Where is the river?
On Monday, 9/28/15, we were ready to leave Hoppies at 7:00 am, but fog covered the river. Everyone on the dock stayed put and relaxed. I cooked fried eggs and toast, and we read our novels. We waited until 10:30 am to exit: The fog had lifted, and the sun was out.
All the barges and tows had been waiting too, so the river was filled with action. We pulled out of Hoppies in front of a tow. “Come on, Captain,” the tow captain said when George asked if it was ok to come in front of him.
The Captain Shelby House viewed from our stern.
We came up behind the tow named the Captain Shelby House, which was pushing 21 barges of coal, and George called to ask if it was ok to pass him. “It’s ok with me, Captain,” the tow replied in a lackadaisical way. When we started around him on the “One” we saw two other tows coming at us on that side. One seemed small. He just had three or so barges. The other was waiting in the curve. He had lots of barges. As we chugged around Shelby House, the waiting tow started up and came to us too. We were a barge sandwich. George proved his worth around the barges and tows today.
We drove 40 miles to tie up at the Kaskaskia Lock. This is an easy stop. We don’t have any services, but we are all on the same dock and can visit. We are with the four other boats from Hoppies: LeeLoo, Red Eagle, Grand Baron, and Knot Too Big. After naps, we all had docktails together and chatted for a couple of hours. It was fun to share stories from today and other looping days.
Looking down the dock at Kaskaskia Lock, toward Aunt Aggie.
On Tuesday, 9/29/15, we decided to stay on the Kaskaskia dock for the day since it was raining. Thunder storms were predicted for the afternoon. Three of the boats left around 8:30 am. We stayed with Red Eagle. No one else arrived, which surprised us.
We had a quiet, rainy day. I read a ton, and George did some engineering. We had phone and internet service, so we chatted with lots of friends and family. At 4:00 pm we walked down the dock and played cards with Sherry and Saxe on Red Eagle. It was fun to be off the boat and to get to know them better. They both have military backgrounds, so our lives have been quite different.
We came back to Aunt Aggie and cooked dinner and watched House of Cards. We’re eager to get moving this morning.
Note: Aunt Aggie is now listed with Curtis Stokes. You can see the listing at http://www.curtisstokes.net/trawler-mainship350-aunt-aggie.html
If you want a loop-ready boat, give our broker a call.
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