Day 14: Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Underway: 8:27 am Motor Off: 5:25 pm Miles Traveled: 41 Stayed At: Anchor
First Things First: First bakery visit; first time we didn’t have to wait at a lock – just drove right in; first time Cindy saw a dead fish; first time we heard about someone seeing an asian carp (we haven’t seen one yet but are keeping an eye open); first dish of Gelato.
Mile 327 to Mile 286: Before leaving Quincy, we decided to try to satisfy our craving for bakery treats so we walked several blocks to the downtown area and found Krazy Cakes – a combination bakery/coffee shop/sandwich shop/internet café. Great cinnamon rolls and the best bathrooms we’ve found in two weeks of travel (this becomes important when all you have is a porta-potty).
In 40 miles of travel we only saw 3 boats today – a fishing boat, a pontoon boat and a tow. We did not expect the river to be this quiet. We stopped at Hannibal, Missouri – the home of Mark Twain. Rumpshaker was still there after staying overnight the day before. It was fun to cross paths already – probably not the last time. Even with the advantage of having a famous author to celebrate, except for the tourist oriented businesses along main street, the rest of downtown is hanging on by their fingernails – not uncommon for many of the towns we have visited. The main shopping area has moved out to the main highways that pass by the area – that is where the shopping malls, Walmarts and other businesses have located. Sad to see downtowns in transition – its too expensive to properly maintain or tear down buildings and there are not enough customers for entrepreneurs.
We are anchored just west of Ducher Island north of Louisiana, Missouri. We passed through Lock 21 and 22 without having any new stories to tell. The next few days might be interesting. Lock 25 is closed for maintenance through midnight tonight – we will pass by there tomorrow afternoon and Lock 27 is closed because of some type of damage so there is uncertainty about when that will be fixed and then there will be a backup of tows waiting to get through. We may need to be creative in using our downtime.
In Passing: Goose Island, Gilbert Chute, Denmark Island, North and South Fritz Island.
