Got up kinda late, ran up to the gas station to fill up the gas tanks and on our way there we went by a site in which Abraham Lincoln stood - he spoke in Crimes Hall on October 9, 1858, So Abraham was in that exact same spot 151 yrs and 2 days ago! Crazy cool! lol
We were on our way about 10 o'clock - it wasn't too terribly cold out today - we were thankful it wasn't raining or snowing! Getting a little sick of that. lol We wanted to make it a hardcore day and drive 80 miles! We might have set our expectations a tad too high... lol but hey!
We basically just drove all day, except for a quick stop at the River Side Park to hunt for geodes! We picked up several geode looking rocks - we will open them and find out if they are geode's when we get home! I hope we are lucky! lol Unfortunately, as we were hunting for geodes, a
barge we had passed earlier, caught up to us and therefore got ahead of us again. So once we continued on our way and arrived at the next lock (lock and dam #19), we were held up another hour and a half waiting for the barge to get through. That was a pain. When we finally got in the lock, it was almost dark. This lock is the biggest lock and dam on the river - we went down 38ft! You can see the water line in the picures, pretty impressive. Obviously not very many "pleasure crafts" (as they call anyone who aren't barges) enter through this lock and dam. They didn't give us the direction that the other locks did. In fact, we didn't see anyone at all. We grabbed onto an extra large bobber that dropped with the lowering water level, meant for the barges to tie onto and just hung on! The current as the water rushed by us on the way out of the lock was pretty strong, so it wasn't easy, but we managed. By the time we were all the way down, the doors in front of us looked like the armored battlements of a castle in a fairtale - SO big!
Once we got out of the lock it was time to find a place to anchore for the night. We were close to a town so Wade and Karla decided to go through the dark to and go to the next town hoping there would be a dock in the town - went past the small town, no docks. For what we could see anyways... Wade was driving and Karla had the spot light shining the buoys - good thing the buoys have reflecters! lol So no luck finding a dock, so we decided to anchor on shore. (Anchoring - my very least favorite part, remember!) So I was hiding under my covers. :) It seemed like forever, but we finally found a place to anchor!
So we only went about 46 miles today - not the 80 we had hoped. lol Karla made us tune helper for supper, and Wade made cheese cake for dessert! I didn't feel 100% so I spent the evening and most the day in bed. After dishes we started Tin Man - but i fell asleep so I couldn't tell you how it was. :)
We were on our way about 10 o'clock - it wasn't too terribly cold out today - we were thankful it wasn't raining or snowing! Getting a little sick of that. lol We wanted to make it a hardcore day and drive 80 miles! We might have set our expectations a tad too high... lol but hey!
We basically just drove all day, except for a quick stop at the River Side Park to hunt for geodes! We picked up several geode looking rocks - we will open them and find out if they are geode's when we get home! I hope we are lucky! lol Unfortunately, as we were hunting for geodes, a
barge we had passed earlier, caught up to us and therefore got ahead of us again. So once we continued on our way and arrived at the next lock (lock and dam #19), we were held up another hour and a half waiting for the barge to get through. That was a pain. When we finally got in the lock, it was almost dark. This lock is the biggest lock and dam on the river - we went down 38ft! You can see the water line in the picures, pretty impressive. Obviously not very many "pleasure crafts" (as they call anyone who aren't barges) enter through this lock and dam. They didn't give us the direction that the other locks did. In fact, we didn't see anyone at all. We grabbed onto an extra large bobber that dropped with the lowering water level, meant for the barges to tie onto and just hung on! The current as the water rushed by us on the way out of the lock was pretty strong, so it wasn't easy, but we managed. By the time we were all the way down, the doors in front of us looked like the armored battlements of a castle in a fairtale - SO big!Once we got out of the lock it was time to find a place to anchore for the night. We were close to a town so Wade and Karla decided to go through the dark to and go to the next town hoping there would be a dock in the town - went past the small town, no docks. For what we could see anyways... Wade was driving and Karla had the spot light shining the buoys - good thing the buoys have reflecters! lol So no luck finding a dock, so we decided to anchor on shore. (Anchoring - my very least favorite part, remember!) So I was hiding under my covers. :) It seemed like forever, but we finally found a place to anchor!
So we only went about 46 miles today - not the 80 we had hoped. lol Karla made us tune helper for supper, and Wade made cheese cake for dessert! I didn't feel 100% so I spent the evening and most the day in bed. After dishes we started Tin Man - but i fell asleep so I couldn't tell you how it was. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment