Monday, September 18 -Little Diversion Channel - Mile Marker 48.5 on the Mississippi River

We start the day by being the first ones off Hoppie's dock.  Soon we have five other boats following us, including "Moon River".  We end up traveling together, for the most part, as there is only one stop that everyone can go to, which is an anchorage called "Little Diversion Channel".  There are no other locks on the Mississippi River and the river becomes VERY adventurous!  There are many whirlpools , which makes for a more turbulent river!

Because of the turbulence, you would not anchor off to the side of the channel like we would do back home.  A couple of other reasons not to anchor off the channel are: because there are two massive rivers that join the Mississippi (Illinois and Missouri), the depth can change rapidly (a few times the depth changed from 20 feet to 55 feet), and sometimes overnight the river will rise a foot and a half or more; and there are dikes (similar to wing dams where we live) that boats would love to anchor behind, but with the varying levels of water, silt can build very quickly and if you anchor at night you could wake up to being on a beach!  Also, it is VERY typical to see tows with barges of 24 or higher (Fern said once there was a tow with 72 barges!!!😲)  Because these towboats have so many barges, it happens once in awhile that a barge becomes loose; and if you're sleeping while you're anchored out - well, I think you get the picture!

29 barges!

Here's a picture of a couple of the dikes coming out from the side of the river.

The dredging equipment looks a little different here than it does back home!

The scenery changes from beautiful bluffs, 

to rocks that remind me of the North Shore,

 to huge amounts of sand beaches, and even big industrial sand mines!

I point out to Dave that in the distance there is a beautiful bridge!

 However, as we got closer, we saw no vehicles, instead there were utilities and a pipeline!!!

Soon we come to our first town, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, after about 8 hours of cruising!  You can see why there aren't many towns on the river after the last lock; just look at the size of their levee wall!!!😲

Right after this town, is "Little Diversion Channel", our stop for the night.

We tie up and anchor with our fellow "loopers", and have a spontaneous dinner together with A LOT of wine, toasting to a wonderful last day on the Mighty Mississippi!

Left to right:  Chip from New Jersey, Dave, Gary & Angie from Ohio, and Walt & Midge (retired school counselor - we had a lot to talk about 😉) from Pennsylvania!