Sunday, September 14

Our decision to take a weather day proves to be the right one. About 3:00 in the morning the 20 mph winds began to get very gusty. It was hard to judge in the dark but I think there were many over 40. The day dawned with low over cast and steady 30+ winds with higher gusts. We had only occasional light mist. All the rain went west and north of us. Our friends in St Charles, MO are in for the third flood event of the year.

The marina is part of the Paris Landing State Park which has an Inn and Convention center in the park. We called and they had a park ranger pick us up at the marina at take us to the inn. We had a good buffet breakfast while seated where we could look out across the lake. The low clouds were flying by at a fast clip and the far shore appeared and disappeared as the mist went by. It was dry when we finished so we walked the mile back to the boat thru the lovely park.

The marina office had a nice laundry area and Diana took the opportunity to catch up on laundry. We were told there was a small grocery just up the road so George went shopping. After walking ¾ of a mile (each way) the small grocery turned out to be a convenience store at a gas station. They had beef jerky, beer, three sizes of minnows, lots of chips, but no apples, bananas or other fresh fruit. The choice of bread was wonder classic or wonder family wheat. O well the tote bag wasn’t to heavy coming back.

Diana got these pictures of the lovely marina (and the Coast Guard Base across the harbor). The tall pole is a river level gauge. The X at the bottom is the summer pool level (359) there is another just below the surface for winter pool (354). Today was just over 355. They draw the level down in the fall since winter is the rainy season. This allows them to hold the rain and prevent flooding and have the water in the dry season for power generation. The X way up at the top is the level of the top of the dam above which the level should never go by much. In fact since the dam was built in 1944, I don’t believe it has ever really come close.

By evening the system (Ike) had moved farther north east and a cold front was moving thru. The humidity dropped and the temperature followed. No AC today and the window open tonight.

Monday, September 15

The temperature this morning was 57 with a light north wind. Still overcast but a big improvement over the hot weather we have had.







Today’s plan was to run only 32 miles to a recommended marina, Pebble Isle. We left about 8:40 and ran leisurely up river, 1500 rpm gives us about 6.5 mph. With the light wind behind us it felt almost calm on the flybridge.

They say this railway bridge is abandoned. I sure hope so. The building in the back ground is an old warehouse that loaded grain on to barges before the current dam was build. They didn’t demolish it when the lake was formed so it has sat like this for 60 years.

Along the way we passed the River Explorer, it is a cruise barge. See http://www.riverbarge.com/.
































We pulled into the marina about 1:30. It is as good as recommended and busy. By 6:00 tonight there are 9 or 10 transient boats tight to the long transient dock. In talking to boaters that came from Green Turtle Bay today, they had it even worst yesterday. Wind gusting over 70 mph produce many downed trees, no power and at least one large boat breaking loose from its moorings and drifting into other boats.

After having a late lunch we walked to the nearby Johnsonville State Historic Park. This is the site of a civil war battle in which the confederate cavalry sank union gun boats on the river and destroyed a union army supply depot. Although it was only half a mile to the park, by the time we walk thru the park and back we figure we walked at least three miles on some steep hills. These pictures show a cemetery in the park, the view from an overlook, and part of the trail thru the woods.