Woke to the sound of our alarm, but then fell asleep for another half-hour (we NEVER do that; hard to get up after a fun night at the Piano Bar😁)! Just when I thought about starting to get out of bed, Captain Dave said to put it in high gear, as one boat is exiting the marina to go through the lock (just to the south of us)! Considering how busy the locks are around here, you don't want to miss a good opportunity! So, with bed hair, and no washed face, we hustled to undo power and lines, and found we only had a short wait and the lock was ready for us!
Note the clouds; I think this is the first day where we didn't have a total blue sky! It still was VERY warm.
Once in the lock, the gates didn't come out from the sides to close, instead they came up from underneath the water! We saw these kind of gates on some of the locks on the Illinois River five years ago when we brought the boat back from Maryland.
Still going up!
And up!
Ballards again! Oh, oh, what do I see? ZEBRA MUSSELS!!!😲
About three miles later, we see the confluence of the Missouri River and the Mississippi River!
Then, about another mile, and we see a sign telling all boats that they must use the canal to the left. WHAT? The Mississippi River has a canal? The canal was created to allow river traffic to bypass a portion of the river that is unnavigable due to an anticlinal exposure of bedrock in the river; hence the name, "The Chain of Rocks".
So, I guess if we don't want a big hole in the bottom of our boat, we'll take the sign's advice!
Both towboats and pleasure craft use this canal.
The canal is not that wide.
You can definitely see that as Captain Dave passes a tow!
We can see the lock that everyone needs to go through in order to exit the canal. The three boats that we have been following are about to enter. Of course we don't want to miss our opportunity, so on plane goes "Johnson & Johnson"!
Once again, there are two lock chambers; towboats to the left, and pleasure boats to the right.
We have the line wrapped around the ballard and now we're ready for the gates to close; once again, they go up . . .
up, and up!!!
As we exit, we see that we're a lot faster than our towboat friend!😉 And, we're also celebrating, because this is the LAST lock of the Mississippi River!
We have gone through a total of 25 locks!!!
As we round the bend, we get our first glimpse of St. Louis!
THE ARCH!!! Notice the capital centered below the arch,
as well as the helicopter (got lucky on that shot!😉)
Tow and barge city! It is SOOOOO industrial on the river by St. Louis!
As we inch our way slowly out of towboat city, we begin to see beautiful homes on the hillsides, including this very funny statue!!!😂
This beautiful home belonged to the Anheuser family (Budweiser), and is right before our stay for the night; Hoppies!
Hoppies! It's the last stop to fuel and stock up on anything
before our next stop on the Ohio . . . 200 miles from here! This is a family owned marina which consists of three barges! Fern and her husband bought it from her dad in 1973, and Fern's dad bought it in 1934! Fern's daughter, Debbie, works here and I am thinking she and her husband will continue
the tradition for years to come!
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| "Johnson & Johnson" peaks out from the top of the clubhouse! |
Town is a short walk, and as we head that way, we pass by the back side of the Anheuser estate and see the beautiful pasture with horses!
We've been told by many people that when at Hoppies, a stop at the Blue Owl Restaurant is a must! Dave and I would most definitely agree!!!
FYI, 18 apples are used in JUST ONE apple pie!!!😲
We end a wonderful day of cruising with Fern's Captain's Meeting. Fern knows the rivers around here like the back of her hand and every day at 4:30 she shares her knowledge (and she has A LOT)! Dave and I met three other "loopers" and are excited for our journey tomorrow which will lead us to the half-way point of turning onto the Ohio River! There are no more marinas between here and there, so I'm not sure what kind of signal I will have, but be assured that if I don't post something tomorrow, it will be within the next few days!
Thanks for following!
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