty of tugs and barges to pass.  Beth and Joe are getting quite proficient at hailing them on the radio to confirm passing instructions.  Arrived at the Little River Diversion Canal only to find that it was occupied by a 125 foot Motor Yacht named Mimi.  They were headed upriver to Hoppies for the following day.  Here is our neighbor for the evening, is must be difficult, they did not even invite us over for dinner, although talking to the Captain on the radio was pleasant.

Had steaks cooked on the grill with salad, then turned in early for another 0530 departure, we needed to get up and out of the canal so "Mimi" could leave.

Friday

 A lovely sunrise as we headed out of the canal.

As we begin every morning, Joe, Beth and I, bow to the almighty autopilot which we have named "Gary" cause it is the smartest thing on the boat.  Beth was bowing while she snapped the picture.  The autopilot really makes steering pleasurable.

49 miles after departure we arrived at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, the Ohio river is gigantic here at Cairo, much wider than the Mississippi but shallower.  We went from 10 mph going down the Mississippi to 3.5 mph going up the Ohio, with no change in throttle position.  We were concerned about fuel as there is non available from Hoppies to Kentucky Lake, a distance of 240 miles.  After much severe number crunching, using the correct quantity of crunching fluid, we determined that we would have no problem. Beth's brother Dave was passing through this area and called to see if we could meet up, and I said heck yes if he could get us some fuel.  He went to great lengths to find a solution to what turned out to be not an issue, but it was greatly appreciated.  We were getting ready to speed dial TowBoat U.S..  I will post later as to how much fuel we actually had left. We arrived at Metropolis, Illinois (You may recall that Metropolis was the home of the adult Clark Kent, "Superman", there is a painting of him on the water tower), about 7:30 P.M. and anchored here just downstream from the Harrah's Casino Boat.  It being a Friday night, there was plenty of action on the river bank from locals just being local. 

My happy crew (Happy that we have stopped moving for the day).







The upstream view of Harrah's

And the downstream view at sunset.

We have 31 miles left to go to get to Kentucky Lock on the Tennessee River.  They are undergoing repairs, so we might have up to a four hour delay there. Situation is critical, the fresh water tanks are empty, the holding tanks are full and the ice is melting rapidly. It is expected to be in the 90's tomorrow. 

See you soon.