Down the Mississippi

We spent Friday, September 20, and Friday night in Alton. Once you leave Alton there is only one marina for the next 218 miles down the Mississippi, Hoppies, 43 miles down the river, so everybody stops there. Hoppies is four barges tied end to end. The outside of the barges is available for transients while the inside is available for seasonal customers. We arrived with several other "Loopers" late on Saturday afternoon. We had dinner with two other couples. For the rest of the trip to the Ohio, it is necessary to anchor out. On Sunday we got to the Kaskaskie River, 61 miles down the river. The Kaskaskie River flows from Carlyl Lake is is navigatable by barge up to Fayetteville, IL. A mile up the river there is a large lock and dam that provides the river depth necessary for barges and tugs to get up the river. We took the river 10 miles up to Evansville. It was a hot day, and all the locals were out enjoying a bonus summer Sunday, with boats and jet skis everywhere. We spent the night at the lower lock wall with three other boats. Today, Monday, September 24, we traveled 111 miles down the river to an anchorage just north of the Interstate 57 bridge, 7 miles from the junction with the Ohio River. We had the engines running at 1200 RPM which pushes us through the water at 8 MPH, but with the push of the river, we averaged 11.4 MPH, and taveled at 2.92 miles per gallon. Pretty amazing for the "Old Hat". Tomorrow we will join the Ohio and travel upstream to where the Cumberland River joins the Ohio. We have two large locks to traverse, hopefully we can get through both of them without major delay.