Good Bye Mississippi (good riddance) Hell-o Ohio River.

Mom and Daisy (peeking over the dingy carpet) after a trip to shore.

The Mississippi River is 2,340 miles long.  I witnessed 218 miles at high water stage.  I do not need to see any more of the river!

There were some nice vistas, but navigating the debris limited the duration of the viewing.

Click this image to see how big this really is.

The 'tows" kept us on our 'toes'.  They are very large. and we had a safe traverse around them.  We traveled 10 hour days just to get off the river ASAP.  The wing dams are pretty weird.  These are Corp of Engineers inserted dams, made of rock piles,  at an angle, typically 45 degrees  to the normal flow of the river.  The wing juts into the river between  40 - 80 yards,(approx) and the height varied but they were mostly under water, while some had about 1-3 feet  of visible rocks.  The purpose of the wing dam is to  redirect most of the current back to the middle of the river.  The dams prevent erosion of the banks, and reduces shoaling.  One must be cautious of, not cutting an inside corner too sharp (as I tend to do) or a grounding may occur on the wing dam.

Hell-o Ohio River.
As we rounded the confluence of the Mississippi and the Ohio, everything changed.  Debris was minimal, water was much clearer, and the river was very wide.  We simply enjoyed the change, it seemed to be peaceful.  Of note, is that there were 1,000's of carp (unknown type but maybe Grass Carp).  The fish would be swimming along near the top of the surface of the water and then dive into the depths.  1,000's for maybe two miles.

 

 
The new, and still under construction Olmstead Lock is HUGE!!  The 1988 appropriated sum of $750,000 has ballooned to 3.1 billion dollars (government!).  I counted 17 cranes. A construction manager told me once, 'the size of the cranes, determines the size of the project'.  This lock will replace Lock 52 and 53.

We spent the night on the hook in Metroplois (yes there is a Superman museum).  We were located near Lock 52.

Different angle to see a train.

'First Mate'  Daisy after a long day of...... napping

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog.