Lock and Load

So far we have traversed through 22 Locks and have passed 41 Tows!

You can never really plan your “end of the day” anchorage until you’ve gone through your last lock.  The longest we’ve waited for a lock to take us through is 2 1/2 hours, with a few more in the 2 hour range.  Our next lock will be longer since a tow and barge had a little accident in the large chamber and so now they’re using our little alternate recreational boat chambers.  Quite the back up of traffic.
Most locks drop you about 3-8 feet but below you’ll see our biggest so far... 37 feet.

Now for the Tows.  Most are of the humongous kind.. meaning 3 across and five long.  Each barge is 200’ in length, 35’ wide and can carry 1500 tons, so do the math for 15 of them! It’s been an experience when we try to beat them to the next lock!  See video!

Now most of you realize that our title “lock and load” is not referring to any ammo and firearms or if you are our dance students it isn’t the meaning of you arm position, but it’s a reference to the above locks and loads!  Enough said...