This morning we woke up to rain showers, and while waiting for them to clear out, we met a local couple on the dock who are preparing to start the Great Loop next month. Not only did they tell us the gate code so we could leave the property (and come back), but they offered to drive us on any errands before we got underway. We have been told that Loopers are friendly, generous people, and we are seeing that first hand!
We called Lock 15, which is visible from the marina, to get an approximate wait time, departed after the 45 minutes that they estimated, and waited another 30 minutes on the water before passing through the auxiliary lock. Running over this lock is this interesting double-decker bridge, with cars on the lower level and trains on the upper.
We got held up again at Lock 16 for over an hour, waiting for a large tow to split and reform. There was another tow waiting to enter when we exited, and the lock master said that things didn’t get really busy until harvest season. We really can’t complain about delays—we had a much better day than these two sailboats we saw along the way:
We went 31 miles today to Muscatine, IA, which was incorporated in 1839 as Bloomington. Because there were already Bloomingtons in Illinois and Indiana, the new town had problems with misrouted mail, and changed the name to eliminate confusion. Fun fact: there is no other place on Earth called Muscatine.
We dragged our rudders through the mud to get into the shallow slip at the Municipal Marina, tied up, then walked to Hy-Vee for provisions before enjoying dinner at Guadalajara Restaurant. We were both craving Mexican food and ate our fill, with leftovers for tomorrow.
Are we getting any better at selfies?
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