Wednesday, October 19, 2011

It wasn't quite as cold when we woke up.  We started out at our usual time and I was excited because we planned to stop at Hanibal, MO, the hometown of Mark Twain, my all time favorite author.  Unfortunately, we couldn't figure out a way to tie up to the strange corrugated steel river front, so we had to bypass the town.  It seems like they don't want visitors...








Here's a statue that I assume is of Samuel Clemens.







When we got to L&D 22 we pulled into the lock, but the lock master didn't have ropes ready for us, and the wind was so strong it spun us around inside the lock.  After crunching the lock walls a few times (because the fenders were now on the wrong side of the boat), we locked down with the bow headed UP stream (which is backwards from the way you should be).  Then when it was time to exit the lock, Joe had to fight the wind and current to turn Paradise around so we could exit safely.  We made it out of the lock intact...but that was waaaayyyy too much excitement!  Unfortunately, I couldn't get photos showing that wild ride because I was trying to help Joe and Phil keep Paradise away from the lock walls.  It sure would have made an interesting video!
 
When we got to the next lock at 2 pm, we were told there was a 2 hour wait for a barge, so Joe decided he'd had enough and we anchored for the night within sight of the lock.
We made 49 miles for the day.