Day 46: Sn 10/28- A Mark Twain Barge Sandwich

We got a good start in the morning with some nice sunny weather. We made the 11 miles to Hannibal quickly. We were excited to see Mark Twains hometown, since we were re-reading a copy of Huck Finn that my mom gave us.
The downtown/riverside of Hannibal was super cute with some brick roads and everything seemed to be name the "Mark Twain ______". The income level appeared to drop suddenly as we got toward the top of the hill and came up on the combination Family Dollar/Save A Lot. We were able to resupply a lot of our supplies including dog food. We carried our supplies the mile back to the river and ate lunch on the dock.
While we ate and admired the Mark Twain Paddle Boat(pic), a big barge passed us which was unfortunate because Dam #22 was eight miles down. We followed the barge a few miles back and gained sight of the dam while he was still finishing positioning to start locking. We drifted up the last mile or so and finally hung on to a mooring piling. When we eventually decided to go and wait on shore we saw another barge coming up. We didn't want to wait another two hours so we stayed close and hurried up to pull the signal cord as soon as the tug entered the lock.
The lock guy came out to us on the guide wall and instructed us to pull up the just outside the gates and hang onto a service ladder. They were going to get us through between barges but the barge behind us was lining up on the guide wall right behind us. That was a little freaky being between a hydraulic gate and a huge barge.
We made it through the lock without getting squished. Behind schedule, we paddled until after the sun disappeared and made our camp on Gilbert Island. Making and eventful day with 24 miles accomplished.

Day 45: S 10/27- Grocery hunt

We left mile 350 and weaves our way through a series of islands in the pool leading up to lock and dam 20. We passed by Canton, IA and La Grange, IA in the morning, hoping to find a grocery store to resupply. We thought one building in La Grange looked promising, but it turned out to be the Mark Twain Casino. That left us Quincy, IL to try for the day.
The wind was still in our favor, but the high was 50 and our sunny morning clouded over as we reached Quincy. Aaron walked up to a "grocery store" that ended up being a bust while Lilly and I paced around a park to stay warm. All we got was some cereal, some apple butter and little Debbie snack cakes, but it was better than nothing. Lock an dam 21 was around the corner from town and we made it through no problem. The guys working were both really nice and chatted about our trip. One said he was pretty sure we were crazy but admired our tenacity :)
We ended up at mile 320 for the day and camped on Goose Island.

Day 44: F 10/26- Welcome to MO

The next morning was still quite windy coming from across the river. The river made a turn back to the south which put the winds mostly at our backs.
When we approached dam #19 at Keokuk, IA the workers were doing some sort of maintenance on a barge deck. They started filling for us but we had to hold steady for close to a half hour. All the wind was funneling into the corner between a plant of some sort in the water and the dam. The waves were huge and turbulent. We ended up taking on a bunch of water from them breaking over the gunnel, but we bailed it out while we "locked down" 38 feet.
The rest of the day was calmer under the dam. We made it to the MO border and then some. Making 31 miles before setting up camp on Buzzard Island.

Day 43: R 10/25- Blown away

We woke up with the winds already coming strong out of the south. The river runs east to west at this point so we had to head straight across the channel first thing to get to the leeward side. After that half hour, tedious exercise we headed downriver.
The day started warm and sunny, but the weather was calling for a temperature drop to 50 and thunderstorms for the afternoon. We got stuck going across a deep bay straight into the winds. We finally battled to shore to take a breather, but it was a pretty good fight. After that we stayed as close to shore as possible. As the clouds rolled in and the rain started the wind seemed to get even worse. We were eventually pushed onto the Illinois shore several times and decided to call it. We camped on the side of a huge hill on a little flat spot just big enough for the tent. We were across from Fort Madison, IA at mile 381.

Day 42: W 10/24- Daddy Long Legs oh My!!

We made it through lock 18 early in the morning without any problems. The wind was up today but we fought through the headwinds and were able to stay mostly on the leeward side on the river. We decided to take the grape chute which runs parallel to the main channel but was wonderfully sheltered from the wind. The side of the chute had a cute campsites that ran a hundred yards apart and each had their own dock. We chatted with a few of the campers as well as a couple of older fishermen that were cruising the chute. We saw the fishermen at the top of the chute twice in the middle and again at the end. They warned us that when we turned the corner out of the chute the waves and eddies were huge. They even offered to have us throw our canoe up on their boat and they would drive us to wherever we needed to go. It's nice to know that their are kind people out there willing to help if needed.
When we did round the corner we were certainly meet with ruff water. Slowly but surly we plowed through it and made our way down the windy side of the river to our camp for the night on Lead Island.
A hard day but we made our 24 miles. Also the should rename Lead Island, Daddy Long Leg Island as there was about 10 for every square foot. I have no clue what they eat because they were significantly the most infected creature on the island.

Day 41: T 10/23- Smooth sailing

The next morning was clear and bright. As we rounded the next bend we realized we were closer to lock 17 than we thought. We made it through without any problems and cruised on. The rest of the day took us through islands surrounded by duck blinds and real pretty wooded areas.
We made 29 miles without troubles and stopped outside of lock 18 for the night. We pulled off at a rough little access point where we assumed the bird hunters put in. We didn't want to amp right on top of their little parking area or the embankment so we tucked down on the other side in a sheltered little hole. We made a pleasant little fire, blogged a bit and hit the sack.

Day 40: M 10/22- Fog

The next morning we said goodbye to Rob and Derek, but not before they went and bought us a few gallon jugs of water, since our water bag had a leak. We also took the opportunity to unload a few things that we didn't need anymore, like the wheels.
It was slow going that morning, as I was still fighting whatever bug/parasite I had gotten to make me ill. But I was doing significantly better than the day before. We made our way out of the city and industrial surroundings and back into the scenic refuge area.
It was early afternoon when the fog started to roll in. The visibility continued to drop until we were forced to stop. We couldn't see where we were going and we knew that no one would be able to see us. (We had just heard the night before that a a couple of days before a duck boat going way to fast through the fog had smashed into a buoy; and two people died and four others had to be airlifted.) Sacrificing miles for cation we waited on the shore for the dog to clear. More than an hour later the fog had lifted a bit and we tried to keep going. We made it another mile or so before more fog settle on us and we returned to the shore. We decided to just call it a short day after seventeen miles and set up camp.
A little sad that we didn't make our miles, but confident we had made the right choice. I also didn't mind the extra rest to try and take care of my sluggishness and nausea.