Grand Rivers, Kentucky

Since we left Grafton, Illinois on Tuesday we have been driving long days to get to this point.  It turns out everyone else has too!  The Mississippi River has an unbelievable current of 3-4 knots so at least we were cruising at a good speed while dodging a million "dead heads" (a.k.a. logs).  We had a good hard rain prior to leaving and it made for an even worse mine field to deal with.

It seems that towns turn their backs on the river front and there wasn't hardly a place to stop, town to visit, no marinas - not fully what we were expecting.  However, everyone has to stop at "Hoppies Marina" or as Jaxon called it all day "Froggies."  You tie up to a barge and Fern the owner "holds court" and gives a river update to the transients.  She lives for this job and considers it her duty to keep us well informed!

We walked to the nearest town of Kimmswick which ended up being very historic.  Pictured below are their famous apple pies each made with 18 hand sliced apples from the Blue Owl Restaurant.  $30 for one pie and the baker is hoping to get put on Oprah!  

We stayed at the Kaskaskia lock with two other Loopers.  When we parked the boat there were a ton of wasps and it was very hot and humid, so we got on the dinghy and drove to the beach to stretch our legs (you can't get off the boat at a lock).  Turned out to be a lot of fun!

We made it Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, Kentucky.  After some long days on the Mississippi River, we were very happy to see such a wonderful marina filled with a ton of our looper friends, three pools w/ slide), playground, courtesy car, on and on.  The weather has been great, but heard rain is coming soon.  This is the Barclay Lock and Dam and we rose 57' to a clear beautiful Barclay Lake. 

 They don't call this marina "Green Turtle Bay" for nothing!  The restaurant actually feeds the turtles everyday....there were hundreds gathered for the feast!