We just went through Lock and Dam 11,  north of Dubuque, and are heading north toward Lansing, IA.  Brian is practically wetting his pants over the GPS – it is already preloaded with a  map of the Mississippi, and has the route plotted, so he doesn’t even have to figure out how to do that.  The installation went smoothly – not one curse word.

It’s a glorious day – no clouds, slight breeze, about 80 degrees.  I’ve got on my bikini to catch some rays, and my cowboy hat to block them.  Schizophrenic me.

The  lock and dam system was built by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in the 1930s, and the Corps does a wonderful job of maintaining and running them.  The locks are like a series of steps of river levels beginning with Lock and Dam 1 in Minneapolis.  We will go through 10 locks between Dubuque and Stillwater.  The dam harness the river, and the locks allow recreational and commercial traffic to travel from one pool to the next.  A pool is the water between two locks and dams.

To enter a lock, we must wait for the lock workers to open the large gate.  We drive slowly into the lock, and a worker gives us lines to hold onto.  The lines keep us from drifting away from the lock wall and into the turbulent waters as the water either rises or falls.  Most people put out their fenders to protect the boat from hitting the wall, but we don’t like to get our fenders dirty, so we just hold the boat away with our gaffing poles.

It takes around 20 minutes to raise or lower the water to the level in the next pool.  Then the gates at the far end are opened, and out we go.  It’s a pretty slick process, UNLESS there is a barge in the lock when we arrive; or, worse yet, if the barge is just entering the lock.  Since it can take 2 hours for a barge to get through, we usually throw down the anchor, have lunch. read, and try to stay cool.  Our air conditioner only works when we have access to shore power.  

Last night we went to Murph’s South Side Tap in Dubuque.  Stoneheart was playing, consisting of rowdy, scraggly-bearded dad on lead guitar and vocals, his pretty daughter playing kick-ass bass and singing, her husband on the keyboards, and a drummer who also sings.  They have some great harmonies, and really rock out.  We saw our buddy Denny Garcia there.  We usually run into him when listening to fine local bands.  He has a radio show called Midwest Music Makers that we listen to while cruising on Saturday afternoons.   He is also a talented guitar player, singer and harmonica player.  

We like boating out of Dubuque because of all the great music action.  We never run out of things to do, day or night.  More later.