Hoppies to Little Diversion River

Looking out at the entrance to little River Diversion Channel as the sun was going down.

We are anchored just inside Little Diversion River, just past the town of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. A couple of men came by in a small boat to say hi, told us that Cape Girardeau is a city of about 40,000 people, and we are anchored just on the south side of town. From here though, we really can’t see the town. Travelled down the Mississippi all day, lots of tows and turbulence. It is amazing to see how much turbulence they kick up as they go past, especially going upstream. And there is still a lot of debris in the water, tree trunks, logs, chunks of wood. Saw tows as large as 35 barges again today. And again today, the tow captains were very courteous and helpful. We have learned a new language in dealing with the tows. We call and request permission to either meet or pass, their response is "See you on the One" or "See you on the two". One or one whistle means that we will keep him on our port side or left side, two means that we will keep him on our starboard or right side. We don't even need to refer to our cheat sheet now to know what they mean.

Left Hoppies this morning before 8, no fog today. The current in the Mississippi is so strong that it gave us a push of about 4-5 miles per hour, so we travelled further than we had thought we could -110 miles. Today travelled by many rocky bluffs, beautiful houses around towns, and lots of country where the water was lined with trees, plus we could see trees growing up on the hills along the river. Many trees are turning yellow, with some red patches, so it is definitely time to keep moving south. Temperature went up to 90 today though, very nice for travelling on a boat. We travelled with Zookeeper all day, the Australian boat owned by Ginnie and Malcolm, as well as with Dream Fever.

We anchored again rafted with Nancy and Eddie on Dream Fever, got together for supper. Eddie got out his guitar and played for us as we enjoyed a few snacks before dinner on the bow of their boat, very peaceful and pleasant. We have not seen mosquitoes since we left Canada, but a few did find us tonight.