Three old boats kept at Hoppies marina

Wednesday

8/31/2016

We haven't talked much about problems, but who doesn't have them.  This morning we received two sea strainers by Fed Ex.  The chlorine tablets we added , to keep out the zebra mussels and long grass reacted with the metal strainers (ate it away).  Right after the new strainers came in we noticed a drip under the toilet.  We will have new parts for that sent to the next marina we stop at.  We then went into town, by cab, and bought clamps at the hardware store.  We needed more support for the gas bladder.  After shopping we went to the old town of Kimmswick, MO and looked through the Door County type stores.  The only thing we brought back to the boat was fresh smoked pulled pork, for supper.  Nice end to a ruff day.

Sea strainers

Leaving Grafton Harbor

Trying for one last glimpse of Matt on the hill

Just south of Grafton

Mike's barge

Chain of Rocks Canal

The Chain of Rocks canal is a small canal all boats must navigate, as the Mississippi is too shallow.

Tuesday

8/30/2016

Today we left Grafton Harbor Marina very early.  We wanted to make sure we got through two very crowded lock/dams.  The first lock we breezed through, although later we saw pictures from other loopers showing piles of logs in the lock.  We were lucky to have avoided the dam logs :)  Both of the two lock'n dams we went through had a large lock and a small lock.  The small lock had all the clutter in it.  We were lucky to have been directed to the large lock.  The entire day of traveling, we had to contend with large logs, which

were floating down the river along with us.  It was a very tiring ride, as we tried to zig zag past them without issue.

St. Louis casino with trees on a raised deck

We saw the arch

There are no marinas' or walls to stop at in St. Louis, so we took pictures and then kept going on to Hoppies Marina, known as the last stop.  Hoppies consists of four barges connected together.  We got gas and filled our gas bladder, to ready ourselves for the long 270 mile stretch without gas docks.  That evening we went for a walk to the historic town of Kimmswick.  It is the second oldest town in MO.  The entire town closes at 3:00pm, so we will explore it more closely tomorrow.