Gulf Coast (Nov 1 to 30)

The cold (cold for New Orleans, anyway), windy weather that had greeted us in New Orleans had ended so we started our trip east on a nice, calm day.  Still feeling stuffed, we were looking forward to a few days of anchoring and simple meals on the boat.  This leg of the trip takes us along the Gulf Intra-Coastal Water Way (GICWW), similar to the easter Intra-Coastal Water Way (ICW) in that the water way runs mainly behind barrier islands, with occasional inlets that join to the Gulf.  Crossing those inlets can sometimes be tricky, depending on the size of the opening, the wind and the currents.  But we had a good day, enjoying the radio chatter that had been nearly non-existent on the Mississippi except for the tows negotiating passes.
Everything was going so well, and the winds were so calm, that after a 10 hour cruising day, Joe didn't even go looking for some well protected place to anchor.  We just pulled off the channel near Biloxi in the Mississippi Sound and dropped the anchor.  As we went to bed we noticed that we seemed to be feeling quite a bit of motion from the waves.  As the night went on, it just seemed to get worse.  Evidently, the winds and tide change - and our location near an inlet - were all wrong.  Instead of being gently rocked to sleep, we were tossed to sorta sleep. The anchor held and we certainly were in no danger - but we didn't get a whole lot of sleep either!
We started out the next morning thinking it would be another nice day.  Shortly after we'd started out, thought, dense fog closed in.  Really dense fog.  One of the thrills of cruising in the fall.  Thankfully, the AIS and radar were both functioning, so we felt our way along for a couple of hours before the sun finally broke through.  At the end of another 10 hour day, we anchored in a well protected bayou near Pensacola and had a good night's sleep.

The next day was to be a short one, but exciting.  The Blue Angels, again, were putting on a show to welcome us back.  There were boats everywhere jockeying for position to watch what they thought was the Blue Angels annual homecoming show, but we knew the truth.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying the day, except maybe the tow operators as they tried to push there loads along the channel without running into any of the pleasure boats that were darting in and out.
After a few hours, we arrived at our canal near Pensacola, and tied up behind our house.
In October, we had contacted our realtor and decided to put the house up for sale.  We'd had it rented for more than two years and really didn't foresee living there in the future.  Our current tenant had not been cooperative with the realtors, so we'd given him notice and when we arrived the house was empty - and also under contract.  The contract negotiations had started the day after the house went on the market and taken place while we were on the Mississippi with only sporadic cell service.

So by the time we arrived, all the sticking points had been worked out - or so we thought - and we had a short list of minor repairs to take care of.  We also had stuff that we had left stored in the attic, garage and shed to deal with, but we had a month until settlement.
One winter Joe had planted fruit trees - key lime, lemon and satsuma oranges.  The poor satsuma tree was bending to the ground under the weight of its delicious fruit.  Family and friends helped us unload the branches and we managed to get three pies from the key lime tree.  We'll miss the fruit.

After almost three weeks, Joe had given up many treasures and managed to wedge the rest of them into our 10 x 15 storage unit.  Hard to believe you can fit virtually a whole household in that amount of space.  Even at that, though, there's lots of stuff packed away in there that we probably shouldn't have kept.
The repairs had been going well, with a few bumps along the way from our buyer who seemed to be making some unrealistic demands.  A junction box in the attic that needed a cover plate could not be taken care of by Joe - it had to be done by a "professional" electrician.  The breakers that the electrician said were fine (the problem had been an overloaded circuit,which he took care of), had to be replaced anyway.  But that's okay, we'd taken care of everything to her satisfaction and even taken care of some things that weren't on the list.  By Thanksgiving all that remained was a repair to the gas cooktop.

Joe had looked at it - when you turned the switch, the igniter didn't click or ignite - and  once again Joe wasn't permited to repair it as the rerpair had to be performed by a "professioal" appliance repair person.  Joe had purchased the igniter module - which had arrived in two days.  The tech found that the transformer was also bad and ordered that.  Unfortunately, he didn't order it from the place Joe had gotten the igniter.  After waiting a week, we asked that they expedite it.  So, the transformer was put in, cooktop re-assembled, switch turned - and smoke came out.  There's only one more part to replace a switch assmebly harness.  So, the "professional" ordered it.

Since we were still in the area, Joe's brother Mike and his wife Bev had invited us for Thanksgiving.  Dinner at Bev's house is always a treat, but we also really enjoyed seeing her family and their friends.  There were about 20 of us, three turkeys and enough sides to feed an army.  So we were stuffed again, but what a pleasant day we had.

The next day it was back to reality.  The part for the cooktop had not arrived - would not even ship until the next week that after being told that it had already shipped! Our settlement had been moved up to Nov 30, the following Friday so this delay was  a problem.  We fired that repairman and Joe's brother Mike took over the logistics of the repair with a new professional company.  We were anxious to take advantage of an upcoming weather window to cross the gulf.

So by noon, Carolyn Ann was making her way down the canal - probably for the last time - and out into the sound.  We stopped in Fort Walton that night to take on fuel.  We could see Lazy Dolphin in a slip at the marina but, unfortunately, Randy and Barb had gone to Georgia for Thanksgiving and would not return until the next night.  We were really missing them as traveling companions!

The following day we moved to Panama City to be ready for an early start out the pass there into the gulf.  Joe checked the weather that night, and again the next morning.  It looked like we would start out with some uncomfortable wave action - 2' to 3' waves were predicted - but after a few hours, the conditions should get better.  We decided to try it, knowing we could come back in and wait until the next day if it was too rough.  The problem with waiting was that the good weather wasn't going to last too long and we didn't want to have it go bad on us once we were already out there.  So off we went, emailing several family and friends that we were on our way and our SPOT would be tracking our progress.  It was a bit rougher than expected and didn't calm down as early as expected, but it wasn't a horrible crossing.  Around midnight the seas flattened out and most of the night we had a nice bright, almost full moon.

 All in all, the trip was boring - just the way we like it.  Right around noon the next day I noticed that my phone was blinking.  That meant we were back in cell range and I had email waiting.  Sorting through all the cyber-Monday ads, I found a message from our son John.  He said the SPOT had stopped tracking at 8am and asked if he should call the coast guard.  Joe had just realized that the SPOT batteries had died - that thing goes through some batteries.  I emailed John that all was well.  He had checked the weather and seen that it was fine, considered the fact that SPOT was not our only emergency notifier, and called the SPOT people who told him the batteries often go dead.  And since we weren't due to be there yet, he held off calling the coast guard.  Nice to know he was thinking of us, though.

Shortly after 3pm Monday we arrived at the Club at Treasure Island.  We'd spent the past two winters here and really like the facility - I especially like the large, heated pool.  But they are now not allowing people to stay on their boats more than 72 hrs at a time, so we'd found a new place for this winter.  We did want to stop for a couple of days and visit the friends we've made there.

After two days, we moved to downtown St. Petersburg's Municipal Marina.  We had to wedge Carolyn Ann into the slip, but she seems pretty comfortable.

The great thing about this location is that we are right downtown with all the restaurants, museums, and - most importantly - our son, daughter-in-law and grandson.  We're looking forward to the next three months with them, and in January, Alex will have a little brother!

November 30, settlement day on the house, turned out to be filled with drama as the cooktop had not been repaired, although we had an estimate from a GE technician.  Per our contract we offered to put the repair money in escrow; the buyer wanted to delay settlement; her lender said no way; various new papers were signed and resigned over the internet.  After spending 3 1/2 hours in the settlement conference room our agent called and said it was done.  So now we are houseless, but certainly not homeless!
We plan to stay in St. Pete for about three months and then...we'll let you know.


More pictures on picasa http://picasaweb.google.com/joseph.pica

Lower Mississippi River (Oct 6 to Oct 31)

As we started down the Mississippi, we were surprised to see long stretches of sandy beach.  This is evidently not what you would usually see.  The river is extremely low, and we had vacillated back and forth about whether to try this route or not.  It has been so low this summer that the size of the barge arrays had been restricted at times to keep them small enough to be able to pass each other on the narrowed channels.  Things had gotten somewhat better, so we decided to take a shot.

The Mississippi River begins at Lake Itasca in Minnesota as a small stream.  As it flows south, it becomes one of the largest watersheds in the world - the drain for nearly half of the country.  The Lower Mississippi River begins at Cairo, KY and flows nearly 1000 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.  This portion of the river is mostly used for commerce.  There is very little recreational boating; which also means there are few facilities for recreational boaters.  There are also no locks.  The river runs freely and is guarded by levees and flood walls and wetlands.
With no docks available, our first three nights on the river were spent at anchor.  I looked back in our log and found that the last time we'd anchored was June 17 - had to learn the routine all over again!  We anchored in slack harbors.  These are small off shoots from the river where there is little or no current.  It doesn't mean they are unused, however.  They often contain barge loading/unloading facilities. At Osceola Landing we came in past several barges, passed by where they seemed to be loading grain into some, and anchored near a work barge at the end of the harbor.  When we left in the morning, we found that they'd been busy all night and had nearly filled the small channel with empty barges.  It was a tight squeeze getting back to the river.

Our first big stop was Memphis.  We docked at Mud Island Marina, only going part way into our slip because the water was too shallow to make it all the way in.

Our friend, Mike, a Memphis resident, came to visit and later dropped us at Gus's Fried Chicken - apparently world famous and very good.  But only go there if you want fried chicken because it (with a few sides) is the only thing on the menu.  After that we did a quick tour of the Gibson guitar factory, walked by Beale Street and finished in time to get to the Peabody Hotel by five o'clock.

The Peabody Hotel, of course, is home to five famous ducks.  The ducks swim in the lobby fountain all day and then, with great ceremony, leave the fountain at 5pm, walk down the red carpet to the elevator, and ride to their penthouse pens for the night.  The crowd to watch was surprisingly large - it was a Wednesday - but it was fun to see.  The hotel itself is magnificent, too.  They also claim to have the only French restaurant in the world that does not serve duck, for obvious reasons.
After watching the ducks, we started walking back to the boat.  There's a nice pedestrian bridge and monorail leading to Mud Island Park - unfortunately it closes at 5pm.  What??  There really isn't another way to get there by foot, so we had to take a cab.

The next day, with plans to do lots of sightseeing, we rented a car.  First trip with the car, of course, was Costco and then dinner at Rendezvous for some very good ribs.  (Several things checked off in the book in these two days!)
Then our plans started changing.  Predictions were that the river would start dropping - although it was also going to start raining - which would leave us aground in the marina.  Then we found out the portion of the river we were on would be closed all day Saturday for some power boat races.  Between the dropping water, the closure and Enterprise's limited weekend hours, we decided to return the car on Friday and leave early Saturday, before the closure.  So, we skipped Graceland and turned the car in - complete with Joe's camera.  He called about the camera almost immediately, but the car had been rented, then rented again on a one way rental and no one had found a camera in it.  The good news is Joe doesn't just have one of anything.

We spent the afternoon touring the Lower Mississippi River Walk which is on Mud Island.  This is a scale model (about 31"= a mile) of the Lower Mississippi.  They've got cities marked along the way and signs with interesting information about different spots.  It was amazing to see how, even on the model, the river alternated between seemingly slow, quiet moving sections, to areas that almost looked like rapids.

In real life we've found that in some places the water looks like it is boiling, with swirls and eddies.  The swirling can be enough to bounce the boat around.  It can be a bit intimidating, and down right scary in a small boat.  We met a couple going south in a much smaller boat than ours who had done the trip in higher, faster water - which meant more severe eddies.  They'd said they wouldn't make the trip again because of that, but here they were.

We're constantly amazed and confused by the changing water levels and have had trouble finding pictures that really illustrate them.  This one shows us docked at Mud Island Marina in Memphis.  Near the top of the tall pole you can see some writing.  It is marking the water level in May 2011.  That was really high water, but the current level is also really low water.  Somewhere in between is "normal."

We left Memphis early enough to get out before the river closed, and docked at Tunica RiverPark, only about 38 miles down the river.  Another illustration of water levels.  They normally expect you to be able to dock on both sides of the barge here.  We stayed here two nights - they were predicting thunderstorms for the second day, but we didn't really get much of a storm.  It did give us time to go to another river museum - which was very well done.  There was also a nice boardwalk through the wetlands - which were dry - and over a lake - which was also dry - as both are influenced by the river's water levels.

Back on the river again, the scenery was pretty repetitive:  trees, sand dunes, sandy beaches, more trees.  But Joe enjoys the tows and their barges: trying to figure out what they're carrying, counting the number of barges.  This one, however, really got our attention.  Joe finally called, and the captain said they were some kind of reactors.  The  captain also said it had been a long night as his radar had quit working and  his view was restricted by the large reactors.  He had run all night!

The next two nights we anchored on the river, well out of the channel.  Joe didn't have much trouble finding places that he felt were safe from not only the passing tows, but also from any loose barges running down the river - which does happen, though not often.  So, one evening this was the tranquil sight as the sun went down.

When we got up the next morning it was still dark, but we could see lights flashing all around.  Joe turned on the computer and saw lots of tows on our AIS display.  As it got lighter, we could see that one tow had pushed its load to the bank just down river from us and others had evidently done the same nearby.  On the radio as the tows negotiated passes, one captain was also thanking other's for their patience.  We never knew what had happened, which may have been the good news.

I've mentioned that there aren't many places to dock on the lower Mississippi.  One place we really wanted to stop is Vicksburg, MS.  Through the course of his inquiries, Joe was put in contact with Jimmy who used to run a tour boat, Sweet Olive.  Jimmy generously allowed us to tie up against Sweet Olive in the Yazoo River, which put us right in downtown Vicksburg.  Of course, we had to climb through one of Sweet Olive's windows to get to shore, but that's okay.  It was a great location and we could see the town dock sitting up on dry land waiting for the water to come back up to it.

Our first day in Vicksburg we walked up to the new Lower Mississippi River Museum.  You might think we'd seen everything there was to see about the river by now, but each museum seems to bring up something new or show things in a new way.  This one in particular had some neat interactive displays.  We spent some time playing with a table full of artificial sand.  You could dig a river with your hands, then turn the faucet on and watch the water change the shape of your river as it found its path of least resistance.  They also had some computers with touch screens.  You could choose to be a farmer, businessman or a gambler.  Then it would go through a story with you repeatedly picking between two options as the story progressed. The stories took odd turns - often resulting in death.  Somehow, though, we found it comical and could hardly tear ourselves away before trying out all the options.

Another part of the museum is one of the first diesel tows - the Mississippi IV - which is on display.  It is large and besides having been a working tow for the Army Corps of Engineers, it was the host vessel for the twice yearly river inspections made by the Mississippi River Commission.  There was a whole floor of the boat that was only used during those two cruises a year.

By the time we'd finished at the museum, it was late afternoon and we noticed some police activity toward the main part of town.  They'd blocked off the main street and were getting ready for a home coming parade!  Soon people lined the sidewalks and the parade started with marching bands, ROTC groups, floats, and cars with pretty girls doing that funny beauty queen wave.  Two high schools and a college participated.  Evidently they'll only close the street down once for home comings.

Along the parade route, we ducked into the Coca Cola Museum.  Why Vicksburg?  Coke's from Atlanta, right?  Turns out in 1894 a guy in Vicksburg decided he'd sell more if people didn't have to come to town to get it from the soda fountain.  So he started bottling it - never been done before.  The museum had the original bottling equipment, an old soda fountain and lots of coke memorabilia.

We rented a car again (Enterprise has such great weekend rates this time of year) so we could go see the Vicksburg National Military Park.  We bought the cd that narrates the 16 mile tour through the battlefield and then spent most of the day there.  Probably what surprised us the most was the topography of the battlefield.  There were hills and ravines - hardly any flat land at all - and the cannons aimed at the river were on very high ground.  It was easy to see why the siege lasted 47 days.  Had the Confederates had more supplies, it's hard to imagine the Union troops ever prevailing.

We'd heard good things about Natchez, but thought we might have to pass it up because there is no dock there.  After numerous phone calls, Joe located a company with a barge in Vidalia, LA, across the river from Natchez.  Travis told us that as long as they weren't unloading rock from a barge we were welcome to tie up - for a fee - after we signed a waiver.  So, with no rock barges scheduled to arrive, we spent two nights tied to the barge in Vidalia.  The Enterprise guy from Natchez had trouble finding us, but we finally hooked up and got a car in time to go out for dinner.  Oddly, one of the places my book mentions in Natchez is Fat Mama's Tamales.  Turns out there's a long - slightly disputed - history of tamales in the area.  There's even a "tamale trail" that goes all the way to Memphis.  So, we had the special, which was okay, and heard at least one German tourist eating there.

The next morning we went to Frogmore Plantation in Louisiana.  It's an old, but still functioning, cotton plantation.  They've preserved some slave quarters and one of the very early versions of a cotton gin.  Our docent filled us in on life on the plantation pre and post war, as well as telling us a lot about cotton and the process of taking it from the field, to the gin and beyond.  She also defended the use of slaves as having been necessary to the country's economy.  The process certainly was labor intensive and interesting to see.

Natchez claims to have more antebellum structures than anywhere else in the country.  Who knows whether that's true, but they've got a bunch of them.  In April and October they have what they call the Pilgrimage.  During the Pilgrimage, more than two dozen homes are open for tours.  We were too late for the October tours, but there are a few that have year round tours.  In the short time we had, we made it through two.  The first one we toured was Longwood.  This is the largest octagonal house in the country, they say.  Construction started in 1861, but when the war broke out the Yankee craftsmen working on it went back north.

The family moved into the walk-out basement to live while they waited out the war, which they expected to take only a few months.  Haller Nutt, who was having the house built, died in 1864.  His widow and their eight children  continued living in the lower level, no longer having the funds to complete the rest of the house.  Family lived there until 1968.  Andy, our docent, is the grandson of last resident.  He added so much personal perspective to our tour which included the finished lower lever and the unfinished main floor.  Although it was interesting to see the unfinished area, it was sad to think that the magnificent home that had been planned will never come to be.

We anchored on the river the next two nights, going nearly 100 miles per day.  One night we'd noticed some fish traps near where we anchored.  In the morning the fishermen were there to collect their catch.  It's called "hoop" fishing.  They have a cylindrical trap that lays on the bottom with the large
 open end down river.  The fish swim up river, into the trap and get caught at the end.  It looked like a lot of work to pull the traps up and re-set them, but they got some really big fish.  One that was a throw away wound up on Joe's plate!

In some of the river museums we'd learned about different things the Army Corps does to try to maintain the river banks.  Sometimes they line the bank with a mat made up of concrete squares.  As we came down the river, there they were, putting the matting down along the bank.  Looked like quite a process.

We even passed by the Corps Tow Mississippi V which replaced the Mississippi IV we'd seen at the museum in Vicksburg.  Now that's a big tow.

As we continued down the river, the scenery was not particularly exciting, but the ship and barge traffic was picking up.  When we reached Baton Rouge, the amount of traffic was amazing.  From Baton Rouge to New Orleans seemed like one big shipyard all the way down.  We've been through Norfolk, and New York Harbor, but this just went on for mile after mile - 50 miles!  There was no place for us to stop in Baton Rouge, so we just continued on to New Orleans.

We passed the city and entered the Industrial Canal, which connects to Lake Pontchartrain.  It was getting late and Joe was worn out from dodging ships and barges.  Near the beginning of the canal is a lock that has a small float before the lock doors.  We were allowed to squeeze around to the back side of the float and tie up for the night.  Every time a boat was going to lock through, horns honked and bells rang to signal traffic that a bridge was going to be lifted.  Then during the locking we could hear the water rushing past the boat.  We thought we'd never be able to sleep, but must have been really tired because we didn't notice the noise at all once in bed.

The next day we moved through the lock and on to our destination - Pontchartrain Landing, a new marina on the Industrial Canal just off Lake Pontchartrain.  For a small fee the marina provides shuttle service to and from the French Quarter a few times a day.  We rode the shuttle down and were drawn to St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square.

Then, thanks to sister-in-law Bev, who coached us from Pensacola, we had a great lunch - brunch? - at Stanley.  This was a NOLA take on eggs Benedict and was delicious.

After lunch we decided to take a ride on the St. Charles Streetcar - part of which is actually a bus because of track work - through the Garden District and into Uptown.  Fortunately, the live oaks that line the street survived Katrina as did the beautiful mansions.  We were surprised to see so many Halloween decorations on the mansions.
Then we had a quick forgettable dinner followed by cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe du Monde before catching the shuttle back to the marina.

The next day we thought we'd stop in at the National WWII Museum for a few hours.  Of course, we were there all day and didn't even make it to the Pacific - and the museum won't be complete for three more years!  The visit starts with an introduction by Tom Hanks and a 4D movie - a quick overview of WWII.  The museum itself combines battleground photos, short tapes of first hand recollections, and short films that tell the story of battle plans and outcomes along the way, along with the more typical written descriptions.  A great museum.

After the museum we had time for an early dinner before time to catch the shuttle back to the marina.  Bev had told us about happy hour at Domenica in the Roosevelt Hotel.  Great restaurant, great happy hour - half price wine, beer and pizza.
It doesn't really sound like we did very much, but we did a good bit of walking around also.  We really enjoyed the visit and Joe no longer has such a bad opinion of New Orleans.  Sometime we'll make it back and do more of the regular tourist stuff, but we decided we - and our bulging stomachs - were ready to move on to Pensacola.

Joe always a fan of Tobasco found a bottle to his liking.

Lots more pictures on picasa!
 http://picasaweb.google.com/joseph.pica

Ohio River Down Bound Part III (Sept 25 to Oct 6)

Although our intention had been to leave Louisville on the 25th, we didn't - due to predictions (which proved accurate) of severe thunderstorms.  Instead, we'd planned on dinner at Tumbleweed, a marginally good restaurant right by the dock, but were dissuaded by an offer from our new friend, Eric.  Eric had seen the boats and asked to come visit for a tour.

When he discovered our dinner plans - which he disapproved of - he offered to drop us off at the historic Brown Hotel.  Since they originated the Hot Brown - a Louisville standard that consists of toast topped with turkey, cheese, bacon and mornay sauce - we decided to take him up on the offer.   So, with Barb and Randy along, we all ordered Hot Browns and thoroughly enjoyed them.

The next day thunderstorms were again predicted (accurately again) so we spent another day at the dock.  It's not that we're total wimps, but since we were planning to anchor on our first night out of Louisville, the idea of being out in the river and depending on the anchor in an unfamiliar area in high winds with lightning flashing around, complete with funnel clouds forming just did not seem appealing.

We finally did leave the following day and caught a glimpse of the much anticipated Queen of the  Mississippi as she cruised up the river.  She's a new diesel powered stern-wheeled cruise boat - just launched in August.  You can take a seven day cruise on her for just under $4000.

Since we'd been sitting at the dock so long, we ended up putting in a long day (about 10-1/2 hours) before stopping at Derby Landing.  We had thought there'd be room for both of us to dock, but there was a big tree in the water at the downriver portion of the dock, so Lazy Dolphin rafted to Carolyn Ann. People are always surprised to learn that CA and LD are built on identical hulls.  Joe took advantage of the setting to take a series of side by side comparison photos. I've put them all on picassa, if you're interested.
We didn't go exploring in Derby, but left the next morning under misty skies to get to Owensboro, KY by dinner time.  Norm and his wife, Vivian, were interested in seeing the boats and we'd been trying to set the meeting up for several weeks.  They were standing at the wall to catch our lines when we arrived.  After tours of both boats, Norm treated us to dinner at Moonlite Bar-B-Que.  The buffet includes two dishes that Owensboro is famous for - mutton bbq and burgoo - a mutton stew.  Check off another place in my 1,000 Places book!  The food was good and we really enjoyed meeting Norm and Vivian - thanks again, guys, and good luck on your search for the "perfect boat."

I actually got to check off two places in the book because Owensboro is also home to the International Bluegrass Music Museum.  Joe and I know little about Bluegrass, but the museum was interesting.  We could have spent many hours reading about all the performers, but we managed to get a good over view in the few hours that we had to spend there.  From there we walked along the newly renovated waterfront.  The only thing that seemed to be missing was a place to dock a boat.
Our next stop was just 40 miles away at Evansville, IN.  We were disappointed to learn that the LST 325, which participated in the landing at Omaha Beach in WWII, and is usually available for tours, was out doing tours itself.  But, the friendly folks at Nu-Plaza Yacht Club offered us free ham and beans (delicious!!) as a weekly Sunday event.  As we chatted, we decided to stay a few days so we could attend the 91st Annual West Side Nut Club Fall Festival.  This is part of their website's description of the event:  "It's all about the food. From deep-fried Oreos to chocolate-covered bacon, the smorgasboard of unhealthy eats — plus a few healthy ones — is like a national holiday for Evansvillians. Long live the deep fryer." Plus - it's another check mark in my book which claims it's the second largest street festival in the US.
As it turned out, we stayed in Evansville for four days and never made it to the festival - which lasts all week.  The weather was rainy most of the time and Joe had boat issues - that darn AIS acting up - to work on.  Bruce, who works at the marina kindly offered his Jeep to us, so we made a trip to a grocery store and picked up carry-out from Wolf's Bar-B-Q - another check mark in the book!  We liked Wolf's better than Moonlite (no mutton at Wolf's), but neither compare to Dinosaur in Rochester, NY.  On our drive we did pass by the street that was closed to traffic for the festival - several blocks of food trucks lined up and down  both sides.  We decided to pass up the "fried brain" sandwiches as well as the other delicacies and just ate our bbq on the boat.
The LST-325 was supposed to have returned to Evansville before we left, but it ran aground somewhere on the Cumberland River.  After an early start from Evansville, we got to The John T. Myers lock around noon.  We were told we'd have to wait for a ship locking up.  It was the LST - 325 unstuck and heading for home.  We missed out on the tour, but we got a close up view of her as she passed us on the way out of the lock.  

That night we stopped at the E-Town River Restaurant (Elizabethtown, Ill.) for all you can eat catfish.  People all along the Ohio had been recommending it.  As we were finishing up, the owner came out to chat.  He gave us permission to stay on his dock for the night and then handed Joe a couple pounds of fresh catfish fillets.  We sure meet a lot of friendly, generous people while cruising!

We arrived in Paducah, KY the next afternoon.  As we were tying up to the courtesy dock, we noticed two military boats fueling from a truck on the adjacent boat ramp.  After fueling, the boats moved to the courtesy dock next to us.  Turns out they were Navy SEALs on their way to New Orleans.  The boats did not look especially comfortable for long term cruising, so I asked how long it would take them to get there.  We figure on getting there in about a month.  They were expecting to be there in 36 hours, running day and night!  Of course they'll be sucking fuel down so fast  that the fuel truck will be meeting them about every 150 miles.
When we left Paducah in the morning, Joe could see tows lined up waiting for the next lock.  We moved down into position so they'd put us in the queue and were called pretty quickly to ride the lock down.  When the gates opened we were greeted by the front edge of a barge array waiting for us to vacate the lock.  Joe managed to steer Carolyn Ann through the small space they'd left for us to get out.  We thought that was our next to last lock, but it turned out to be the last one we had to go through.  The next lock has what they call a wicket dam and the wickets were down.  That means you go right over the area where the dam is when the wickets are up.  We actually could even feel a little bit of a rapid as we crossed over the dam - woohoo!  

A couple hours after that we came to the end of the Ohio River.  We'd started out with some concerns about how the cruise would be, but it has turned out to be a terrific summer.  Since that turned out so well, we decided to try another first - for us at least.  Coming to the end of the Ohio means we are now on the Mississippi.  We're speeding down at more than 11 mph - breakneck speed for us!  Randy and Barb left us in Evansville and later made the turn to take the Tenn-Tom Waterway - the same way we came up.  Fred and Linda left Young America in Louisville but will return soon and follow us to the Mississippi, planning to meet us in Memphis.  Stay tuned!

More pictures on picasa!

 http://picasaweb.google.com/joseph.pica