September 25, 1999 Green Turtle Bay, Grand Rivers, Kentucky - On Barkley Lake We haven't traveled all that far since we last wrote but we just don't know when we will have access to the internet again. We left Alton Marina went through the Chain of Rocks Canal and passed through the center of activity in St. Louis. There were tows everywhere and a bustle of commercial traffic. We saw several riverboat casinos and a riverboat McDonalds! About 20 miles south of St. Louis we stopped at Hoppie's fuel stop in Kimmswick, MO. It wasn't much more than a bunch of old barges tied together but they had fuel and there was a great restaurant in town. The following morning headed on down the Mississippi with a 4 knot current. We are travelling with two other boats, "Shenandoah" and "A Time For Us". Both are from Florida and the folks onboard are just great. That night the three of us tied to the lock wall on the Kaskaskia River lock and dam just off the Mississippi. We couldn't leave the wall to walk around but we all got together and swapped stories. The following day we were swept on down stream and made exceptional time with the current of old man river. We averages well over 10 miles per hour (out here they don't use knots) and made it to the Little River Diversion Channel where the three of us rafted together. not more that a hundred feet off the Mississippi. We also could tell what they must have been diverting, just by the smell...ugh! Another 48 miles down the river brought us to Angelo's Towhead where we anchored in very shallow and log infested water. This is right at the junction of the Ohio River and the Mississippi River and the commercial traffic was exceptional, Commercial traffic on these rivers consist of Tow Boats (which push everything) that exemplify the character of the river. They are all engine, all power, very stout ships that can push as many as 42 barges filled with coal or sand or grain or cement or whatever. When we entered the Ohio we discovered that this area, (Cairo, Illinois) is the staging area for a lot of tows and the river was jammed with traffic. We mad our way through and headed for our first of two locks for the day..we locked right through with almost no delay and headed for the next lock 22 mils away. As we arrived at the next lock there were three other pleasure craft waiting to lock through. After a 15 minute wait we entered the lock and discovered that some of the other boats had been waiting up to four hours to get into the lock. I guess it was our lucky day. We spent that night at Paducah Kentucky and really fell in love with the town. We had happy hour with our new friends in a local pub and spent the night at the free town dock - all in a fine evening. In the morning we visited the local bakery and got some great breads. That day we motored another twelve miles to the Cumberland River and up stream to the Barkley Dam and Lock. The river was spectacular with steep bluffs and some rugged carved stone cliffs. The narrow channel provided some interesting moments when we met oncoming commercial traffic at blind bends in the river...every one. And when we got to the lock we anchored and rafter with our friends to wait three and a half hours to get into the lock which was our largest to date... a 57 foot vertical lift into Barkley Lake. Another mile into the lake brought us to Green Turtle Bay where we are sending this from. We arrived just after sunset on Thursday and are leaving in a little while (Saturday AM) to find an anchorage for the evening. We spent the day yesterday doing chores, provisioning engine maintenance, washing the boat and most importantly we drove the courtesy van back to Paducah to buy some beer and wine as this is the first of may dry counties that we will be traveling through in the next few weeks. Last night we ate at Patti's Restaurant and had the finest pork chops ever cooked..we all agreed that they were the best and highly recommend them to anyone in the area of Grand Rivers, KY. Well we are on our way south once again and know that it may be a while before we get to connect with you all so be happy and have a good Fall. Bridges Passed Under/Through 431. Locks 56 Miles Traveled 2692 Average speed 7 mph 11 States 2 Countries 117 Days -- Ed & Carol Huff Aboard M/V Vera Segunda, Yacht in transit 1976 Grand Banks 32