Day 6 –Wednesday – Ma6 10, 06 MM 580 to MM 484 Dubuque, Iowa to Davenport, Iowa
We wake up this morning to fog, the heavy stuff. All the pilothouse glass on Indulgence is fogged up wet inside, but after clearing that, it still didn’t look much better outside. We decided to wait a little while for it to start burning off before we departed. I took advantage of the delay to do a little maintenance and nosing around in the engine room. The log shows we left at 8:15am.
Leaving Dubuque Yacht Basin, on the bluff overlooking the river, are some of the largest homes I think I’ve ever seen. Some of them seriously looked like they had to be 20,000 sq ft. Maybe larger. You could call them castles, mansions, whatever. Somebody is making some serious money out here… Probably the guy that owns Ingram Barge Co. As we make our way back out onto the Mississippi, we pass from Wisconsin to Illinois on the port side.
About 6 miles upriver of lock and dam 12, there’s what appears to be a ski lodge on the Illinois side of the river. A huge lodge, hotel, lifts, runs cut into the hillside, but not a lot of vertical drop. Seems strange, but the river does freeze over up here, so I guess a ski lodge right on the side of the Mississippi isn’t out of the question.
Today we went through locks 12, 13, and 14. We breezed right into and through 12 with no delay. They even had the gates open and the green light on for us. Approaching lock and dam 13, we passed a tow with benzene barges headed to the lock. He ok’ed our pass, but probably laughed the whole time. By the time I got around him, he had pushed me over into really shallow water. Not his intent I don’t think. Anyway, our reward for the passing and the extra speed/fuel burn was being allowed to lock through #13 ahead of that tow since we had put so much time and distance between each other. At the spillway side of the lock and dam 13, there were lots of waterfowl. Trumpeter swans, herons, cormorants, what looked like pelicans. All fishing…
Prior to Albany, Illinois, we got a picture of a windmill. Not one of the new wind power jobs, a real honest to goodness Don Quixote windmill. I’m sure the locals are used to it, but it sure seemed out of place to me.
Lock #14 was another story… When we contacted them, they said to bring it on and they’d have the tow that was currently in the lock out of the way. Well, maybe we got there sooner or the tow was having trouble, but we ended up waiting out on the approach wall for about an hour. It was cool, though, to be able to watch them maneuver the tow and barges in such a confined space.
We called ahead to Lindsay Park Yacht Club in Davenport, Iowa for overnight docking. Coming in to LPYC you have Moline, Illinois to port and Davenport to starboard. Sitting right out at the waters edge in Moline was Kone Elevator’s test tower. Not a bad location!
Lindsay Park Yacht Club has been around since the 1800’s. We met Warren, the general manager who gave us the history and insight into how things run there, and gave us the key to the gate to get in and out. The marina is gated all the way around from the street. No problems yet, he said, just a precaution. He suggested we eat dinner at a German place called “Bier Stuble”. Good suggestion, ‘cause it was great.
Prior to dinner, we walked into town for supplies. Along the way, we saw a ground hog sitting in someone’s front yard just like he owned the place. On the walk back, we came upon 4 rabbits chasing each other and just generally having a good old time.
After returning from dinner, it was time to sit down and go through the day’s pictures and try to get something in print for the posts. I woke up at 1 am and decided I was done for the day.
Pictures to come…Just so everyone knows, we won’t be having dinner tonight with you at the club.
We wake up this morning to fog, the heavy stuff. All the pilothouse glass on Indulgence is fogged up wet inside, but after clearing that, it still didn’t look much better outside. We decided to wait a little while for it to start burning off before we departed. I took advantage of the delay to do a little maintenance and nosing around in the engine room. The log shows we left at 8:15am.
Leaving Dubuque Yacht Basin, on the bluff overlooking the river, are some of the largest homes I think I’ve ever seen. Some of them seriously looked like they had to be 20,000 sq ft. Maybe larger. You could call them castles, mansions, whatever. Somebody is making some serious money out here… Probably the guy that owns Ingram Barge Co. As we make our way back out onto the Mississippi, we pass from Wisconsin to Illinois on the port side.
About 6 miles upriver of lock and dam 12, there’s what appears to be a ski lodge on the Illinois side of the river. A huge lodge, hotel, lifts, runs cut into the hillside, but not a lot of vertical drop. Seems strange, but the river does freeze over up here, so I guess a ski lodge right on the side of the Mississippi isn’t out of the question.
Today we went through locks 12, 13, and 14. We breezed right into and through 12 with no delay. They even had the gates open and the green light on for us. Approaching lock and dam 13, we passed a tow with benzene barges headed to the lock. He ok’ed our pass, but probably laughed the whole time. By the time I got around him, he had pushed me over into really shallow water. Not his intent I don’t think. Anyway, our reward for the passing and the extra speed/fuel burn was being allowed to lock through #13 ahead of that tow since we had put so much time and distance between each other. At the spillway side of the lock and dam 13, there were lots of waterfowl. Trumpeter swans, herons, cormorants, what looked like pelicans. All fishing…
Prior to Albany, Illinois, we got a picture of a windmill. Not one of the new wind power jobs, a real honest to goodness Don Quixote windmill. I’m sure the locals are used to it, but it sure seemed out of place to me.
Lock #14 was another story… When we contacted them, they said to bring it on and they’d have the tow that was currently in the lock out of the way. Well, maybe we got there sooner or the tow was having trouble, but we ended up waiting out on the approach wall for about an hour. It was cool, though, to be able to watch them maneuver the tow and barges in such a confined space.
We called ahead to Lindsay Park Yacht Club in Davenport, Iowa for overnight docking. Coming in to LPYC you have Moline, Illinois to port and Davenport to starboard. Sitting right out at the waters edge in Moline was Kone Elevator’s test tower. Not a bad location!
Lindsay Park Yacht Club has been around since the 1800’s. We met Warren, the general manager who gave us the history and insight into how things run there, and gave us the key to the gate to get in and out. The marina is gated all the way around from the street. No problems yet, he said, just a precaution. He suggested we eat dinner at a German place called “Bier Stuble”. Good suggestion, ‘cause it was great.
Prior to dinner, we walked into town for supplies. Along the way, we saw a ground hog sitting in someone’s front yard just like he owned the place. On the walk back, we came upon 4 rabbits chasing each other and just generally having a good old time.
After returning from dinner, it was time to sit down and go through the day’s pictures and try to get something in print for the posts. I woke up at 1 am and decided I was done for the day.
Pictures to come…Just so everyone knows, we won’t be having dinner tonight with you at the club.
posted by Steve A. Kesler | 2:35 PM
2 Comments:
Super color scheme, I like it! Keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing this wonderful site with us.
»
I find some information here.
Post a Comment
<< Home