Downtown Mural in Alton
We walked all around Alton and visited the National Great Rivers Museum. The museum explained a lot. For instance, the 27 locks and dams on the Mississippi don't help at all in flood control. Their job is to maintain navigable depths during low water periods. There's good news here. Since the dams are in use now, heading north we will see diminished currents. Yahoo!
A Towboat at Work
In the past I've not used the correct name for river tug boats. They are called towboats. Why? When barges are lashed together they're called a tow. Thus the boat that moves the tows is called a towboat. QED.
There are Still Some Wild Flowers About
The most common tow on the Mississippi is made up of Hopper barges. Hoppers are 195' long, 35' wide and can carry 3,000,000 pounds--that's enough wheat to make 2,000,000 loaves of bread. The average tow contains 15 Hoppers. Let's see, that's 45,000,000 lbs! Nope, I don't want to get in the way of that.
Gary Lucy's 'Eating Up the Lights'--A Paddlewheeler Following the Lighted Trail to Safety
A little diesel leak just appeared on one of the injector line banjo bolts. I tightened the bolt and my fingers are crossed that that will take care of the problem. I'm happy to report that the troublesome gasket between the turbo and exhaust header hasn't leaked a drop of coolant.
In Alton, Illinois. No miles today so we're holding at 3,578. DBH
