Monday, Sept. 3, 2018
Monday – Happy Labor Day! After running Bo (he ran, we threw a ball) in the cool 82º morning breeze, we cast off for the day to get through 60 miles down the Mississippi to Hoppies Marina, which is about 25 miles south of Saint Louis as the crow flies. We had two locks to get through so our fingers were crossed for short wait times. At our average speed of 10 mph, that is a six hour day without any lock wait times. The Mel Price lock, which we could see from our dockage at Alton, had been backed up for the last week but was finally clearing out with only 8 waiting tows. Fortunately, it has a small auxiliary lock that we were able to enter with only a 5 minute wait.
The next, and last, lock on the Mississippi is in a man-made channel built to avoid the 17-mile series of rocky ledges that begins just north of St. Louis known as the Chain of Rocks Reach. The height of the Mississippi drops about 15 feet through those dangerous waters. In the “old days,” when river was low, it was sometimes impossible for tows to move their barges up or down the river. Even when the river was high, it was still hazardous to traverse that treacherous stretch. In 1953, a new lock, dam, and canal, was opened by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to avoid this unsafe stretch of river.
Typically, a dam and lock are built in one location; however, this canal needed to maintain the level of the up-stream entrance, even though the lock was at the down-stream end of the canal, 8.4 miles away. So instead of making the usual controllable dam at the lock, the USACE dumped rocks across the Mississippi River to create a dam just after the entrance to teh canal yet before the hazardous section of river – literally making a "chain of rocks" across the river. The result is that the locks, usually right next to the dam, are miles away at the other end of the canal and just past the perilous section of the river. You may notice on the map that it looks like we went over land in Illinois instead of staying on the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis. That, my friend, is this canal.
http://greatriverroad.com/somadco/granite/lockdam27.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_of_Rocks_Lock
https://www.johnweeks.com/river_mississippi/pagesC/umissCM04.html
After having such good luck at Mel Price, we were hopeful for a quick run through the last lock. Surprise! It didn’t happen! (Not really so surprising, right?) There was a backup of 14 tows, most going down-river, like us. The longest wait time listed was just over 6 hours. Ugh! Some of the tows had pushed their barges into the canal’s shoreline for their long wait. Being pushed into the canal’s shoreline left barely enough room for one other tow to get by. Finally the tow ahead of us found enough space along the canal to push into the shore so we could pass by. This was important because, luckily for us again, there are 2 locks and we were able to go through the auxiliary lock quickly … once we got there. Whew!
At last, we were able to view St. Louis and the Arch from the water, plus we saw a couple of small paddlewheel boats used for river cruise tours from the Arch. Unfortunately, the Gateway Geyser on the Illinois side was not spouting at the time so no close up pictures could be taken.
We pulled along side Hoppies Marina mid-afternoon. Hoppies is actually several barges linked together and anchored with a short bridge to shore. Bo was thrilled that the bridge was a solid wood walkway, no metal grating! (Not only did he do his poop-dance but hedid his happy-dance too!) Hoppies was started in 1934 by Charles Hopkins and is now owned by his son & wife, Charles & Fern Hopkins. One of the well-known highlights at Hoppies is Fern’s daily river talk where she gives updates on the river and advises travelers about how to manage fuel consumption to make it to the next gas stop (203 miles away at Paducah, KY). Unfortunately, Fern is recovering from a recent knee replacement, so her daughter, Debbie, sat with us for a while to go over local, current river knowledge.
Fun Fact: Fern and Charles are the aunt and uncle of Paul Hopkins who fixed our starboard transmission at Port Charles Harbor a few days back.
Another Fun Fact: The Anheuser Family Estate is located on the property next to Hoppies. We were able to walk Bo along the gravel road and see the beautiful white house and landscaping plus stables and horses out in the pasture. The family donated the home to the town (Kimmswick, MO) along with plenty of funds to manage the property. Wish we could have toured the house and grounds but the tours are only on Thursdays. Bummer!
Last Fun Fact for Today: We’ve been delighted to find so many pleasant boating and marina people on our travels.