9-15-18 9-16-18 Big Muddy to the Big Muddier

We left our anchorage and were flying down the Mississippi River. Our cruising speed is about 8 miles per hour. If we push the engine we can maybe get 11 mph, BUT with the current it pushed us to 13 miles per hour. Whoo Hoo! Saving fuel. That was great until we got to the Ohio where we were going UP river. Our speed immediately dropped to 5 mph. Not saving fuel anymore. In fact burning more than normal.

We were looking forward to getting on the Ohio to have less debris. Two years ago, when we turned up the Ohio the water was clean with very little debris. This year we went from the Big Muddy (Mississippi) to the Big Muddier (Ohio.) The water line was brown instead of clear as we crossed from one river to the next and much to our dismay, there was tons of trees and debris. Worse than the Mississippi.

Muddy to Muddier. Photo taken by Natalie Sorenson

Thanks Natalie for the picture of Last call crossing from the Mississippi to the Ohio.

The Ohio is flooded and very wide. We had a funny comment from a tow driver. We called to ask where he wanted us to pass him. He said “We got lots of water. Pass me bank to bank, just don’t hit me.”

We anchored at Bean Branch Creek. I didn’t even recognize it the water was so high. Bob N Along was with us and they couldn’t believe this was the anchorage. We anchored well off the channel, and fortunately were in a spot that the debris field was just off where we anchored. We heard of some boats having debris hit their boat all night and had a large collection of wood tangled on their anchor line. We lucked out, we both had just a tiny branch from a willow tree and no bumps all night.

Bob N Along at Sunset at Bean Branch Creek Anchorage.

On up the river is a new Municipal Dock in Paducah. We had power to run the air conditioning. It has been blistering hot everyday. High 90’s. Ugh. We walked into town. It looks like this town died but is being revived. Many empty storefronts are being renovated. There are neat old buildings that when redone, will be quite attractive. It was Sunday and we didn’t have much time so we didn’t go to the National Quilt museum, which is supposed to be impressive.

We just missed Quilt Week. Yes the pictures of the horses is quilted. Many gifted quilters out there, my friend Mary is one of them.

American German National Bank being restored. Love the Bank building next door too.

The town has a flood wall, which is a cement wall apx 12” tall with closing doors to keep the water out of town. The wall was beautifully painted with mural depicting the history of the area. There was a guy on scaffolding painting one of the panels. Turns out he is the original artist and comes each year to restore two panels. That way it isn’t such a big project. It takes him about a month to do one panel. It was neat to meet him. He is quite gifted.

Check out these close ups of the historical paintings on each panel. Stunning This one is the Strawberry Queen

Robert Dafford. Designer and painter of these beautiful murals.

We found this on a building downtown marking the high water. Hard to imagine the river ever getting this high.

This market building looks much as it did when built. Only today there is a theatre in the back half. Mama Mia had just opened her doors when we walked by.

Side street next to market. I can imagine the horse drawn buggies parked here.

The Columbia Theatre has white and blue tile on the outside. It has seen better days, but fundraising is being done to restore this magnificent building.

Fun Fact: $5 bought Paducah and its surrounding 37,000 acres in 1825

In 1848 the church property was bought for $225.00.

Beauty! St. Frances de Sales rang her bells while we were standing outside her.

It was so hot we wanted to get back on our boats for some reprieve from the heat. That evening three other boats came in. I was washing dishes, Scott ran out to help catch lines and there were other people there also to help so I kept at my dishes. Spectators would come down on the dock periodically. I happened to notice a couple standing near our boat when suddenly their eyes got as big as saucers and mouths dropped open. I turned to see what was up just in time to see a fellow looper coming into the dock, who got caught in an unexpected current and missed hitting our boat by inches. Glad I didn’t see it coming. Due to great skill,the Captain of that boat punched the power while his wife frantically tossed lines to people on the dock. They landed like they planned it that way.

Never thought of tows as pretty but the sun shining on this one caught my eye.

On the dock we all met exchanged cards with the new people and talked about our travels the next day. We have two options because we are at a fork in the river. Option 1) Take the right fork onto the Tennessee River to the Kentucky Lock or Option2) Take the Ohio a short ways and take the Cumberland River to the Barkley Lock. Both of these locks dump you into the Kentucky Lakes area. Option 2 is 24 miles longer than Option 1, but Option 1 is notorious for getting stuck hours at the lock due to commercial traffic. The group decided that first thing in the morning, I would call the lock master at Kentucky Lock and use my womanly wiles to see if I could sweet talk the Lock Master to let us all go through if we all came together so It was only one lock. I called him he said he didn’t have any tows waiting up or down so the prospect of us getting through in timely manner is good. He said the most he can make us wait is 3 lock throughs. New rule? In the morning, we had a captain’s meeting on the dock. I filled everyone in on the details I was given, like stay below the bridge until you are cleared to come up or you may meet a tow, tie up to the wall assignments etc.

Two of the boats decided to go the other way seeing it was supposed to be more scenic. Four of us headed for the lock with Last Call leading the way. When we arrived, we waited 5 minutes for them to get a diver out of the way and bam we were in and locked through in no time. A few days later we were anchored near the other lock and noticed the door stuck partially opened and didn’t move all day. Come to find out many Loopers were stuck on the other side for 8 hours and had to come into the marina in the dark.