We Made It!

At 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, September 4, after 4172 miles, 156 calendar days, 98 cruising days, 112 locks, 1424 gallons of diesel, and with a huge sigh of relief, we reached our 2014 cruising destination and docked at the St. Paul Yacht Club in St. Paul, Minnesota.

First view of downtown St. Paul

Rounding the final curve

It had been a rather long and challenging day--departure before 7 a.m., refueling, a 2-hour wait for lockage at Lock 2 in Hastings, MN, concerns about the weather, and multiple meetings of tows with barges in narrow channels. One very nice aspect of the wait in Hastings was that we were able to spend a little time with my mom and dad.  They had driven down to Hastings to watch us lock through, and came to the Hastings courtesy dock where we had tied up waiting for our turn in the lock.

Lon with Jerry and Bev Clausen, Pat's dad and mom

Pat with dad and mom

They were able to get some photos of us at the lock. This was fun for us, as we don't have much with the two of us "in action" on CARIB II.

Lon and Pat on CARIB II approaching Lock 2

CARIB II in Lock 2,
moving toward the wall

CARIB II leaves Lock 2

The previous days we'd had nice stops in the historic river towns of Winona (Monday, Sept. 1), Wabasha (Tuesday, Sept. 2), and Red Wing (Wednesday, Sept. 3).

Lon by the "Polish Museum" in Winona. The city
apparently has a large Polish population. We were sorry
that the museum wasn't open the day we were there.

Sunrise in Winona as we prepare to leave
for Wabasha

Pat on the observation platform at the
National Eagle Center in Wabasha

Wabasha was decked out for fall

Friendly locals: Lon and his Wabasha
"beer buddies"

We will be in St. Paul until the end of October. CARIB II will be pulled from the water, winterized, and put under shrink wrap for the winter. Since we don't want to spend the winter under shrink wrap, we'll drive back to St. Petersburg to spend the months of November through April in an apartment near downtown. Next spring we'll return to St. Paul and spend the summer on CARIB II at the St. Paul Yacht Club. After being on the move for 5 months we're looking forward to these opportunities to reconnect with friends and family in Minnesota and Florida. Next September we'll head for St. Petersburg on CARIB II and hope to complete the Great Loop by Thanksgiving 2015.

We are now officially on hiatus from the Great Loop, which means that this blog is going on hiatus as well until next September. It's been quite a year! 

Two Big Milestones

On Sunday, August 31, we reached two big milestones in our journey this year: (1) we completed 4000 miles of cruising and (2) at 4006 miles into our trip we crossed the border into Minnesota.

It's seems unreal that we have cruised 4000+
miles this year

This made our Minnesota hearts beat a bit faster--goodbye
Iowa, hello Minnesota!

Our main thought as we have been cruising the past few days is how beautiful the upper Mississippi River valley is. From Dubuque north the bluffs have been absolutely stunning. Maybe we're prejudiced, being natives of the upper Midwest, but we think that the cruising and the scenery has been some of the best of our trip.

At this point in our journey the words are not flowing very easily for the blog, so I will let photos do most of the "talking".

August 29: Dubuque - Guttenberg, IA

Approaching Lock 12 at dawn

Downtown Guttenberg-settled by
 Germans, named after
 Johanes Gutenberg,
 printer of the famous Bible

Lon checks out the views from
Guttenberg's pretty waterfront park

August 30: Guttenberg - Lansing, IA

Boating in early a.m. fog and drizzle

Victorian canoe with Union Jack.
 Two of these canoes
entered Lock 10 after we left

Canoe approaching the lock

Lansing has two "branches" of
Horsfall's, each full of an eclectic mix of
merchandise

Lon amid the Horsfall's clutter

All that shopping made us hungry

August 31: Lansing - La Crosse, WI

Another foggy morning

Red barn under the bluff

It's Sunday, and the pleasure boats are
out in force. This was one of several islands
serving as "party central"

We were glad to escape the wake by
early afternoon and get into our slip
at La Crosse Municipal Harbor Marina.
(we are in the middle of the top row)  

September 1: La Crosse - Winona, MN

Loving the bluffs

The Wisconsin side of the river

The Minnesota side of the river

We left La Crosse this morning in a light rain in order to get ahead of a tow and barges that was headed for Lock 7.  The sun was out for most of our cruise, but we made it into our slip in Winona Marina just ahead of a brief downpour. Good timing all around.

The end of our cruising for this year is clearly in sight. The next days look good for boating and our anticipated itinerary is as follows:

Sept. 2: Winona - Wabasha, MN

Sept. 3: Wabasha - Red Wing, MN

Sept. 4: Red Wing - St. Paul

We can't wait!