Let the Journey Begin

"Adventure is worthwhile" Amelia Earhart . We hope ole Amelia is right. Evidence so far confirms her words. We hope we don't share her fate, however!! Sat. night Sept. 26, we had a wonderful bon voyage party given by our favorite dock mates who we will miss a lot . We really enjoyed their companionship over the last few years and came to love them dearly. The rivers do seem to have a way of bringing folks back together though, so we know we will meet again.

Sept. 28 D-day ( thanks to brother David for the lift to the dock) except that two things held us up--predicted 15-35 mile an hour winds and the door that fell off the 1200 ft chamber of Markland Lock, closing the chamber down for several weeks. We did ,however, venture out of the marina on Sept.29 at 7:35am EST and cleared the lock by 8:42am EST. The lock master told us he hoped we weren't coming back for awhile, since we probably wouldn't get back. We told him we had approximately two years . The trip down river was swift, since the winds were still 5-10 mile an hour and the current was strong! We saved on fuel though. Arrived in Louisville and were secured by 2:30pm EST and had a lovely dinner with Pat and Lloyd. The city docks there are highly recommended.

Sept.30 We were up and ready to depart Louisville by dawn, but as fate would have it the locks were closed for 4-5 hours so that the divers could go down and inspect the lock doors. ( a result of the accident at Markland). The plus side of our long wait was that the Tumbleweed restaurant offered us a free chicken tender platter and drinks brought dockside. We finally got a call from the lock master and were able to lock through at 1:30pm EST. Since we were way behind we would not be able to make our planned anchorage around Cannelton, so we found another beautiful anchorage and had a nice dinner, sipping our wine and vodka on the deck in the middle of nowhere USA. Next morning Oct. 1, we arose to dense fog ,but after breakfast and with our amazing AIS system we were able to get underway, knowing where all the barges were located along with their names and directions. We locked through Cannelton and Newburg (gusty) and made Evansville's Inland marina by 3:45pm CST. Inland's restaurant burned down, so be prepared to cook. Fueled up-180 gals, ate a nice dinner and watched fox news.