A dense fog had caused The Phyllis to be running behind schedule Tuesday morning, so in order to meet her we needed to travel a bit farther south than had been planned, to Lock & Dam No. 25 at Winfield, MO, which is about a 100-mile drive from where I was at Quincy, IL. Carol, an Administrative Assistant at Alter Barge picked me up in a crew van and drove as fast as she could get by with to make my date. We got there just in time, as the boat was making its way into the lock.
I handed my gear down to the deck hands, put on a life jacket and climbed down the ladder on the inside of the lock onto the barge platform, then we made our way onto the boat.
The News!!
Watching a towboat push its massive load of barges up or down river is a source of endless fascination to all. Watching it angle around a sharp bend or fit perfectly into a lock makes us marvel at the captain’s skill. Learning even a little about the tonnage that they carry, as we talked about in the post called “All Things to All Creatures” on September 23 (click here if you missed that) makes us marvel that’s it’s even possible. But, they are not accessible to us and we know very little about what it’s like out there.
Kraut and Crystals
From the mid-1800s to the 1920s, huge numbers of German immigrants settled in this part of the country and many of their descendants are still here. About 800 of them showed up for the Burlington, Iowa, Lions Club Oktoberfest on Saturday. They were dishing up boatloads of brats and sauerkraut, cabbage rolls, German potato salad and apple strudel.
The “Happy Bavarian” was flirting with the help while showing off his cute knees in his lederhosen and couples were sharing the dance floor with little girls dancing with the total abandon that little girls do best!
