ORE 7

Wednesday

We passed by the confluence of the Wabash and Ohio today.

We had been concerned about getting through the John T Myers lock. There's construction on the auxiliary chamber, so everything must go through the main chamber. We heard towboats on the VHF talking about waiting there. Our timing was perfect, and we were able to lock through with no delay.

Listening to the tow boat captains talking is a hoot. They have a whole different language. There's only north bound and south bound. There's only right or left descending banks. When they meet, it's one whistle or two. "See you on the one" means we'll pass port side to port side. When one tow is coming up behind another, it's '"don't get 'er in my tater box. We've heard them say "naked girl on the sandbar" but we don't know what that's code for. I'm now sure it is a code for something other than the literal translation since we searched every sandbar within ten miles.

As we cruise along, Dawg sometimes rides on the roof. I can keep track of him by his shadow.

My Quimby's guide said there was a "courtesy dock" in Mt Vernon, IN. I called the phone number listed and asked the mayor if we could stay the night there. "No problem" I also asked if there were any restaurants in walking distance. "Several"

When we got there, the "Courtesy dock" was a small finger next to the launching ramp. We decided to stay anyway, and tied up. Not much later, a towboat ran his barges up on the shore just down the way from us. Not sure if he meant to do that, or if we were lucky and he just missed us. I'm hoping they had a crew change, or restocking their supplies.

Then the trouble started. Some obnoxious guy in a Baja came roaring into the "Courtesy" dock, and started shouting at us that this was no where to "park" our boat. If we wanted to park, we should go to a sandbar. (he inserted another word that starts with an "F" in between every other word throughout his ranting.) He continued shouting as us as he walked up to get his truck and trailer. Then as he tried to get his boat on the trailer, he hit a rock, which didn't help his surly mood. He got off the rock, and said he was going to ram our boat, because we caused him to hit the rock. (The whole time, we're sitting on a park bench up the hill.) He took off out in the river, and came charging back towards our boat. He turned at the last minute, and caused a large wake , but no damage. He finally got on the trailer and drove away, still shouting obscenities and pointing a finger at us. (I'm not really sure it was his pointer finger.) "Courtesy" dock indeed.

I've been down the Illinois, the Mississippi, the Tennessee, the Cumberland, the Gulf coast, parts of the East coast, and lots of other waterfront places, and have met a lot of friendly people--never anyone like this guy.

after we were sure our new Baja friend was gone, we walked into town and had dinner at Koodie Hoo's bar and grill. Back to the boat for a not so restful night--wondering what might happen next. It was good to get back out on the peaceful river Thursday morning.

T, D, R