Year 2 Day 167

Today is Thursday, September 13th and we're on the river near a town called Kimmswick, Missouri and parked at a place called Hoppies.  This isn't much of a stop but as they say, "it's the only game in town".  We're parked against a barge but at least we have power.  This is the second night for us to stay here as we arrived late yesterday and we wanted to see the town and have lunch at the Blue Owl which we've heard so much about.

Prior to leaving Grafton, we went up to the top of the hill and had lunch at a place called Aeries.  The view is absolutely incredible and you can almost see St. Louis from there.

Mississippi River looking south

Looking down at the marina from

Aeries Restaurant

We left Grafton on Wednesday morning about 7:00 and had two locks to clear before continuing down the Mississippi River.  Before reaching the lock we passed this statue on the side of the river which was built after the disastrous flood of 1951 as gratitude for the water stopping just short of flooding the village of Portage des Sious.  Mid July each year, the blessing of the fleet is held at the Shrine.

Our Lady of The Rivers

  The first lock was the Mel Price lock and we cleared it with no problem.  A little while later we approached the Chain of Rocks lock and ended up drifting around in circles for 3 hours waiting for a barge which was stuck inside the lock and then stuck trying to exit.  The river is down so much this year due to no rain.  In fact, the usual anchorages along the river are out of the question because of the depth.

Barge stuck in the lock

Once we cleared this lock we were on our way down the Mississippi River which will take us about 3 days of unpleasant cruising due to constant barge traffic and a very narrow river due to shallow water.  We passed St. Louis and saw the Arch.

The Arch with the old courthouse

in the background

Wait - are we in Missouri or Texas???

We arrived at Hoppies with 3 other boats and we got the last spot along this old barge.  They used to have room for other boats on the other side of the barge but as you can see, the water level is down so much that their business is way off.

In years past the water went

all the way up to the treeline

Every afternoon Fern of Hoppies gives a talk on what to expect along the river as you leave.  All boaters take advantage of this as she really knows what she's talking about.  This is a photo of those in attendance this afternoon.

Fern is the lady at the head of the table

in the white t-shirt

We leave in the morning at about 8:00 AM and the first night will be tied to a lock wall along the way and the second night will be anchored.  Then we should be leaving the Mississippi River.