Day 156-157- September 19 & 20 Alton, IL to Kaskaskia Lock Wall to Little Diversion Channel, MO

Our first full day on the Mighty Mississippi!

  We left, not quite as early as I would have liked, with over 80 miles to go, but good enough.  There was a tow in the lock and the fleet had to wait until almost 0800 to get through.  This is the Mel Price Lock, which we visited the other day, a mere 1.5 miles from the marina. We were the middle of a fleet of 7 traveling together for the day.

The three boats following us into the lock.

We were tied to a floating bollard while in the lock.
Each of the 7 boats had their own bollard singing to them.
Turn your volume up and watch and LISTEN.

We have anticipated an increase in tow traffic and were not disappointed...  

Especially because most of these were not moving!

The typical tow, five barges long and three wide.  With the tug, it will fill a 1000 foot lock.


Approaching the second (and last ) lock on the Mississippi.

  Note the big sign indicating where the lock is.  This is the entrance to a long cut canal that brings you to the "Chain of Rocks Lock".  If you ignore this sign and follow the nice, wide river, you will be in big trouble, as the river tumbles over a series of rapids with the water only 18 inches deep in places.  Two years ago, a 45 foot sailboat missed this turn.  It took many hours to fetch the hapless crew off the boat by helicopter.  After several days, the boat was gone and never seen again.  The river destroyed and swallowed it up.

Here we had the 3 looper boats in front of us and a tow beside us. If you look closely you will see the front of the tow is up by the lead looper boat.

There is one small town not far along that we will pass today.  It's called St Louis.

The first sign of approaching Saint Louis were all the bridges.

Had to look back to get a good photo of the stone arches.

There it is. The Gateway Arch of St. Louis. 

The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot-tall (192 m) monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch and Missouri's tallest accessible structure. Some sources consider it the tallest human-made monument in the Western Hemisphere.

There is a tram that takes you to the observation windows at the top.

Unfortunately there is NOT a marina or dock to tie up to within in 20 miles.
We looked as we passed by.

Another looper kindly took this picture of Snow Goose.

A final look at St Louis.

Cliff Diving, Missouri style.

This is one of the ways they get barges out of the water to work on them.

One of the busiest spots on the Mississippi. But, again, none moving.

I think these need some love.

We tied up to the Kaskaskia Lock Wall for the night.

Day 2 on the Mighty Mississippi.

We saw a lot of building today.

It's the start of a new bridge.

The semi's are lined up, waiting to unload into the elevators

so that 1050 semi loads can fill a barge.

The railroad tracks were getting some major love.

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