Thursday, September 4.  Under way again, moseying down the St. Croix.  Randy and Chris showed up around 5:00 yesterday … we put their beer in the cooler and off we went for a leisurely boat ride.  They came on his motorcycle from their home town of New Prague, MN.  Chris has hair again and looks great – other than frequent checkups, her cancer seems to be a thing of the past.  We had a fun reunion, and were chatting away when all of a sudden I noticed the diamond on Chris’s finger.  Their wedding is planned for next summer, maybe some time in August.  What exciting news!  We told them we would not miss that special occasion for anything.

We all walked to town for dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  More leftovers.  We will never get all the food eaten we have onboard.  After dinner we found a bar to hang around in  for a while, then they called a cab to take them to their hotel.  It was really nice of them to come spend some time with us – they’re good people for sure.

This morning the first paddle wheeler to go out was filled with exotically dressed people from a Mong retirement center.  The second boat to go out carried colorfully dressed ladies of the Red Hat club.  And the next one will be carrying the conservatively dressed Republican delegation from Washington, D.C.  There have been a lot of security people hanging around the docks the last couple of days because of all the delegates.  No sign of protesters or anarchists, though.  Time to shove off for our favorite marina at Pepin, WI.

Today is cool and cloudy, but it looks like the skies may be clearing up ahead.  There are a lot of no-wake zones on the St. Croix, mostly to protect beaches.  Right now we are going past Afton, where last year we had to get off the boat and push her through the water because we got into shallows.  A marker buoy had drifted loose and positioned itself in the shallow water, but of course, how were we to know it wasn’t marking the correct course?  We had sucked sand into the impellor, so a repair was needed, but the guys from the Afton Marina had us up and on our way again within 2 hours. 

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They are in alphabetical order, not chronological.”

Brian’s Eagle Intellimap 502C is working well. Brian had laid down a trail coming north, and now he is following it as we head south.  It tells us that the depth here is 79 feet.  We’re picking up seven satellites.  It’s an amazing world.

The water is calm and there are not many other boats on the St. Croix today – the occasional fishing boat being the exception.  Before Labor Day, this is one of the busiest pleasure boating rivers in the country.  There are lots of good reasons: its proximity to Minneapolis and St. Paul, its natural beauty, clean water, and charming towns to visit.  There are not many free-flowing rivers in this country that offer the size, depth, and clarity of the St. Croix.  We consider ourselves fortunate to be able to boat on the Mississippi every weekend from the middle of April until the last part of October.  But our most special time is this annual trip to Stillwater, with all that it entails.

 Gas here is $4.80 a gallon; we are waiting to get back to Red Wing and Bill’s Bay Marina, where it is $3.99.  The marina is next to a park with a whimsical acrobat statue.