June 17, 2005
Dubuque, Iowa
Mile 770
This week has been one amazing day after another. We had mixed emotions when we crossed the Minnesota border into Iowa. We have many great memories of the early stretch of river and are sad to see it go, but excited about what lies ahead. We’re out of Minnesota and are into the middle stage of the trip.
We pulled into Dubuque yesterday and tied up the canoe at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. Their volunteer and development coordinator, Trish McDonald, has been kind enough to put us up for the night. Trish has hosted a few other river rats in the past, one of which stayed for a week. After spending just a day with here, it’s easy to see why that paddler found it hard to leave. Trish has been a gracious host.
Right now I’m at her Victorian house overlooking the river. We’ve given interviews to the local press, toured the museum, showered, did laundry, went to a wine tasting, and relaxed in a jacuzzi before going to bed. If every day is like this in Dubuque, I’m staying.
Barges are like huge dinosaurs but are fine if you just give them some space and respect. They’re nothing to contend with compared to the things we’ve seen from the weekend crowds. I know a barge isn’t going to do a donut fifty yards in front of us, pull water skiers through the shipping channel, or pull three kids behind a jet ski while weaving in between boats. Watching that kind of stuff puts me on edge. I had never been around barges before this trip. These things are immense! I picked up a pamphlet from one of the locks with some eye-popping numbers. A fifteen-barge tow like those typically found above St. Louis can carry 22,500 tons of material. The capacity of a tow that size is 787,500 bushels of wheat or about 6,804,000 gallons of fuel. It would take the equivalent of 225 train cars or 870 large semi trucks to equal those numbers. 870 semis bumper to bumper would stretch for about 11.5 miles. I still can’t get over how big those things are, and they’re only going to get bigger.
Steamboats were common on the river back in the mid to late 1800’s. One of the highlights at that time was to go on the “Fashionable Tour.” People would travel by train for forty-eight hours to get from New York to St. Louis. They would then board a steamboat and be in Minneapolis within a week. Four dollars got you a deck pass, but you had to bring your own food, sleep on the deck without bedding, and get off the boat twice a day to bring in cordwood for the boilers. Eight dollars got you the posh dining room, sleeping quarters, and probably a hot toddy to end the day with. The river towns were busy centers of commerce, travel, whisky, and floozies. We are in the two-dollar range for this trip meaning we even have to paddle the boat. Can’t beat the views though.
Dubuque has been exceedingly good us but we have to get back on the river before the weekend madness starts up again. We try to stay as far away from major towns and marinas as we can get on Saturday and Sunday. Things start to get a little hairy when the boaters come out with one hand on the throttle and the other holding a beer.
I can’t get over the changes in the river over these 770 miles. We started off paddling in a creek and are now we have this huge river with barges and locks. Soon we’ll be in St. Louis, past the locks, and into a free-flowing river for over 1,100 miles. We had both high points and low but this trip has surpassed every expectation thus far. I can’t wait to see what the weeks ahead will bring.
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