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.