Day 4 - Clayton IA to Dubuque

I'll first back up to cover some more of yesterdays adventure. As you might recall I was without Internet last night so getting pictures loaded on to the blog site was a long process.

Here's coverage of the things we saw en route from Lacrosse down to Clayton.

A good student of geography will be able to draw the map of this location in their mind.

We found the Blue Fin's twin in McGregor, IA
It even has the same motor!
Try to repeat Blue Fin's Twin real fast.

We named this place "Potty Island"  It doesn't show real well in
the photo but water fully surrounds the two outhouses that
sit slightly elevated on a mound. The photo was taken from our boat and at the time we were in about 8 ft of water.

This highway bridge in Lansing IA has to be the most rickety of all bridges. It's strapped together with cables added to improve it's strength. Chain link fence material, fashioned into screens, appears to catch junk that might fall on cars from above while a second screen catches more junk from dropping toward the river, for what I presume is protection of passing boaters. 

Now this bridge at Prairie du Chien is more like it. 

Here we are floating aimlessly in the middle of the channel with no one at the helm. The current's running at 5-6 mph out here in mid-channel and we'll be under that bridge in a few minutes. Don't worry, the motor was still idling and I had only to jump three steps to be at the controls.

How do you like our dorky hats?  Sometimes function must win out over fashion. The UV rays reflect strongly off the water's surface so even under the shade of our Bimini top we'll still be sunburned from the bottom up.  

Whoever said water and gas don't mix hadn't visited this place.  This is an example of the reason I need to replace the spare gas tank that was ejected into the river two days ago.  Business on the river is fickle and you cannot predict what conditions might cause a place to be closed as this place was.

This is a view of the heart of Clayton, IA.  We're getting ready to push off on Sunday morning July 7. Who'd a thought one could enjoy and all inclusive stay here?  Let's see, there's a place to tie off the Blue Fin, a bar/restaurant partially hidden behind the Bimini cover, the Claytonian Inn on the far right, a scenic backdrop, and a porta-potty to boot. Every town should present such an inviting scene! 

The Captain's Quarters at the Claytonian Inn.   Really quite nice!

One of our bikes leaning against the railing of the National Brewery Museum in Potosi, WI. Notice the parcel on the sidewalk, soon to be strapped onto the carrier and on it's way back to the Blue Fin. I had traveled about 2 miles out of the main river channel to the Wisconsin shoreline and then another 1.5 miles on the bike to get here.  About 30 seconds after this photo was taken I dropped the parcel on the concrete and every one of the twist off caps came loose causing the bottles to slowly leak. It was a worthy but failed effort.

The leaking four pack of Potosi beer on display.  A good eye can see that the bottles are not full.  The hills behind the boat are about 2 miles away. I had come through an unmarked channel of 4 foot deep water to get to the Potosi landing that was almost underwater. I wouldn't have made it without the fancy electronic navigation aids on board. 

A stop at Guttenberg, IA where there's a giant piece of river driftwood pulled up on shore.  I wouldn't want to tangle with something like this.

The Blue Fin tucked in for the night in Dubuque.  Family members, Jessie, Jean, Donna, Mike, and Elaine came out on a nice evening to checkout the equipment.

Tomorrow We'll hang for a while in Dubuque and shop for a new gas tank. We should get started later in the morning and then be on our way to Savanna, IL or thereabouts.