Day 4-Monday-May 8 – 06 MM 776 to MM690. We got out a little later than we had hoped today, but the rest did us good. Leaving out into Lake Pepin we were met with rain and 15 – 20 mph winds, so there was a little chop. We ended up doing lock 4, 5, 5A, 6, and 7 today. Delays at the locks due to tows (we call them tugs) are commonplace here due to the amount of commercial barge traffic. We breezed right through #4, and called ahead to #5 just to find that they would be tied up for a couple of hours moving barges around. So we slowed down and still got there in plenty of time to wait another 1 ½ hr for the lock to be cleared. The tows here push barge loads that are close to ¼ mile long. The locks are only 100 ft wide by 600 ft long, so the loads have to be broken apart and pushed in separately, then pushed out, tow locks back down, gets the rest, pushes them in, pushes them out, puts everything back together… So, it can take awhile. And pleasurecraft are at the bottom of the list. So we wait….
In LaCrosse we came upon a floating beer joint named “Gross”. Sadly, they didn’t have enough room at the dock for us, so we motored on to our evening destination of Lawrence Lake Marina at mile marker 690. Distances on the Mississippi are measured off just like the highways with mile markers. The bouys are not numbered ( there are literally thousands of them from one lock to the next, and they are constantly being moved), but the daymarkers have the downstream distances (mile markers) on them.
Entering Lawrence Lake Marina, there are about 30 little floating houses, each with a porta-pottie behind them. Leaving these to port, we tie up at the gas dock and meet Dan the owner, who helps us get tied up. He offers us his car for the evening, and suggests that we go to a place in Brownsville called Sachens Halle for pizza. When we arrive at Sachens Halle, it looks like a German tavern, and it is a bar. But people come from all over for the pizza. And for good reason… perfect crust, great sauce and spices. It seems we got the last one that night before they shut off the oven. A few people came in later and were visibly disappointed, so Dave gave them the rest of ours. You would have thought we had been elevated to royalty, they were that appreciative. I don’t think their alcohol consumption had anything to do with it, either!
When we got back to the boat, a thunderstorm had set in and it was lightning and raining pretty good. I think I heard about 2 seconds of it before I crashed. Tomorrow we’re going to try to get in 120 miles. The picture of the lock here has a kayaker that locked through with us. Try clicking on the picture to get it to open up to full size to see him. The other shot is of the marina/store. Just a quaint little place with great customer service