Hoppie's to Kaskaskia

We did not make an early departure from Hoppies on Friday because of the short distance that we were to travel.  Our destination was to be the Lock on the Kaskaskia river, a short distance from it's junction with the Mississippi.  We only needed to travel around 40 miles today and we had a 3-4 mile current to help us along.  We left around 9:30 in the morning and had an uneventful (good) trip.  We arrived at 2:00 in the afternoon, called the lock and requested permission to tie-up along the outer lock wall.  We positioned ourselves at one end of the wall to make room for the other boats that were leaving Hoppie's  later that day. 

As a result of a slight technical error on the part of our "photo documentarian" (SD chip not seated) we do not have any photos of the days travel.  Not that we missed much, other than pictures of the lock wall.  The Mississippi river looked the same as it had the day before, and as it was going to look the next day.

Later, we heard Bob and Sharon on Sno Daz calling the lock to get permission to tie up.  Since 911 people are not allowed on the lock walls but are permitted to be there while tying up, so we got off the boat and helped them arrive. Shortly after that, Matt and Coleen on Gemini  Dream arrived and we also helped them tie up.  We probably spent way more time on the lock wall visiting than we should have, but no one challenged us about it.

We went to bed early, knowing that tomorrow was going to be a very very long day!  The night was quiet except for occassional waves from a Corp of Engineers work boat that was making round trips to the Dredge Potter.  According to the AIS (Automatic Identification System) the Potter was working the Mississippi below the Kaskaskia, which meant that tomorrow we would need to be carefull passing them on our way down river.

Cindy's Observations:  Fern had briefed us on the "bad" turn that would be turbulent before getting to the lock.  We did meet and greet it without difficulties.  This section of the river had several sand banks heavily piled with drift wood. Wing dams increased with the twists and turns of the river.  Many quarries are along this stretch as well.  As a result of not being able to keep the wind from blowing out the flame on the grill on the bow, hamburgers were pan fried for dinner at the lock wall.  The evenings are cooling off and the animal cries fill the nite air.  The moon is waxing and reflects on the still water, a lovely sight.  A campers delight done on a boat.