October 19, 2009 Alton, IL to Hoppies, Kimmswick, IL

October 19, 2009

Alton, IL (202.9) to Hoppie’s at Kimmswick, IL (158.5)

We finally had to leave Alton with the promise of sunshine and temps in the 70s. However with sunshine came a 15-20 mph wind out of the south. We knew that this would be a good time to take the part of the trip where we have to anchor out for 2-3 nights. However, our day today was short with only 44 miles and two locks.

There were a lot of new things today! First thing out of Alton Marina, we locked through the relatively new Melvin Price lock and dam. A tow was in one chamber so they could lock us through in the auxiliary chamber. Again we had to tie onto floating bollards, but Mark is such a good driver that he gets me right next to them and I can easily wrap the rope around and hang on. Next we had to take the Chain of Rocks Canal – a narrow canal - around a 4 foot waterfall on the Mississippi. No problem there either, but we met a few tows as we went through the narrow canal. At the end of the canal is another lock and dam with two chambers. They were going to be loading a tow in one chamber so we were to use the other. We got the signal to enter – a green light and a strobe, but it looked like the gates were still closed to us. So Mark called and that is when we were told that the front gate was under water – cool! We tied up and waited for another pleasure craft, Kimberly B, and locked through. A tow was waiting to enter as we left. Then we were in the busy St. Louis harbor – lots of activity – tows going everywhere, but we had no difficulty. We took pictures of the famous arch and all the bridges, and the St. Louis skyline.

For the last couple of days there has been debris in the river – logs of every size – as a result of the 4-5 inches of rain farther up north (that we came through). We have been trying to dodge as many as we can, but have hit a couple. Still, so far we have been lucky. With the normal river current, turbulence, wind and tow wakes, we have encountered waves that are 2-3 feet and splash up over Grateful’s bow.

When we got to Hoppie’s, the Kimberly B was fueling up ahead of us. With a short wait we came in and got fuel, then tied down for the night. This all happened before 1:00. We met the skipper of the Kimberly B Rick, and his brother, Bill. All of us remarked how we weren’t used to stopping with an afternoon left in our day, so we decided to have cocktails on Hoppie’s barge. Later Fern came down and took us all through our charts and showed us where there may be good anchorages for the next part of the trip. This is worth the time. We also asked Charles Hopkins, “Hoppie”, what it meant to be a river lamplighter. He might be the last living lamplighter on the river. Apparently, the day and night markers used to be lit by kerosene. Hoppie said the kerosene was intended to burn for 72 hours which meant that twice a week, he and a crew went out and changed the lamps. This was a year-round job in any kind of weather and often they would have to go out and re-light lamps that went out for some reason. He worked at this until 1954. Since then the Army Corps of Engineers have utilized batteries (which also needed to be changed) and are currently using solar energy.