8-19 and 20, 2010 - McGregor, IA to Dubuque, IA

Thursday: I drove for 2 to 3 hours this afternoon to give Keith a break. We were southbound and met 2 northbound Tows and when we called on the radio they said "just come right down the middle; that was something new for us.

Barge going through Lock 8

This is a picture of some of the weeds and junk in the river and this is pretty good compared to most of the river. When it's really bad I don't have time to take pictures!
We are staying at Dubuque Yacht Basin Marina in Dubuque, IA; we rated it a 9. Very nice but their channel is not marked good at all and unless you are from here, you have to call to get instructions on how to get in otherwise you could easily end up on a sandbar. When we were eating at "Catfish Charlies" tonight we saw a boat do just that. By the way, we rated "Catfish Charlies" a 10+.
Friday: We are staying an extra day because of thunder storms, we needed to unwind, and Keith wanted a mechanic look at the boat because we had even more weeds last night than previous days. He took the hoses all apart, opened the seacocks, and made sure we were getting enough water flow to run the engines and we are. We budgeted for boat problems and repairs but I did not think it would happen the first week; but it's not the boat, it is the river conditions.
CO's comment: Hourly rate for mechanic is $85.00. Very friendly and they do a good job.