Winona, MN to La Crosse, WI

This morning we woke up to a chilly 52 degrees and a lovely mist on the river.

After the fog burned off, we turned Dragonfly’s bow south again and immediately came upon the American Symphony, a 175-passenger cruise ship, docked on the Winona waterfront. Cabins are only $5,400 for the voyage from St. Paul to St. Louis!

Every day we’ve passed huge tow boats, with barge rafts that fill the entire camera screen.

And every day we’ve seen dredging operations. The Army Corps of Engineers is tasked with maintaining a minimum nine-foot depth in the channel on the entire river. So far we have not seen any depths shallower than ten. Here’s a video of a dredge in action:

We motored downriver 29 miles and through two more locks, to La Crosse, WI, and docked at the Municipal Boat Harbor, a very nice marina that is tucked away in an industrial area. The weather on the voyage was just about perfect—partly cloudy, temps in the upper 70s and light south winds. We walked into town for dinner, and came across this statue of Gambrinus, a medieval Flemish king who is said to be the inventor of beer. In fact-checking this legend, I quickly learned that the Sumerians of Mesopotamia began brewing beer as early as 8,000 BC.

Upon returning to the marina, what should we see but the American Symphony again, steaming downriver as the sun was beginning to set. A nice surprise and a fun way to bookend another terrific day on the river!