And, we thought we were living minimally!

October 6 & 7, 2011

We just sailed past a slab on stilts with a toilet, chaise lounge and table….no walls. I’m guessing it’s a bachelor pad!!! Now that really is minimal living.

Our first lock on the 6^th was next to the Keokuk Power Plant.  When it was built, it was the largest in the world.  This is our first BIG lock:  1200 feet long, with floating bollards.  We dropped 38 feet and instead of the lock doors swinging upstream, this one slid down.  We drove over it.  When the water was at the bottom of the lock we could see the concrete buttress that supports the wall.  Pretty impressive. 

Wall coming up at end of lock

Wall all the way up - Buttress at base
Dark area on wall is how far we came down

Tied to the floating bollard

At the end of the day Brian figured our miles per gallon at 4.3…not good for a car, but really good for a boat.  Our fuel tank holds 1000 gallons.


One last change to that computer note
and then I'm out to hold lines!

Gail and John model stylish outerwear
required in the big locks

Friday morning we are up early (well, John and Brian are up early) so we can get close to St Louis and see Jennifer by mid afternoon.  She has started working for Peabody Energy, which has their headquarters there.  The engine is purring and ready to go at the crack of dawn – 6:30.  We make great time for two and a half hours.  Opps, a tow captain has made a tactical error!  He placed the front edge of the first barge on the lip of the lock door.  As the water began to recede and the front barge was tilting, it was evident that they had to start over by bringing the water up and rearranging the barges.  This amounts to a two hour delay for us.  Time to call Jennifer and tell her she will have to drive a bit further to meet us.  Having a car makes her part of the rendezvous much more flexible than ours. 

We have only one option for the night – Timberlake Marina.  Well, it is listed as a marina.  According to the marina guide there will be electricity, water, fuel and a convenience store.  The dock is so fragile that the owner says if the wind picks up during the night our boat and the dock may both float away.  When we ask the owner about water, he tells us he wouldn’t drink it.  This is from a very nice man who is missing his top six front teeth and the bottom front four.  They don’t use the store anymore because it was too much work climbing the extension ladder every time they needed to go in it.  The trailer park is mix of mobile homes on wheels and stilts.  When Jennifer arrived, she said it looked like the perfect setting for a slasher movie.  The sign at the entry reads “Timber Lake Marina – This is where the fun begins”.  Enough said----

Marina store with ladder to enter

We are about 60 miles from St Louis.  Jennifer picks us up and takes us back to town so we can see some of the neighborhoods that they are considering.  Beautiful old homes with heavily wooded lots.  Then a really great dinner at Brio.  We had a darling waiter.  When I ordered my standard Coke, he told me they only had Pepsi products.  I grudgingly ordered a diet Pepsi with 3 large wedges of lemon.  When my 3^rd refill appeared with no lemon, he stood there grinning and told me that he had managed to find a diet Coke!  Gail is sure that he found a Coke because they were running out of lemons.  Dinner is over and we have an hour to find Costco and pick up some necessities.  The five of us enter the store running, each with their assignments.  Mission accomplished everything is checked off the list and we are on our way back to “the Marina” with minutes to spare.  This is what memories are made of

Lists ready?  Everybody GO!

Gotta Smile – we’re lovin the ride!