7/26/17 Wednesday - Day 11 Louisville to Rocky Point Marina

Early start.....hahaha they say no schedules for a reason!  Called Cannelton locks about 7:30am hoping to get an early start and make 120 miles today.  Lockmaster said they are doing maintenance and running behind.....about a 6 hour wait, UGH!
After a suggestion on Facebook to go across the the Big 4 bridge and check out Jeffersonville, IN we hopped on our bikes to explore.  The bridge itself has quite a history, but in addition to the lights at night, there was classical music playing through a section of it.  Great views of the river and cities also. 
Jeffersonville has a very nice downtown area, the highlight was Schimpffs candy store.  4 generations of history and we spoke to the owner, Warren Schimpff, as he prepared a hard tack candy making demonstration.  Warren said thier best seller was the cinnamon hard candy so we had to try it. It is amazing! I wanted some of the turtles they were also hand making in the display, but were on bikes and it was pretty hot.  Chocolate would not carry well!
Next we went to the Howard Steamboat Museum.  It is the Howard family mansion, which is amazing in itself, with many of the family's steamboat making history.  Another favorite stop for me!
Back to the boat to call the lock and and see where we stand. So I call the lock, and he says "where are you again?"and I tell him Louisville, he tells me I am a long way from him.....I called the wrong lock!😩 All the waiting was likely unnecessary, after we called McAlpine we were able to lock through almost immediately.  Oh well, the mistake allowed for a great side trip!
There was not much at all in this next  section of river, not even many docks to get Toby off to walk.  With the late start I didn't think we would make the next marina(112 miles) but we did. Unfortunately, the electric didn't work and it was too late and too shallow to try to move.  We had wings at the restaraunt across the street that were really good then turned on some fans and went to bed!

Didn't get a great pic, but if you look closely you can see where there is a they are mining something 

Huge giraffe statue on the bank

Really beautiful lighthouse designed house

Our stats and map for the day

Sunrise in Louisville at their free municipal docks

Momma catching up on blogs in the morning. Toby is having a VERY hard time adjusting as you can see ;-)

A barge passing under the pedestrian bridge between Louisville and Jeffersonville

Fourth generation owner of Schimpff's candy store, Warren Schimpff.  He was actually a chemist and his wife a teacher until duty called to carry on the family business

Warren prepping for a demonstration on making hard candy.  Check out all of the candy molds/dies on the wall

The main candy counter. We sampled the Carmel covered marshmallows.....yummm

The Heard mansion and museum is a beautiful old home

Many rooms displaying history of the Howard steamboats and Ohio River boats in general

Beautiful stained glass in the grand stairway

Gorgeous rooms throughout the home 

Leaving Louisville passing by downtown and the Belle of Louisville

7/25/17 Tuesday - Day 10 Warsaw to Louisville

73 miles
1 lock

Got a fairly early start and headed to the gas dock about 8am.  Topped off the tanks, our stay was comped with gas fill up, yay!  Chatted with the wonderful owner and her son and found some great finds in the marina store, homemade salsa, a hat, and sandals.  The tug was exiting and we had only a short wait to enter the lock by the time we arrived. We had called ahead and he said 40 minutes to an hour wait.  Cruised for a couple hours with much more comfortable temperatures.  Stopped over in Madison, Indiana and did some sight seeing. Madison has a beautiful riverfront park.  We walked through town and saw many incredible historic homes and Lanier Mansion. The museum was free and had some really interesting displays and exhibits. Then walked back down main street and stopped for ice cream, yum!
I "let" Erik go a little harder on the throttle so we would have a little time to sight see when we got to Louisville.  Topped off tanks again(it's 120 miles to next gas stop).  Arrived st Louisville municipal free dock about 5pm.  We made had dinner then went for a bike ride into town.
After seeing some sights(most places/museums were closed) we came back to the boat and watched the colorful light show on the bridge.  We used our boat shower for the first time and it actually worked pretty well!  Then off to bed for a hopefully early start tomorrow.

Erik's morning catch

Another example of many HUGE homes we have seen up on the hills overlooking the Ohio River

Coming into Louisville

A couple pics of how Louisville lights up 'The Big Four' walk bridge at night.....pretty impressive.  It changes constantly; pics don't do it justice

Sunrise at Pier 99 in Warsaw Ky

Many beautiful homes at our first stop of the day, Madison Indiana

Madison also had ice cream.....yup......we could live here ;-)

The Bell Of Louisville heading out for a cruise

Louisville Slugger factory and museum.....now that's a big bat!

No caption needed ...... Look at the sign dummy 😁

Another glorious sunset from our FREE :-) slip at the Louisville Municipal Ampitheater docks.  

7/24/17 Monday - Day 9 Cincinnati OH to Warsaw KY

66 miles no locks. Cincinatti Oh to Warsaw Ky

We departed Four Seasons Marina in Cincinnati after our 2 night stay at about 8am. The river had come down some so there was not as much debris. 
We cruised into downtown Cincinnati and stopped at the free wall adjacent to the 'Purple People Bridge'.  We walked through the park and then across the bridge over to Newport KY.  It was a nice cool morning walk (refreshing change after the heat the past few days).  Newport is a pretty cool area but it was early so not to many folks around.  Got some good pics of the Reds Ballpark from the river.
We then headed downriver and tried to stop in Aurora Indiana, but their docks were not out so there was no place for us to reasonably get off.   So, we motored on to the Lighthouse Yacht Club where we walked a couple docks and let Toby have a potty break.   We had been told by a friend on the Marinette FB page that there were as many as 7-8 Marinette boats docked there......we saw most of them.  From there we continued downstream to Rising Sun Indiana.  A very quant and nice town!  We rode our bikes to the visitors center and around town.  Stopped at the Dollar General and IGA for some food and supplies.   At the city docks we found a boat that would be perfect for our son, Derek (see pic).  Onward and forward we went to approximately Warsaw KY where we pulled into a beautiful off river Bay and to the Pier 99 Marina.   We had been communicating with a fellow Marinette owner on FB who docks his boat there and recommended it.  He called the owner to ask her to give us a deal on the slip.   He and his wife came down to visit and even brought us a couple supplies we needed (small propane tanks and 20amp fuses) :-).....nice folks!  AND....the owners son greeted us at the docks and informed us that if we filled up with gas that he would comp our covered dock spot.....score! 
After shooting the breeze with Doug and his wife (fellow Marinette owners), we went out to the end of the docks to view yet another beautiful sunset.  We showered, cooked burgers and asparagus on the grill for dinner, and now am writing this post while enjoying our choco tacos and coffee .   Another wonderful day on the river.  If all goes well we will be in Louisville tomm. 

Toby preparing to tackle the 'Purple People Bridge' walk from Cincinnati to Newport

Pic from midspan of the bridge looking toward Cincinnati .  If you zoom you'll notice our boat tied up on the wall

Newport Aquarium.....thought about going but decided to wait till we could spend the day there

The Great American Ballpark as we cruised by

One of 6 or 7 Marinettes at the Lighthouse Point Marina (Indiana)

Stopped and spoke to this guy who has converted a sailboat into an all solar powered vessel that he plans to take down to Kentucky Lake in the Fall and continue on with the loop if all goes well.  Those are all solar panels on the roof.  Its motors are 3 trolling motors on the back. They are powered by a 24v lithium ion battery out of a Tesla!

Rising Sun Indiana was a nice quaint town and a good stop for a bike ride and supplies

We found you a boat Derek! Lmao

Interesting fountain in Rising Sun.  The paddle wheeler you can see in the background was at a casino......one of 3 or 4 that we saw today in Indiana

There have been MANY huge and beautiful homes all along the way on the Ohio.  I've noticed very few of them have boat docks....Ive determined they can afford the houses because they don't have boats!

Another beautiful sunset today 

7/23/17 Sunday - Day 8

1-2 miles???
0 locks

Second day at Four Season Marina started with laundry, fun fun! Erik made some omelets with the left over filet.. YUM! We cleaned the boat and looked at the plans for the next few days.  We took the boat out for a test drive to make sure everything was okay after the nightmare in the lock.  Boat ran fine but the debris in the river kept the test drive short.  We pumped out and filled up the tanks before tying back up in our temporary home slip. 
Decided to try to make a bike trip to Kroger,  but found pretty quickly the roads were not safe for biking to get to the store, but there was a pretty nice bike trail.  During our ride we stumbled on a pet boarding place where we got Toby a new collar(his got dropped in the river) and found a farmer's market. Well one truck packing up to leave.  Got some corn on the cob. Came back and took a swim in the pool while the corn soaked in water.  Erik cooked the corn in the husk on the grill with some chicken.  It was amazing!!!!  Showers and a little news before bed to rest up for getting back on the river tomorrow.

Panoramic of Four Seasons Marina

They have a big area of 7 sand volleyball courts. They were all full Sunday afternoon

Entrance to the Four Seasons at night

Huge marina with slip after slip of nice, large boats worth 10 times what our home is worth 

Yup....we know all about it 🚤🛳️⛴️😋

7/21/17 Friday - Day 6

35 miles
1 lock

The day started off rainy at Ripley Boat Club.  We just laid around for a while waiting for the rain to stop because we had a short 40 miles to Cincinatti....or at least we thought it would be short.  Erik dozed off for a while and I loomed at maps, plotting and planning.  It was close to noon when Erik awoke, we gassed up, and headed out. 
Stopped at the town of Augusta, Kentucky .  Found 3 sternwheelers and a trawler at the wall as they were setting up for a festival at the riverfront park.  Hung out chatting with(even got a tour of one) with the sternwheel owners. And walked several blocks around town.  One person mentioned delays at the next lock so after trying to call the lock and it ringing busyfor a while, we decided we better head that way.  In hindsight we should have stayed there,free electric, festival, and entertainment.  When we got close to Meldahl lock I was able to hail the lockmaster.  He said both chambers were closed, maybe 6pm at the soonest(this was around 3pm). We decided to check out Chilo Old lock house and river museum.  Really interesting place with lots of history about the first lock systems built.  Unfortunately they closed at 4 so we only got to see a little bit of what they had, and had left phones on boat so no pics of stuff inside.  We headed out and floated within sight of the lock waiting to see movement. 
We swam, cooked brats on the grill, and floated till almost 8pm. It looked like storms were moving in and I didn't want to get stuck in a nasty storm, so we tried the lock again and he said it was going to be about 4 hours! UGH!!!!
We headed back up river about a mile to "Fat Boys" floating restaurant to wait out the storm. We had yummy pineapple upside down cake and hot fudge cake while it stormed for about 2 hours.  Met some fun(and drunk) new friends we hung out with till it stopped raining and lightning. Motored closer and hung at Chilo lock house till we got the ok to come in close and wait for the barges to clear and let us lock through. 
Finally around 1am we pulled into the lock.  After we got lowered and they opened the gates to let us out, the starboard engine wouldn't start....OMG!!! We can move with one engine, it just doesn't steer as well.  There was a ton of debris(likely from the storm earlier) and in exiting we got a log hung up on the rudder or prop, did I mention it was 2am and dark?????  We spent the next hour searching in the dark, dodging tree trunks, for a dock to tie off to till morning.  About 3am we found Steamboat Marina at New Richmond, tied off and laid down to get some sleep.
It's a miracle we are still married after that experience.  I refuse to lock through at night again!😥

Ripley Boat Club

Ripley, Ohio

Chilo River Museum

The wait for Meldahl Lock

Longest day with the fewest miles!

Some early morning fishing

As we pulled up to the Augusta KY wall.  There were three paddle wheelers and a trawler there for a festival

One of many beautiful historic homes along the bank of Augusta

Augusta welcome center caboose 

Nice, well kept old town streets

In a shop in Augusta......took pic because we liked the idea of the frame made of an old door

We've never seen a barge make a U turn in the middle of the river.  This operator did!  This was at the Mendahl Lock that we waited on for HOURS.....maybe he was telling us something and we should have followed suit

7/22/17 Saturday - Day 7 New Richmond Ohio to Cincinnati Ohio

Steamboat Marina, New Richmond Oh to Four Seasons Marina, Cincinnati OH - 15 miles and no locks

After our escapades last night (see yesterday's post), this morning we awoke after a short 4 hrs of sleep and prepared to motor on to Cincinnati.  We were down one engine, were questioning whether we had damaged the prop on the operable engine, and were dodging tons of logs and debris from the flooding storms last night. So, We putzed along slowly while making some calls to see if we could locate a marina or place that would potentially have service for the non starting motor.  We made a post out to the Marinette Facebook page asking for suggestions of mechanics.   We decided to go ahead with our plan to go to Four Seasons Marina since it was nearby parts we'd potentially need.  Additionally, we were stressed a bit and thought the amenities sounded awfully nice! :-)
We checked into the Marina and the First Mate made the executive decision to go ahead and pay for two nights. 
We contacted our son, Devin, to let him know we had made it to Cincinatti.  We were supposed to have gone to dinner with him and YY, his girlfriend, last night but that didn't happen (again....see yesterday's post).  We also contacted Chris at Tucker's Marine service and made arrangements for him to come to the marina first thing Monday in case we couldn't get the motor to start before then.  Erik dug into the motor; being the highly skilled mechanic that he is....NOT! We were pretty certain that the issue was with the recently replaced coil resistor and/or the starter solenoid.   So, we removed both and Devin came down to drive us around town to buy parts.  We got the needed parts (at least we were crossing fingers and praying so) and headed back to the marina where we took a break and went up to the pool with Devin to swim for a bit.  We then headed toward UC campus and picked up YY and went out to dinner at a really nice Italian place (Biagios Bistro) where we enjoyed filet, sea bass, and delicious ravioli....yum! Happy Anniversary to us! Oh yes, did we forget to mention that today is our wedding anniversary date?  We know this because Renee's Mom (Roberta) told us so and Momma is always right :-)
Devin drove us back to the Marina we started re assembling the engine parts.  By about 10pm we were ready to give the ignition a turn.......vroooooommmm!  She fired right up and purred like a kitten.  While the furniture was out of the way and engine hatches we're all opened, we went ahead and put several new belts on.  We were happy boaters and ready to retire after a long but very good day.  

Took a pic of the solenoid to make sure we knew what wires went where when putting the new one on

An experienced mechanic like Erik ;-) cannot have too many visual aids!

Nice restaraunt picking for dinner Devin!  Look at these delicious filets, sea bass, and ravioli with a heavenly sauce!