Shawnee State Park

At least it wasn't raining this morning.  Well, I don't think it was--we couldn't see 10' in the thick fog.  We wanted to leave no later than 9 AM, but the fog was too thick.  We could hear barges going by, but couldn't see them. We waited until 9:45, and thought it was clearing.  And it was clearing where we were--but not everywhere.  This is a photo of the clear spot.

The fog finally burned off, and indeed, we had a day with no rain.  Got to see the river without looking through the small area that our windshield wipers clear.

Went under a bridge that reminds me of the one over the Mississippi at Alton, Illinois.

Found the remains of the last folks who tried to make this trip we're on.

Pam spotted some wildlife along the shore.

We're staying the night in Shawnee State Park Marina.  It's near Portsmouth, OH.  Not much around here, but beautiful countryside.

Augusta, KY

We could never find someone to pump gas at the Manhattan Marina, so we gave up and and headed out on the river.  I called a little marina about a mile up river, and found that they have a pay at the pump, so I swiped my card and filled up.

Another beautiful day........................

We needed to go through another lock today, and I was hoping it would go better than the last one.  When we arrived at the lock, there was a tow boat with barges just about ready to enter.  The Jean Atkins.

I called the lockmaster, and told him we would wait for him to lock through the tow boat, and be ready to go as soon as he was finished.  The Jean Atkins captain called the lock on the VHF and said he didn't mind if we went through with him.  I called back and said we were small, and if there was room, we'd do it.  We've been through a lot of locks, but this is the first time we've shared one with a barge.  The lockmaster told us to go in first.

The locks are 110' wide, and the barges are 105' wide.

We survived without any problems, and thanked the lockmaster and the captain.  Since it's only us and the tow boats on the river, we leave our VHF on channel 13 all the time.  We have found the tow boat captains to be very courteous and pleasant. 

I guess we need to add a spelling class at my college.

The children's prisons along the river are more ornate that the ones we have at home.

We're docked tonight on a free wall in hysterical Augusta, KY.  That first little bump on the shore is us.

Where we stayed yesterday, the marina and restaurant were closed on Tuesdays.  Today in hysterical Augusta, KY, everything is closed on Wednesdays.  We found the house where Rosemary Clooney grew up.  (Her nephew George grew up in Augusta too.)  This is Rosemary's house.  It's closed on Wednesdays.

 

We finally found the Parkview Inn, which was open on Wednesday, and had a great buffet dinner (or as one of the locals said..."bouffay").  It really was delicious, and very reasonably priced.  The inn was built in 1836, and was full of antiques and other hysterical items.

We were able to see the sun for about 5 minutes today.  Immediately following a downpour, the sky parted for the sunset.  That's the Augusta ferry crossing over to Ohio.

Cincinnati

Still overcast when we left this morning

 

Might look like a paddle boat, but it never leaves..................gambling boat

 

Cincinnati

We're staying in Manhattan Harbor just beyond Cincinnati.  I checked it out online, and in Quimby's.  It has a nice restaurant and everything looked good, so I called on the phone this morning, and made a reservation for a slip.  They told me to go in slip C 303.  On the way in, I stopped  at the gas dock.  No one there to pump gas, so I went on in to find our slip.  Since there were no visable numbers on the docks, I let Pam off, and had her see if she could find C 303.  we asked several people who all pointed the same general direction, and finally found C303.  We walked up to the marina office.  Closed.  Walked to the restaurant.  Closed.  The whole place is closed on Tuesdays.

Once again, we're not the bigest boat in the marina.

Yes, we're in both of those photos.

Markland

It started raining last night about midnight.  Still raining when we left Madison about 9 am.  Still raining now at 5 pm.  Beautiful day.

We discovered where the Corps of Engineers was headed with those new lock gates on a barge.  Markland--our first lock on this trip.

As we got close to Markland, we passed 6 or 8 tow boats with about 15 barges each along the river bank.  They had pushed the lead barge aground so they could wait there to pass through the lock.  The gates had fallen off the main lock, so they all had to pass through the auxiliary lock which is half the size of the main lock.  That means they push in the barges, break them apart, back out.  The lockmaster runs them up or down, and then pulls out the barges with a "mule".  Then the tow boat goes in, and goes up or down, and moves out to connect to his first barges.  It takes more than twice as long to get through.  Some of the barges had been waiting a couple of days.

So I called the lockmaster on the VHF channel 13.  No reply.  I called him on the phone, and was told they'd let us go through in about 4 hours.  Stay close and he would contact us on the VHF and tell us when to go.  So I stayed close, he called and I hustled in.  We were passing through ahead of at least 10 tow boats that were costing over $500 per hour to sit there and wait.  So I hustled in the lock.  And was promptly admonished for going too fast (7mph) in a no wake zone.

We're anchored in Big Bone Creek tonight. N 38 degrees 51.313 seconds   W 084 degrees 47.041 seconds

 

Look like these folks gave up on the sailboat business.

More Madison

Last night about 1:30 am, a boat came into the marina with it's stereo blasting.  We were in covered slips so when he docked two slips down from us, it was like being in the front row of an AC/DC concert.  I got up, turned on our lights and tried to let them know we were there, but didn't get the message across.  Having encountered drunk belligerent boaters in the past, (I might have even been one once) I thought it best not to force a confrontation.  So we waited it out, and after an hour, they finally left the boat and shut off the stereo.
This morning when I said something about it to the guy who manages the docks, he said "Oh, that was probably Joe.  He's got a great stereo don't he."
Pam wanted to spend two days in Madison, so this morning while it was raining, we moved a mile upriver to the Lighthouse Restaurant docks.  A closer walk to downtown Madison, but no bath house.

We toured a couple of hysterical homes again today--including the Lanier mansion.

 

Leaving Louisville

We discovered this morning that the jug band jubilee was not going to start until later in the day, so we decided to go on up to Madison.  Pam enjoys walking through the hysterical districts of old towns and since Madison has the largest hysterical district in Indiana (over 2000 structures on the National Register of hysterical places) I thought we should get right on it.  We arrived about 5, and walked into town to a bar called Shipley's Tavern.  It's a small hole-in-the-wall spot that I would have enjoyed more back when I was drinking.  They have great burgers, but someone kept playing the same song on the jukebox over and over.  Jay and the Americans--This Magic Moment. 

We enjoyed dinner and visiting with Ty and Fran last night.

However, when we returned from dinner, we found that some imposter had docked in the slip next us.

 

The riverfront park in Louisville is very nice.  Lots of kids play areas including this spray park that gives a whole new meaning to fish sticks.

The U of L rowing team has a cool facility in the park.

They were out early this morning

 The restrooms in the park remind me of a spot I did 30 days in solitary.

As we were leaving, we saw the Belle out on a cruise.

The trip up to Madison was scenic.................

the beauty

 And the beast

 

We're staying in the River Crest Marina about a mile west of hysteric downtown Madison.  From the looks of it, it must have been built while the river was cresting.  It's a long walk up those ramps.

Yes, our boat is in this photo.  If you're playing along at home, you can earn 5 bonus points if you can find it. 

Launch at Louisville

We started a cruise up the Ohio River today.  We trailered the boat to Louisville, and launched near Harrod's Creek.  My wonderful Ford truck with a new turbo ($2000.00) made the hundert mile journey without blowing up.

There are a couple of sets of municipal (free) docks along Louisville's river front parks.  We chose the ones next to Tumbleweeds restaurant, and will be meeting Ty and Fran there for dinner tonight.  (Ty is Pam's brother.)

People in the park by us are setting up tents and a beer truck for some sort of an event, so we inquired what was going on.  Tomorrow is the annual jug band concert. We might stay an extra day.
Judging from the height of the pilings, we should be ok if the river rises a little overnight.

After we got all tied up, we walked the path along the river to the next set of municipal docks.  There are only sailboats tied up there, and they're setting up tents over there as well.  Again, we asked someone what is happening, and learned that there's a regatta this weekend.  "Sail for the Cure."  As I've said before, the sailing community is a small group here in the Midwest, and we quickly found two guys from the old days who had been in our store.

On the way from our launch site to the docks, we saw this Corps of Engineers barge going up river--the same direction we will be going.  It took me a while to figure out what is on the barge.  There's a large crane, and I'm pretty sure those things that look like two walls are gates for a lock.  I only hope it's not for a lock we will be passing through.  Might cause a slight delay while they hang those.

Here's our boat neighbor.

It is our plan to go as far as Point Pleasant, West Virginia.  (Beware the Mothman) We'll meet Dawg and Richman near there in Gallipolis, OH.  Pam will drive their car back home, and Dawg and Richman will return downstream with me.