We spent the night just above the big dam at the Kiekuk Yacht Club. If there is such a thing as a red neck yacht club this would be it. Dan made dinner and the crew tipped more than a few back, not to mention a couple cigars.

Yes, we did make it through Lock and Dam 19 at Kiekuk. This is reported to be the largest of its kind on the Mississippi River. It's menacing as you approach given the the local stories of 10 people a year being sucked into the pump house to their deaths. In fact, the only boats that can survive next to this structure are the large barge tugs that make the mistake of getting too close. Even then it will take up to 6 other tugs to pull it away. We were hugging the opposite shoreline to enter the lock. We appeared to drop about 25 feet from our view of before and after looking at the entrance gates. The exit or down stream lock gate gives some perspective as to how large this thing is. You can see the water line clearly marked on the walls. The other side of the dam was extremely turbulent and full of nasty trees and other assorted ground up tree parts. It nice to get out and away from the heavy currents below the dam.

After leaving the lock and eating lunch in Kiekuk we headed south to make our way to Quincy Missouri for the night. Our new technology upgrades, laptop and navigation sofware have worked great for the small chutes and passages along the Mississippi main channels. Floating down the chutes is possible this year given the high water. Peaceful quiet of the passages are beautiful.

As we approached the next lock at Clinton Missouri we coordinated with the lock operator and found that we had to wait for a barge getting through before we could lock through. As such the crewmates decided to enjoy a late lunch and later, Nate and Dave enjoyed a little Mississippi mud. Yup, they're living up to the name. I think a couple coed friends might have made this a little more interesting.

We had to pass through Lock 20. This lock and dam was more to the usual size and depth from our first trip. We could easily see that the roller dams are still up all the way up as the waters are still running high. Just through Lock 20 is Clinton Missouri. We made it into Quincy Illinois around 8:00 PM but not without a little excitement and a close scrape with very, very, very low bridge. We thought we would enter town through a beautiful chute but found that we had to take everything of the cabin roof to squeeze under the bridge in the foreground of this picture. Dan and Dave pushed up on the bridge bottom (forcing the rafting go deeper into the water) as we passed under the bridge to ensure that the cabin and solar panels didn't scrape. The Bear Naked docked at the Quincy Boat Club for that evening. The club house is still under repairs from the flooding.

Today it's off to Hannibal Missouri home town of the writer who inspired this adventure, Mark Twain. Until the next opportunity to update the site. CHEERS!