What a day on the river

We were up at first light.  We had to go 90 miles and get through the Pickwick Lock which can take a while.

We fired motors at 5:56 and pulled out of the marina at 6:01.  Beautiful morning.  A sailboat had pulled out just ahead of us.  We caught up to the sailboat, SeaDora, half way to the lock.

SeaDora

There was a tow ahead of us but Pickwick has two chambers so I thought no big deal.  I was about to learn they only use one chamber at a time so we would have to wait for the tow to lock through.  On top of that, the tow had so many barges he had to make two trips up and down with his load.

AND, the lockmaster informs us they only have one working bullard so if the sailboat wants to go through with us we have to raft up.  That's no problem.  I motor over to the sailboat and the skipper is very friendly and we agree to raft up for the decent.

The lockmaster was doing us a favor because there was another tow waiting downstream to lock up and she could have made us wait for that tow also.  But it must have been my Minnesota Nice accent and she agreed to let us through but we had to be quick.

Being quick was no problem as we had arrived at the lock at 7AM and got out of the lock at 11AM.  I'm sure glad my daughter Rachael was not with us.....though it was beautiful out so she would have gotten a lot of sun while we drifted around waiting.

Now here is the best part.........we raft up while waiting, motor in rafted up, tie off and we are all set to descend.  The skipper of the sailboat is so grateful he tells us the two guys with him are musicians and asks if we want a mini concert.  SURE!  So we were treated to "The Professor and the Bull" on the way down.  What a hoot!  The Professor plays guitar and sings and the Bull plays the washboard.  They were really good and I have a video to prove it (I may have to wait until I get back to town to upload it with Josh's help).

Rod Harris, skipper of SeaDora

So the lock opens and off we go.  We are already trying to figure out where we are going to stop because of the 4 hour delay.  We head down stream and we are flying!  We have a 3 knot current at our stern and we are making time.  In the end we made it the full 90 miles to Cuba Landing Marina just at sunset.

We saw some interesting things along the  way.

Memorial Day Flight

The river is very high!

Flags flying high!

Paddle board dude came out to visit while we were waiting for the lock.

River Po Po

Beer Party

Kids always have the most fun!

Lots of current!!!

Hmmmmmm, maybe I don't want to go for a swim just now!!!

This is one of those days we will remember forever and again it's a bummer that Melissa and Kerm are not here on board.  At least we can share the pictures with y'all!

And look what I spotted less then one mile from Cuba Landing.  These guys were having a great time riding in the river.  What do you think, Melissa?  Maybe I can motor and you can ride the shore like these guys??

We will be at it first thing tomorrow as we have 100 miles to go but no locks so we don't have to push if we get an early start.