Old Man River

"Mee-zee-see-bee" which means, Father of all Waters
~ Ojibway Tribe

It's interesting to me, but as we turned into the Ohio River today I was struck with the thought that it seemed a more 'feminine' river that the Mississippi...not thinking for a moment about the song, Old Man River, but just noticing the 'softer' shoulders...the gentle way the banks rolled down to the water's edge...then tonight I listened to the song, as sung by Judy Garland, and I knew that 'Old Man River' was Mother Nature's way of wearing the pants...tough and sturdy and dirty and forceful...It was a great 4 days cruising down this magnificent body of water...even in the quiet boredom, mile after empty mile, it was filled with something deeper than words...a lone bald eagle perched on a rock jetty...a breathtaking sunset...it truly is the Father of all Waters...

~and, How could I ever conclude our trip down the Mississippi without mention of one of its more famous steamboat pilots: Mark Twain? Born in Hannibal Missouri as Samuel Clemens in 1835, he took the pen name Mark Twain after the term of measurement. A fathom being 6 feet, and a twain being 2 fathoms...the deck hands would yell out "Mark Twain" to notify the pilots of the depth of the river...his stories have brought the river life to readers around the world...

We are ahead of schedule...not that we actually have a schedule...Originally I thought we'd be on the Cumberland River by month's end, but at this rate we should be there either tomorrow or Wednesday. We aren't supposed to be at the rendezvous in Joe Wheeler State Park until the end of next month...so I would say we're going to have some down time coming up soon....I am looking forward to a little chill time in the Kentucky Lakes...maybe get my paints out...read a few books. After spending 6 of the last 9 nights on the hook, The Green Turtle Marina is going to look good to this weary first mate.

Tonight we are anchored on the Illinois side of the Ohio River in a town called Metropolis, best known as the hometown of Superman...It's a good safe spot, off the path of tug traffic, tucked in under a RR bridge behind a floating Harrah's Casino...

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!