It’s not the River City, but is a river city

We spent the whole day with Iowa to starboard and Music Man tunes were constantly in my head. We set two new records today cruising the Mississippi. The first was proximity of our marina slip to railroad tracks—our stop in Lansing, IA was about 30 yards from the passing trains, which sounded their whistles at full volume in town. Only two came through and woke us up last night! We also had another record mileage day, steaming 48 miles from Lansing to Guttenberg, with two locks. The day started out chilly and overcast in the low 50s, but warmed up 67F once the sun came out. Our locking events couldn’t have been easier—there was no other traffic, and the lockmasters had the lock ready and waiting for us after we radioed ahead.

We’re still within the Mississippi River National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, and the natural beauty is stunning. We’re also in the driftless area; the region of the upper Midwest spared by glaciers during the last ice age. Often we are cruising past wetlands, bluffs and valleys that cannot be seen by car, and where there are roads, we see much more going 7 mph instead of 70. The bird life is incredible, with eagles, herons, egrets, cormorants, ducks, geese, gulls and pelicans.

In case you’re curious about the buoys in the pictures, here’s a quick lesson. Red and green buoys indicate the edges of the navigation channel. On the Mississippi River, the east side is red and the west side is green. We Badger alumni have no trouble remembering that the Wisconsin side is the red one. Red buoys are conical on top and are nicknamed “nuns,” after the pointed hats that nuns wore back in the day. Green buoys have flat tops and are called “cans.” The shape difference is so you can tell them apart at night. U.S. river buoys are neither lighted nor numbered.

Another day, another dredge; this one near Prairie du Chien, WI, where the Wisconsin River empties into the Mississippi. It was interesting in that it uses both mechanical (backhoe) and hydraulic dredging techniques. The blue barge in the center is an enormous vacuum cleaner, which sucks the river mud off the bottom and dumps it on shore through a pipeline (the orange buoys on the right). 

This riverboat, the Casino Queen, was moored at Marquette, IA.  Fun fact: Iowa was the first state to legalize riverboat gambling.

We are getting our underway routine down and are a pretty good team. We mostly split the crew and helm duties equally, including locking and docking.