Day 156 Bashi Creek to Leroy Al Mile 96 Monday October 22, 2018

Day 156 Bashi Creek to Leroy Al Mile 96 Monday October 22, 2018

Clear and sunny temps from low 40s to upper 70s - a repeat of yesterday

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We awoke to a cold and steamy looking morning. The steam is really evaporation fog from cold air passing over the relatively warm water. It is a great scene for a Halloween movie. The first is looking into the creek - that I have no desire to explore further.

And this one and the next is looking out to the river. It really is a wonderful vision. It does make visibility difficult, but with all the electronic info traveling is no problem. But it was cold at 40 degrees - but if you are wondering I still had my shorts on!!!!

Soon the sun began to win and I could begin to feel my legs as the circulation began to quicken ever so slightly.

The sun in the trees was a truly magnificent sight. The sun in the morning and evening is something that is so magnified by being on the water. A great benefit from moving early.

There was a fairly large number of tows moving again today. Here is one coming at us. He had called me to arrange our pass as he could see my AIS signal - it really is a great addition we made before the trip.

In the photo if you look to the right on the river you will see a houseboat. He is a single man with his dog. We saw him in Midway marina. He bought the boat in Iowa and is taking it to KEY WEST! That is a bigger trip than I would want to make in that boat - alone or otherwise.

The river is again very serene and peaceful. About two miles prior to the Coffeeville Lock there is a famous stop know as Bobby's Fish Camp.

And here it is - in all its glory. As we were early we went on by.

And it is the LAST lock on our river adventure from Chicago. YES!!!!!!  And we drove straight in again for our final time!!!! We have had great lock karma the whole trip. The most waiting was once for 45 minutes. Others have had many hours to wait - sometimes stretching into the night.

I am glad to have the locking - and almost the rivers, behind us. It is not that it was hard but rather it felt like a long time in a maze going through this hallway and then the next. I guess it was the somewhat confining nature of the rivers that made us ready to be done and back to open water.

Well not so fast there bub.
While we have no locks ahead of us and the water now has a tidal influence, it still looks like a river - which it is still.  We have 116 miles from the lock to Mobile Bay. We will do that in two days.
So we still need to deal with the tows.

We planned to stop at one location but the water is far lower than normal and the creek was dry.

We anchored in a wide spot in the river - at Leroy MP 96. Remember Duane?
Knights Kingdom was still with us and we did the bow to stern anchor trick to keep us nicely lined up against the shore. A number of tows went by and confirmed that we were in a good spot.

And it my look like we are thousands of miles from nowhere, there is a town a ways down river that apparently is the reason for our good cell service. And we got to watch the Pats beat the Bears!!! But that last Hail Mary play was a little too close.

So it is time to say..........................

Good Night and May God Bless