Well we have decided the L&D’s in MO and IL leave a lot to be desired. :-). Yesterday we did Locks 19-27, and really all but one were duds. We were excited to go to 19 because that tow captain was really one to see. Yes, it was longer than any of the others we had seen so far which makes it so nice that the barges do not have to break apart to get through, which really increases their time through the locks. I guess that made 19 a little better than a dud! :-). There was no traffic so we did not get a chance to see what a full barge looked through locking there. 21-25 and 27, either had their observation area closed due to construction and/or we could not even get close to the L&D…one was due to construction but the others were just not open to visitors. Kind of disappointing to come to the end of this trip and experience this.
But at least L&D 26 kind of made up for it. There is a museum there, but the only way to get close to lock is to go on the tour they provide. We kind of thought about not going, but then changed our mind. It was free and we had to show our ID to the ranger for security reasons so that was fine. With this one, you could not even carry in a purse because of heightened security. They did say they had lockers that you could use to lock away your purse or backpacks but even those were not in use due to security concerns….what a shame! They have a theater where they show 4 films which were interesting. We spent time in there waiting for our tour to start.
That tour gave us such an interesting perspective of the L&D infrastructure because you take an elevation 8 floors up to an observation area. This L&D has 2 working locks, although they only use the 2nd one during busy days. One lock is the “normal” 600 feet long, the other is double that and instead of having an inner gate it has an accordion style mechanism that closes down into the water….very interesting. We did get to see a barge lock through from this high observation point, which was a different perspective than we had seen before. Even as the barge was heading into the lock, you would swear it was off to one side and was sure to hit the dam….but then it just moved slightly and went straight in. From above it looked like there were minimal room on either side of the barge and the lock, which again was an interesting perspective.
There were only 7 people on the tour which gave us a chance to meet the others. Three of the people were what the water people call “loopers”, These are people that travel the waterways in their boats and “loop” around the US. These people were on their way to Tampa…it was a husband, wife and daughter. She asked me to join her Facebook page so I could follow them, which is really interesting. Wait until you see the picture of the boat they are on…certainly not small, like a fishing boat, but not the size I would have expected to be traveling on for months. I will post a picture…not only being on for months, but for 3 of them to be on there! The man is retired but the woman is still working and relies on Starlink to keep her connected and able to do her job as seamlessly as possible. She said they have discussed exit plans if needed, in that she would leave the boat and fly back home so she would be able to work until the other 2 get settled in their place in Tampa. She said so far connectivity has been pretty good. Our tour guide was so happy to meet some “loopers” …. He had heard of them but had never actually met any. The tour guide used to work in the Twin Cities, but once he retired he came down to the St. Louis area to be near the son and grandchildren. He started volunteering at the Melvin Price Dam not very long ago and really enjoys being on the water, meeting people and sharing stories.
He said one of the new volunteers just retired. He had started out as a deck hand on the barges and then retired as a VP of that company. He has a lot of great insights about the industry that he shares with the others. One thing that he is working on right now is the push to try to move from the 9-foot standard from St. Paul down to St. Louis and increase that to a 12-foot standard. They want to increase the level to allow heavier loads on the barges. For instance, sometimes the corn that is being shipped may be damp which adds weight, which means they have to load less kernels. They mostly ship corn, soy beans and fertilizer. Corn and soy beans down river, fertilizer up river. It will be interesting to watch to see if this passes as a change to the navigation.
We are on way back up to home today and may make it the full way or may stop part way. There are supposed to be severe storms rolling through the Iowa area so hopefully we can at least get passed that and maybe even get all the way to Blaine.
If it works ok, I will edit these posts to add pictures….that is what I would prefer, but if that gets clunky then I will just do a post with pictures!
Take care…stay dry…keep warm!
