October 15th - day 13 - Louisana Missouri to some river bank north of lock and dam 25

Trains, barges and carnies oh my! The Louisiana town dock as you heard from Jenny was a bit rickety, but it held! Our real problems where trains, every hour on the hour, one of whome had aspirations of musical greatness. He drove drove through town honking out tunes. It would have been amusing anytime that wasn't 4 AM... but it was! Only a few barges passed, but we got to experience the tell tale rocking atleast two times. I woke up around 9:30, and tryed and failed to gather my things and sneak out the hatch. I set out on a little walk, and learned that the carnys where actually setting up the fair, not tearing it down. I didn't feel comfortable using there porta-potty with them surounding it, so I set out down the shore in search of the public facilitys. When I got back, jenny was on a similar mission. I passed her and found Karla still sleeping. I looked at a map for awhile, and descided that a walk would be refreshing. Word was that the lock might not be fixed untill 6 pm, so I figured there was no hurry. I let Jenny know where I was going, and set out. This was a mission for exercise, but also a scouting mission to see how difficult toting our fourty pound gas cans would prove. It turns out that it would be pretty tough. The trip involved climbing a fairly steep hill over about ten blocks with steps. I headed back to the boat with a detour tot he top of a hill for a river side park with a pretty view, and I learned that I'm bad at bringing my camera places.

When I got back to the boat I met and older man with an Australian Shepherd walking up the ramp from the boat. "I was just checking it out. Carolina 27?" "Cataina 22 actually." The man shook his head. "That's what I meant. I knew that. I'm a sailor too, from florida. I went down there to look at it and heard voices... laughter." "Yea that sounds about right." I said. "What are you doing.?" He asked. Where trying to sail from Minnesota to New Oleans." The man grinned now. " For real?" Yea, 14 days." He shook his head. " That's great, you made my day man." As I walked the rest of the way down the ramp to the boat I looked at my phone. There was a text from Jenny. "Wade there's a peeping Tom! Come back and save us!"

Karla was awake now. We discussed what to do with our day, and with the gas situation, and descided to give up on the fuel death march, and to get it further down the rive on flatter ground. Just on a whim I gave lock 25 a call to see if they where having any luck with there repairs. They informed me that it had been completed at 3:00 the previous day. Late again. We loaded up and shoved off and the railway bridge that had been open all morning, chose that moment to begin swinging shut. I called them, and begged for a little more time, and they granted it. Jenny took over, and she motored down lock and dam 24 all the way to 25 which is about a five hour shift. Jenny's hardcore! It was around 6:30 when we got too lock 25 which is just about dark and the worst possible time to look for a spot to camp. I tryed the lock on the radio, but got no responce, so we motored up and pulled the cord that is supposedly hooked to some kind of bell. It didn't seem to be working. We sat there for maybe 20 minutes and decided to use what little daylight we had left to look for a place to stay the night. We motored back up river toward a public access but turned too soon and ended up at a rock wall. We tried anchoring there but it was too smooth and dragged so we headed for the island in the middle of the river hoping to tie off to a tree or something. We where nearly there and it was pouring rain making visibility horrible, when Karla spotted some land with the spotlight. It was too close to be the island, and Jenny said the whole area had been peppered with trees and islands. We didn't wanna take any chances, and I didn't wanna anchor on some random island when I didn't even know exactly where it was, so we headed back for the boat landing. We spotted a sign and made for it but ran aground. We backed up and reassessed, thoroughly sick of the tension. We where pretty much out of ideas so we just motored further down shore and tried again. This time we made it! We where able to anchor on shore, with one line out the back for stability. We where still pretty close to the buoys, and the passing barges where spooky. It was close to ten now, and of course just as we anchored the rain let up. So We set up the oven and Karla made a chicken bake with potatoes and biscuits. It hit the spot. Dishes waited for morning. We put on another movie to unwind. You know how I always say day whatever, survived it? Normally I'm joking, but this time it felt a little real.