Up the Ohio

We spent a day and a half getting from the Mississippi to the Cumberland. We turned the corner early on Tuesday, September 25. Weather was overcast with threatening rain. Our first lock, lock 53 has two chambers. We were able to get through with little delay. As we got to the top a thunderstorm moved in, with winds of 35 MPH, a driving rain, and visibilty of less than 1/4 mile. We had our radar on and we left the lock moving causiously upstream amongst all the commercial traffic. As things cleared up we increased our speed. When we got to lock 53 we were told we could expect a delay of an hour and a half. This lock also has two chambers, but the large chamber was down for maintenance so all the commercial traffic was backed up. In actuallity, we waited about half an hour, and they locked us up with two other pleasure boats. Both of these locks are being replaced by one larger lock under construction just below 53, so little maintenance money is being spent on the existing locks, and they show it. One of the boats we caught at 53 was "Another Compromise", a couple from Canada doing their second "great Loop" trip, who we first met a Little Current, Ontario. We ended up spending the night with them at the town dock at Paducah, KY. On Wednesday we completed the last 8 miles to the entrance to the Cumberland River.