Oct 8 - Day 6 - Bellevue, IA to Albany, IA

Hey there! We started this morning off bright and early! Set our alarms for 7am! Go us! Or rather "Go Karla and Wade" - I couldn't get myself out of bed that early... They got out - and headed back towards the buoys - but on our way we hit either a wingdam or a log... in either case, scared me half to death! lol But all was fine! It was raining... again today! Ugh... getting sick of the rain.

It wasn't long at all before we got to the actual town of Bellevue - we docked and ran up the road to the gas station - you know how you feel after you have been jumping on a trampoline for a long time and when you get off and walk on solid ground, your legs feel so funny? Thats how it is with us and getting off the boat! We feel like we are still rocking with the boat or dizzy! lol Anyways, we filled up the gas tanks then hauled them back down to the boat. After we were set, we went back up to the gas station and awaited a ride from "Windy" - he was a really nice man from St. Donatus who picked us up and gave us a ride back to his restaurant and to see the sites in the town.

St. Donatus , IA is a little town that was settled by Luxembourg immagrints - so when they settled they made a little Luxembourg here in America! The stone homes and public buildings of St. Donatus are considered to be the best collection of Luxembourger stonework existant in the new world.

We had breakfast at the Kalmes restaurant and Olde Tavern - it has been their family business since 1850! Windy (who was the 3rd generation of owning the restaurant) gave us a tour of the restaurant and a bit of the town - it was very kind of him!

We also saw the Tete-des-Morts Creek that was named by Father Louis Hennepin whose party had paddled off the Mississippi Riverand into the creek to find a grisly sight-- skulls placed on sticks barricading the creek. (yikes!) Apparently the victors of an Indian battle had driven he vasquished warriors backward over the bluffs, dashing their bodies on the rocks below. The victorious tribe stuck the losers' skulls onto sticks, thus the ghastly appellation Tete-des-Morts meaning "Heads of the Dead." (Middleton)

After visiting St. Donatus we continued on our way - Karla drove for a good 3 hours - in the rain... lol she passed a barge that was going too slow, that was pretty intense! haha! We went through 2 more locks and dams and through a draw bridge - biggest draw bridge yet! I took over driving at about 2:30 and drove the rest of the evening, but it wasnt raining on me - just dreary out. The view all the way down has been awesome! Always so scenic! I love when there are like a huge group of birds/duck/gulls on the water and they are right on out path and you drive through them and they scatter all around you! Pretty neat! Done that a few times now! :)

Evening creeped in, so we anchored for the night. My least favorite part about this trip is finding places to anchore for the night... its always so spooky, because its usually getting dark and we have to go outside of the buoys and you dont know what you might hit... so far all we've run into is sand bars and that stick or wing dam. Hopefully nothing more? lol

We had MRE's tonight! I had never seen those before! So wierd! It's Meals Ready to Eat, they use them in the army, it's what they eat in the field. Its a complete meal in a little bag! It even has this pack the warms up the main dish! Pretty cool!

We ate supper out in the cock pit and I was too full to finish my toast so I tossed it in the water - and Karla was like "Watch a huge catfish come and eat it!" we laughed "ya right! haha!" then continued eating. Not even 2 minutes later there was this Huge splash! Karla and I jumped so high! We were totally unprepared! Then Wade was like "haha! whoo!" So instantly Karla and I figured Wade had thrown something in the water just to startle us, but no - it was really a Huge fish! Not necessarily a catfish lol but a big something...

Over and out!