What a good morning we woke up to. The winds were howling and already gusting to 20 mph. Nothing was wrong where we anchored; we just knew it was going to get heavier by looking at wind alert. Bryce pulled up anchor and I drove us back into the channel. This is going to sound weird but sometimes a change in the weather makes it a little more exciting.  I did get nervous when the boat started to heel a bit because our mast is tied to the boat. This type of wind and the power boats that pass us with huge wakes proves we did a get job on our mast supports.

The name of this tow is Sheryl..We took this picture to show all the Sheryls out that there is a tow named after you. LOL For My sister-in-law Sheryl

It was a bit rough at times for being on the river with heavy current and the wind on our bow.  Winds appeared to be gusting to about 50. It slowed us down a tad but not to bad.

We passed by Hoppie’s Marine on the right descending bank of the river. This place is extremely popular with boaters.  It is at MM158.5 and is the last place to fuel up for 228 miles.

We were haled on the VHF by Rusty Zoler saying he would like to pass us on the (two bell).  That means Starboard side. It is always so cool when we pass by tows. They always wave.

It is not to often that a tow & barge show they are hooked on a ball.

We noticed several barges loaded with stones that look like they were starting to sink.

With the heavy winds we drove though Sand storms.  The sand on the shores were whipped up in a frenzy.

Sometimes the sand storms were like driving though fog.

Later that afternoon the winds slowed down.  We found a great anchorage just south of mile marker 117 across from Kaskaskia River Junction. In between the green buoy and a beautiful sandy beach.

Okay, I wasn’t going to add this photo but I did. I had just woken up and it was such a pretty morning we had to set outside with our morning beverage.

We are really loving having a jet-ski as a dinghy.

This is a close-up of the nice sandy beach.

This is the Kaskaskia dam. They say you can get a peaceful night sleep here at the dam.   You can tie up to the wall above or below the dam.  Just remember to call the dam master.

You can see the wall to dock on between the lock and the dam.

If you ever want to know our latest location you can connect to the link: https://trackmytour.com/35L17

MM83 anchorage

Next day, we pulled up anchor and headed south again. I must say I love moving on the weekends.  Our day is a bit longer because sometimes we leave earlier.  On the other hand, we find perfect place to anchor and we stop. Today was overcast; but we are still in the high 80’s. I added these blogs together because I am a day behind. We didn’t take to many photos this trip. Most of these pictures we are anchored and enjoying our view.

This is a horse shoe groyne.  It is shaped like a…??

This tow was pushing 6 barges long and 4 barges wide= 24 barges.

Here ia another tow. Her name is Kathy Golding. She was pushing a small load. I just like to see color.

This is my happy Bryce.  Another reason we like the Mississippi Route to the ocean.  It is most often warm.

Look we saw a double tow. We are thinking that the one on the starboard side might be heading to a dry dock for repair.

Not to many bubbles coming out of the starboard one.

We are sitting on the starboard side just enjoying the scenery. 

Tonight we anchored in 8-10 feet of water. The current is about 1.5 mph. This is another beautiful sandy beach area inside the green buoy. We are at mm 83

https://trackmytour.com/35L17   This is our latest location. 

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