Author: Julie Zollmann

A post by Mark

One of the most surprising aspects of this trip so far is how much I’ve appreciated seeing ‘old technology’ and realizing how it really makes America ‘go’. Barges, towboats, freight trains, grain elevators, coal depots, dams and locks, oil and gas pipelines, etc. It is amazing how big and powerful all of these things are…  

Passing a tow pushing a 15 barge block (3 wide by 5 long) has not gotten old – and I don’t suspect it will. It is pretty amazing to watch a barge getting filled with grain from an old, rusty-looking (but in perfect working order) elevator.

 Its also pretty cool watching cranes lifting cargo out of railcars and into barges. The raw power of river towboats is awe-inspiring – and its fun to talk to the tow captains on the VHF radio (I even have most of the lingo down). Dropping 40’ in a gravity fed lock is nearly unbelievable. 

 The most impressive thing (for me) is realizing that the technology that designed all of this stuff is ‘old.’  These things were created by teams of  smart people using slide-rules, drafting tables, and statistical tables – not high-powered computers and other modern tools.  

Almost makes me wish I were a better engineer. 

A post by Mark 

One of the questions I was often asked when describing our trip was “Aren’t you worried you would get bored?”. I’d always say ‘no’ – but didn’t always know why. Well, one week in, I can enthusiastically say that the trip has been anything but boring. 
By car, it takes about 5 ½ hrs to get from Racine to St. Louis. As I write this, we’re a little more than ½ to St. Louis – so, about ‘3 driving hrs’ into our trip (7 boat days so far). In those 3-hours of driving, we’ve encountered 6 to 8 foot seas on Lake Michigan, played Frogger with barges on the Chicago Sanitary Canal, waited out a good ‘ole Midwestern tornado warning and string of pretty good thunderstorms, dealt with the river flooding, ran through strong currents and standing waves on the river, and were kept awake most of one night by debris floating downstream and banging into our boat. While each of these experiences has been exciting- we were never scared or in danger , as we had through out each situation, we took our time, figured out plans A, B, C, etc, and were ‘in control’ each time. 

There was, however, one glaring exception two nights ago (spoiler alert – turned out to be completely harmless – but, at the time, it scared the bejesus out of me).   

Here’s the situation – We were tied up at the public dock in Ottawa – a nice, small town in IL. It’s a neat place with a small downtown, a few restaurants, and some cute shops. The founder of the Boy Scouts lived here – and there is a neat little museum dedicated to scouting (both Boy Scouts and all similar organiztions). Lastly, it was the site of the first Lincoln / Douglas debates. All in all, a pretty neat place.

Friday night, as the day was winding down, we finished dinner and were settling in for the evening. We were listening to the marching band at the football game across the river from our dock. Around halftime, as we discussing what we wanted to have for desert, we heard incredibly loud banging, followed by frantic splashing in front of our boat. About 5 seconds later, there was more loud banging and splashing under the center portion of our catamaran, and a few seconds later, a huge splash behind our boat and finally, something banging into the bottom of our dinghy that is suspended about 3 or 4 ft above the water. Julie and I leapt up from the table and bounded outside – not knowing what we were going to find – but figuring it wasn’t going to be good. Had someone fallen into the water and was struggling to get out? A person, a dog? (Sounded more like the size of a cow).  Did the boat in front of us break loose and crash into us? Something worse? We had no idea what it could be. We get to the deck and see nothing. We hop onto the dock to keep looking and still see nothing. On the dock, we run into our neighbors (a couple of “Loopers”* from Cape Cod). They too were thinking something bad happened – but then chuckled as they quickly figured out what happened. Turns out, we had just witnessed a school of Asian carp flopping around – first in front of our boat and then underneath and behind it. Apparently, every once in a while, schools of these huge, (10 to 30 lb) carp start jumping – excited by a certain frequency in the water, usually from a passing boat motor. I had heard of Asian carp – but didn’t know much about them. Still don’t know too much – other than that they can be the scariest part creatures on Earth when they plan a ‘sneak attack’.

So… a week in, our trip is anything but boring. Or warm… today, I was wearing long underwear, 2 shirts, a fleece sweatshirt and full rain gear (it wasn’t raining – but it was in the low 50s and the wind was blowing ~20 mph right at us).

I’m having a great adventure, but there is a little part of me that can’t wait to be a bit too hot and a little bored 😊. Those days will be here soon enough (although, I still don’ think I’ll be bored – there will always be challenges on this trip).

Until I get Wifi again…

Mark

 
Until next post…
 
Mark
 
*Loopers are folks doing the ‘Great Loop’ – a 2,600 mile journey on a loop that passes through the Great Lakes, down the inland rivers to Mobile AL, around the tip of FL, and back up to the Great Lakes via the Erie Canal (or a few other inland paths back to the Great Lakes). We’re traveling ~ ½ the Loop