October 9,2009 McGregor to East Dubuque

October 9, 2009

McGregor to East Dubuque

Well, Mark missed his opportunity to be a free man today. We had some excitement untying and getting underway. Both the wind and the current conspired to push Grateful away from the dock. As soon as Carol untied the stern lines, Grateful blew away from the dock, leaving her behind. We knew this would happen and Mark had commented that I would just have to trust him…….. Anyway, I was still holding the stern line, but Mark couldn’t get the boat within 4 feet of the dock. So he told me to throw the line through the doorway so he could back up and come at the dock differently. Now this had to be a perfect throw because the doorway is only twenty inches wide and if I miss the line falls into the water and wraps around the prop and disables Grateful. YIKES! I guess you figured the outcome because I am still here to tell about it. After a bit more maneuvering, I was able to scramble on with the grace of a beached whale.

Today, we witnessed something we had never seen before. Mark spotted an eagle diving into the river for the catch of the day. However, the eagle apparently could not fly off with his catch. Instead of letting it go, the eagle proceeded to swim to shore with catch in tow. We watched as the eagle’s powerful wings (still bent) came out of the water and thrust forward as it swam roughly 30 yards to shore. The eagle came out of the water with its fish and brunch was served.

We passed this large canoe or miniature Viking ship today. Also, since we crossed the border into IA, we have seen several towboats sharing a berth with barges. This would allow more barges with payload to pass through the Lock & Dams.

We were settled into the Mid Town Marina in East Dubuque by 2:40.This was a very nice marina with new docks in a protected setting. We were expecting our friend, Barb, for an evening of dinner and gambling. She took us to a restaurant in the old renovated Star Brewery. The food was great and we managed to get out of the casino with our shirts still intact. It was nice to be in a car and drive to places. Kind of miss that.