This is a day 2 recap written at the end of Day 4…lol…we are gone most of the day and do a lot of walking so by the time we get to the hotel we are exhausted. Even today was long and quite event filled I thought I would at least get something written for Day 2…otherwise it starts to all blend together.
Our first L&D visit was in Trempealeau in Wisconsin….L&D #6. The drive through the WI bluff areas was just beginning to start their Fall colors. There were a lot of reds, but not so many oranges or yellows yet. At this lock we had the chance to see a barge and its tow right away. There were so many barges that the tow had to disconnect while the barges went in to the lock. Then when the gates open at the other end either the current brings the barges through or there is a heavy duty wench at the other end that will pull the barges through while the lock resets so the tow can come through and then get hooked back up to its barges.
Locks 7, 8, and 9 were non-eventful, all had good observation areas but not any traffic while we were there. We were scheduled to see #10 on Day 2, but the drive between these locks was slow, hilly and windy so took a little longer than we expected. We decided even though we would have to reverse our route in the morning to see 10 just felt it was the better option since it was getting dark.
We noticed since we were driving along the bluffs…the bluffs on one side and the Mississippi on the other side of the road, the sun went behind the bluffs earlier than what one would expect for a normal sun down…so it started getting dark much earlier.
We stayed that night at the Grand Harbor Resort which was right on the river. Our room overlooked the river so we could watch boat traffic. And it turned out great because in the morning when we were checking out we saw a barge so we knew we would most likely be able to see it through the lock.
I am getting very frustrated with trying to pull pictures in from our Google drive and drop in here with this iPad, so I will edit all of these posts once I am home and add in the pictures. When I am home, it is super easy to copy from Google pictures and drop in here…not sure why the iPad has to be different….but it could be a user error…LOL
Fall is on its way! Enjoy the sun!
