This is our 6th night on the river!  and we have covered 544 miles on our trip of approximately 2000 miles! We have now gone through 21 lock and dams.  The last two days we have been blessed with great weather, calm winds and until the last 2 locks today great passages!  We have determined our best cruising speed which is 1200 RPM's and with the current we are making around 10 knots at 2.6 miles per gallon. In one of the post pictures you will see our first lock this morning at about 7 AM  this lock is 1100 feet long and a 35 foot drop on a floating bollard.  One of the locks we went through today had a field of crap so large the lock stared filling the lock with water  with the gate open to blow it out of the mouth of the lock so we could exit, this including a log larger than a telephone pole.  It took a great deal of maneuvering but we got out with only a few bumps on the props. No damage.  There have been some face book pictures Brigitte has been circulating the show me resting. 
At 10-11 hours a day it is well deserved.  There are two pictures of Brigitte working out just for the record.  As you can also see Cody has adapted well. Lastly for our friends at Sunnyside we have a picture of our empty slip,  we miss you all very much! I will post in a couple more days. God bless!

The previous pictures, slightly out of order, are the American Queen in Winona, Sunrise on Lake Pepin, and Cruising down the river.

Today we left Dubuque at 6:30 AM  and made 94 miles in about 10-1/2  hours  at 1200 rpms,  Looks like we have our fuel burn to about 2 miles per gallon cruising at 10.2 knots including the current - the checkbook is going to thank me!  Cold blustery day,  with winds out of the northwest at 10-15, not made for cruising since we were getting a little push, but the three locks we went through were challenging.  Had to wait for locks for over an hour - two out of three stopped about 8 miles short of our goal and are staying at Isle of Capri Marina and Casino in Davenport, IL.  25 bucks a night!!!

Couple of highlights of the day:  Some bridge masters (Sabula Iowa) and Lock masters (Clinton) like to prove they are in charge!  Government workers at their finest!  The fast majority are outstanding and have been of great help!  We saw a buck (deer) swimming across the Mississippi at a very wide spot. He took one look at the boat and turned around!

Below is a picture of Cody having a rough time adapting.  So far so good - he has proven he can hold it 10 - 11 hours.  Til our next entry, be well our friends.

Day 2 & 3

Day 2 we left Pepin Marina at 6:55.  We cruised for 10.5 hrs burning a gallon a Mile to Lansing Iowa.
We ran at 2160 rpm's and made 15 knots over land with a 4 to 5 mile current .  The sun was out but we ran into 20+ mile head winds out of the south.  Holding on to the lines in the lock was a B____! 100 miles,  6 locks, 2 RR bridges!

Saturday we ran at 1600 and made 1.5MPG , we made about 80+ plus miles to Dubuque.  A great day with 3 perfect locks. BS'd with a tow boat captain for 45 minutes and got great tips on anchorages and fishing in Mobile. AIS is a great add to anyone doing the Miss. You can see Tows in advance and time the locks for best time and optimize fuel.  I even had 2 captains contact me with info! Dubuque municipal Marina is brand new!  What a great Marina,  a 10!  We will come back next year for 3 nights on Wicked Waters! Pictures to follow!

Day One, yup it did happen!

I will not go into all the gory details but after parts arrived by UPS, we replaced 2 senders, and still one gage read 220 degrees and one read 100 (should be 180 degrees).  We started swapping around the 4 temperature gage's until we finally figured out I had one dead gauge that was making the other one to read hot.  No new gauge to be found so Sunnyside is looking for a gauge, once obtained they will mail it to a Marina down River.

We cast our lines off at 1:38 and headed south on a beautiful sunny afternoon.  We got through the 4 no wake zones, 2 RR bridges and the Red Wing Lock . ( had to wait about 40 minutes)  we made it to Pepin Marina at 7:30 PM .  Cheers!

What was once was a distant dream is now our new life!

Wednesday, September 17,  Putz'n Around left her slip at Sunnyside Marina for the last time at 7:06 a.m.  Jillian, Eric, and Cubby were there to see us off.   We were just out of the no wake zone, when the port engine appeared to overheat.  We were back at Sunnyside by 7:30, where all hands came on deck!  We pulled the boat to check water intakes and props.  Everything's cool - it appears it  is a temperature sensor issue.  The guys found a part in Ohio, which is being air shipped in.  If all goes well, the part should be here at 10:00 am and we should be on our way again around noon!  That's boating!!!! I can't thank the entire staff  at Sunnyside enough for their assistance!!!!!!!

enough for their assistance!!!!!!Our rigid plan of  infinite  flexibility will have us travel the first 9 days at a pace of 100 miles a day to reach Paducah,  Kentucky by Sept. 25th.  Our plan is then to slow it way down and enjoy the new waters of the Tennessee, and the Tenn-Tom Waterway.  We plan on making Mobile  around October 14th and Fort Meyers by Nov. 15th.  We will post a couple of times a week so enjoy the ride as you wish!
Cheers!
Scott and Brigitte
This a link to our SPOT  tracker, click on the link and you see our path of travel.

https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=1rhbt7UOVhqbLfiD2BO41MCq2ijcKaK4W