Hoppies Marina in Kimmswick, MO to Little Diversion Anchorage on the Upper Mississippit River
Day #90: Up at 5:15 A.M. warm and clear. We waited a bit to see if there was going to be fog. Mike and Bruce decided that we were going to head out as there was no visible fog. Engines were turned on at 6:45 A.M. with the help of "Houlegan again" we casted off from Hoppie's. With the current we were travelling 13.4 miles per hour. The theme of the entire day was dodge-a-tree/log and fast current. There was no taking your eyes off the river without going in a different direction from where you needed to go and constant steering. The weather forecast was calling for 86 degrees but Mike and I both had long sleeves and pants on as it was very chilly up on the flying bridge with the winds. It was a very stressful day for Captain Mike and Captain Bruce. At 11:15 A.M. we passed the Kaskaskia wall, this was another place that we could have stopped but it would have been a very short day. At 11:45 A.M. we had sandwiches on the flying bridge. At 3:40 P.M. we were secured at "Little Diversion". The anchorage is a ditch with 27 feet of water that is off of the Mississippi. We rafted in "Little River Diversion" to "Baytripper". We had a marathon day traveling 111.0 miles (1128 miles for the trip). Before happy hour there were a total of 7 boats in the anchorage: "Oar Knot", "Tychee", "Happy Happy", "Truly Thankful", "Rejoice", "Baytripper" and "Parrot Bay". We had happy hour on "Baytripper" in the air conditioning. Mike cooked hamburgers on the on the grill for dinner we had a great meal with Bruce and Bev (yup in the air conditioning). At 7:15 P.M. back aboard "Parrot Bay" for blogging and reading.
 |
| Crystal City Bluff |
 |
| Large castle seen from the Mississippi River. |
 |
| Brinkley Landing |
 |
| Kaskaskia Lock. This is a place to stop you call the lockmaster they allow you to tie up to the wall. |
 |
| Tower Rock |
 |
| Tower Rock and Grand Tower Pipeline Suspension Bridge. |
 |
| Beautiful rock formations. |
 |
| Beautiful railroad bridge with rolling green hills. |
 |
| More beautiful rock formations. |
 |
| Richard A. Baker was very pleasant on the radio when Mike hailed him about how we should pass. The captain asked what we were up to and where we were headed. |
 |
These were on the shore. We figured that the Coast Guard probably left them as there were numerous buoys off station this whole trip.
Kimmswick, MO to Cape Girardeau, MO (Little Diversion Anchorage). |
 |
| Another successful raft with "Baytripper". |
 |
| "Oar Knot" in front of us at Little Diversion. |
 |
| Looking out towards the Mississippi River behind us "Tyche", "Happy Happy", "Truly Thankful" and "Rejoice". |
