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To the right: storm in Debuque, Iowa................Hi all, we've put on 106 miles today, let me go back to Sat. afternoon and Sunday to fill you in on what was 'erased'. We were just north of St. Louis and waiting for Lock and Dam 26 to open - something was broken on it and after waiting for a couple of hours we found out we could not get thru til evening - so we went back to Alton Illinois at a nice marina and spent the night at the Holiday Inn. That was fine but we wanted to make miles and didn't do many at all Sat. I have to admit though that north of St. Louis is very pretty on the Illinois side. There are these huge white rock cliffs with a tree or bush coming out here and there. Really nice to look at. River traffic was heavy - it was in the 90's with matching humidity. We did have entertainment when we were waiting for the Lock to open. Flying fish were around! We tried to stir some up with the video cam on but we haven't viewed it yet. So Sunday we were at breakfast at 6am and got on the river nice and early; only to wait again (that's with Rich calling the Lock about it)until noon. So we lost a whole day of traveling. St. Louis was something. Lots of traffic and waves galore. The arch was impressive. On we went 59 more miles to Hoppies Marina, the last 'oasis' for 270 miles. Fern, the marina 'mom' with, as she put it the 'salty' mouth was about 70 with a smoke in her hand or mouth hanging continuously except when fueling the boats (we were wondering). She sat us down and gave us a good 1/2 hour speech about the different river we were about to encounter. Larger barges, whirlpools in the river and where to find them, where to stay at night, plan for three days groceries, fuel for 270 miles because there is NO fuel on the river for that long. We've been getting approx. 4.3 mpg, figured we'd stop at Cape Giraldeau and take a taxi to fill gas cans, we bought four or five more so we're carrying seven five gallon cans and have a 26 gallon tank on the boat. Well, that's what we did; prepared. Yes the tows were much larger with as many as 42 barges with one big a** towboat, and the wakes were pretty impressive. We camped out with the boats a couple of days and its been high 90's with 100% humidity so we are in MUCH need of a bath - we're definately in the south now so absolutely no swimming in the river. Coyotes sing for us at night along with the Japanese beetles going all night - wow! Tonight we're going to try to get to Green Turtle Bay Marina on the Columbus River where we can shower and hopefully cool down but it will be after midnight and we were up early today again. It's been good though, no mishaps, no boat problems, we haven't been on the river with a big storm (even though one is sort of chasing us now with lots of lightning and thunder) Anyway, we made a three day trip in two long days.
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