Honor the Sabbath

We missed church today...but spent the day in God's heavenly flow. Days like this can be monotonous...but, it all depends on how you look at it. We cruised 110 miles, taking full advantage of the river's current, and ended up in a creek called Little River Diversion Channel. I like the name...its almost as if the person who named it knew that after a long day on the Mississippi most captains would be ready for a 'little river diversion'. It is very peaceful. We don't even have the generators running...shhhhhhh...

It was raining lightly when we set out at day break...and it gently rained intermittently throughout the day. There weren't many other pleasure vessels on the river...mostly tugs and tows...plus there are not many places to stop on the way to the Kentucky Lakes, which makes it even less desirable for day boaters...We traveled with two other 'loopers' that we met at Hoppies...and I'm glad Fern, and our friends Bill and Eileen, who were here last year, told us about this anchorage.

There weren't any bright colors today...Ah, but the mist was a soft gray...the water muddy brown...the cliffs were touched with burnt umber and deep earthy greens...the sky was as blue as my grandmother's eyes...and God shined his sunbeams between the clouds on and off --we were treated to a light show dancing on the river...These are God's colors...No, we didn't go to church today, but we were in His cathedral all day...and it was wonder-full.

"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." ~Sir Isaac Newton

Alton to Kimmswick

Here we are at Hoppies "Marina"...if that's what you want to call it--It's 4 or 5 retired barges, rusting out, attached and chained to rocks, floating near a quaint little town called Kimmswick which just so happened to be celebrating its Sesquicentennial today, yes today! (that's 150 years for us mere mortals that don't speak Latin...thank you Chip for telling me how to spell it)...Our perfect timing of showing up at places at exactly the right moment continues! The downtown is a bit surreal...kinda' like Goodland on Steroids. The Stores are all brightly painted and mostly all sell the same sh#@ and knick-knacks, yet we had to go in and out of each and everyone of them in the hopes we'd come across a treasure (which indeed we did...and packages are on their way to our 3 granddaughters as I write)...I highly recommend all loopers coming through to check out 'The Design Haus' on Front Street...possibly one of the cutest shoppes I have ever been in!

--After a two hour wait (check out the videos on YOUTUBE ) we locked through and actually made up the time lost by taking advantage of the 3-4 knot current..Ithaka actually saw double digits for probably the first time ever! I had to put my wind-breaker on!

One of the highlights of the day...heck, one of the highlights of the entire loop, was passing by the arch (click on picture to make it bigger) in St. Louis...The Gateway to the West! (video also on Youtube)

Ending up at Hoppies was not by chance...we've been planning to stop here for years...To meet Fern of course! On the Mississippi she is famous--(happens to be my own mother's name, too!) We attended her 'River Talk' tonight and with her assistance, we are plotted right through to Mobile! Thank you Fern.

It's over 200 miles to the next marina...we are aggressively planning to do 110 miles tomorrow and make it all the way to Little Diversion Channel. This is more remote than the Canadian wilderness!

It's Always Something

Chip and I have been working together all day to get our lady, Ithaka, ready for launch.

Yesterday we took her for a "wet run"...a shake down cruise across Oneida Lake and back. All systems were "go"! Captain Chip then checked under Ithaka, went below with his mask on and found a few items not to his liking. The crew here at Winter Harbor only want us to be happy, so they lifted her back out of the water AGAIN and took care of the items overlooked. I am currently doing a load of laundry to make sure the washer-dryer is functioning...We found a Super Walmart close-by and did most of our provisioning...I will be cooking on board tonight! Yeah! (For those of you reading this behind us on the loop~We did find a great little restaurant called The Clam Bar about 10 minutes away last night) While shopping today Chip couldn't believe I didn't want ice cream--I told him, "I am NOT gaining 10 lbs (or more) again this summer!" Chip's got the boat absolutely spotless--and I've pretty much got all our clothes and such put away...a place for everything and everything in its place. My onboard office is set up and we even got all our real estate "month end" reports out today. Hopefully in the next couple of days we will be able to hook up with either Meagan or Rocky to make sure the webcam is working (they both have web cams,too)...GREAT for communicating with those wonderful grand babies! "Helllooo"! Chip took the entire top canvas off to get re-sewn and thought we would have it back today...just got the call about 2 hours ago that it will probably not be ready until tomorrow, so we are here in Brewerton at least until then. I checked weather.com and Wednesday looks like a good day to begin the 2nd leg of this journey. We ran into a fellow at Walmart who recognized Chip from the marina and he mentioned Picton as a good place to enter Canada, so we are checking on that as an alternative to Kingston....that would be perfect because we were hoping to see Chip's brother-in-law Bill who lives in Picton! Gil called today and wished he was here...Chip suggested he and Pam meet us somewhere up near Collingwood the 3rd week of July. I sure hope they can make it! Meagan and Jay will be in Canada, not too far from where we expect to be, in the next couple of weeks, too! How wonderful it would be to meet up with them and see our sweet little Paige along the way! Amazing! We got to talk to Paige today while she and her Mommy were having a latte at Starbucks! Then Meagan sent us a photo! We talked to or emailed the office a few times and Sam and Krista are handling everything wonderfully! It won't be long and we might be out of touch for days on end, so it is good for now to hear from one and all...Thank you Mom, Bobby & Amelia, and Rocky and David for calling, too! Yikes! I think they miss us!

Well, it is good to be back on Ithaka. It really didn't feel like we had been away for nearly 10 1/2 months. Wow! Everything just seemed to fit together like we had only just left her...It is comfortable here on Ithaka. We are happy and even when "its always something", like getting her hauled out again, or the canvas not being ready, it doesn't faze us...This is where we are meant to be...and for those of you travelling along...we wish you were here, too, but you are always with us in our thoughts and prayers.