Hoppie’s to Kaskaskia Lock Wall

Today we left Hoppie’s Barge Marina. Did I tell you that stop was in Missouri?  So another state in this cruise of ours. We left early and embarked on a turbulent Mississippi River.  It’s really amazing that the river has a lot of eddies that make the water swirl and whirlpool. You can feel it in the boat!  The other rivers we’ve been on did not do this as much as the Mississippi. 

The tows we have seen here are bigger than those in the Illinois River in that they have more barges. To date, the largest tow we have seen was today and was 4x6 which was 24 barges in front of one tug boat. I don’t know if you can tell from the pictures, but these tows are massive and intimidating to us. We were told by the tug driver who gave us a tour of his tug that the tugs have 10,000 hp.  That is NOT a typo, he said 10,000 hp.

Tug with 10,000 hp

Ken, the kayaker will probably get plowed under by a tow on the Mighty Mississippi River because the turbulent water will suck him down. Please don’t be like Ken.
DON’T KAYAK ON THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

Tonight we are on a lock wall on the Kaskaskia River in Illinois. 

It was really hot today - in the 90’s.  So we used our generator for some AC this afternoon.  First world problem, I know.  We watched football games on our satellite tv in the AC.  🏈 

 

Comments

  1. Peg M.September 13, 2021 at 5:42 PM

    Trivia for today. Illinois has had 3 different state capitals. Kaskaskia was the 1st, when Illinois was still a territory and also for the 1st 2 years after it became a state. Then there was a flood and the Mississippi River cut off the town and made it an island, so they moved the state capital to Vandalia. Finally, they changed it to Springfield which is the current capital, and centrally located in the middle of the state. The original town of Kaskaskia no longer exists since the island is now under the Mississippi River, but they did create a new Kaskaskia further inland.

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    Replies
    1. BrickSeptember 14, 2021 at 5:43 PM

      Dang it, Peg! I was doing my best not to learn anything new this week and you went and spoiled it. Three capitols. And Kaskaskia 2.0. Who knew?

      Delete

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