Treacherous is Todd's word of the week.

Todd has been saying the word "treacherous" a lot lately. Its due to that mighty murkey Mississippi. In the Great Lakes, when you come across an out of place flat calm bit of water with other waters lapping over top of it, it typically means that there is a sand bar, or rock there and you steer clear. Not so here.  It happens all the time and you can't see through the water and you're sure you are going to hit something but no... It's just current/tide/whatever. My gut still wrenches when I come up top and see that. Thank goodness we have such a talented and capable Captain (who is also handsome and witty). He also figured out what the lines across the river in our navigation system mean. They mean that the water is going to all of a sudden be about 80 feet deep and the boat will go sideways in the swirling whirpool of death that this creates. We avoid those at all cost now.

Do you want to know why St. Louis doesn't have a Marina?  Because it would be sheer chaos with many deaths and accidents (not necessarily in that order). Oh my goodness the current, and so many barges and I can't tell you how many bridges I lost count and don't feel like googling it in this low data no internet life we are currently living. We literally looked at each other and simultaneously said "that's why there's no marina here - this is crazy."  Correction: "treacherous."

Have I already told you how the barge captains all sound like Elvis?  "Than' yew, than' yew vury mush".  Todd hailed the huge one up ahead of us - "Captain, just checking, what side did you want me to pass you on?". Captain/Elvis " any side fine by me young man" 😝 Todd: "thanks Captain" Captain, "young man, you better make your choice clear now, which side is it?" Todd (after double checking with me that our Port (his starboard) would be "the ones") Captain "well fine then young man, see you on the ones".   They are not all that nice by any stretch of the imagination. 

meanwhile, down below....

It can be hard some days to homeschool.  If we start going fast, everything slides off the table, the kids lean into the angle and then "wham!" An sbrupt stop which typically means either a tree was floating towards the boat or a barge was coming our  way and we had to go "no wake". So... Some days we opt to just snuggle and read or watch Hooked on Phonics or ABCmouse on the iPads. It's all about balance and keeping the Littles happy.

We finally cleared through much of the Mississippi and found ourselves at "Hoppi's Marina".  We are learning a couple of things in this part of the world.  1.  It's "any port in a storm" when it comes to a marina as long as there is a safe anchorage, and 2.  The river is....treacherous.  There are frequent floods of six feet or more that turn lives, marinas,  fuel docks and more upside down.  Any houses built along this river are built on stilts that are over 1 story high.  Marinas have gangways that attach to the floating docks - sometimes the hike up these gangways is quite daunting!! Especially in the frosty mornings that we have been experiencing...

Hoppi's is most decidedly in the "any port in a storm" category.  Let's back up, however.  Hoppi's serves a much needed void in this stretch of the trip - they are one of the last places you can anchor up, fuel up, and get some advice on navigating the rest of the river (whether you ask for it, or not!  The minute we were tied off and powered up, we were told to meet at the office so they could give their advice to the whole group. )  Hoppi's had been hit by the last storm and flood pretty bad - they no longer had a fuel dock, and they had over six feet of sand that they didn't have before.  I was informed of their disdain for this extra sand when I asked if they minded if the kids climbed on their dunes as I was worried about erosion.  HA!  They were grateful for the erosion we caused (and two pent up kids and dogs and cause their fair share of erosion.)

you can blame the storm/floods all you want. I don't think it was ever much prettier than this 😝

look at that cool drink of water making his way across the treacherous "dock"...

here's how we got ashore to help erode the shoreline.   I washed the children's clothes a couple of days later and that mud/sand is tenacious...a fine fine silt that grabs on and won't let go. Of course, sliding down the hills on your butts doesn't help. I know you're wondering, so... Yes. Both kids and dogs ended up swimming in that little "cove" protected from the current by the rusty barges. 

As you sit and do the math - the storms were in April - your wonder why they haven't rebuilt more than this. Their hearts seem good and they provide a much needed refuge, but they don't have much other than the small income us Loopers bring their way. We hope they survive the massive lock closures of 2020 as no one will be completed able to Loop that year.