After coffee with some of my new best friends who traveled with us to Hoppies we said good bye to this famous rustic stop and we were the second of eight boats to leave.
There is a current and I had boats tight on my stern and bow so leaving the dock I had lots of experienced help. I explained how I wanted them to use a spring line and I’d bow out, etc. But at the helm I said “screw it” and I cheated and used the bow and stern thruster and slid sideways right out of there.
Now today’s trip is 80 miles and the destination is a spot to anchor we hope will work. The water level is so low the wing dams are towering over us – like someone is letting the water out of the bath tub. The normal destinations are limited or unusable and we have lots of loopers so anchorage spots are almost like secrets now.
The river today, this particular section, to me, sucked. Rock levies everywhere, big tows, eddies in the water, fast current, deadheads and shoaling everywhere out of the channel, lots of barge loading. From a middle America commerce standpoint it was cool to see, but as a boater not so much.
We had a great cruising day and our anchor spot required more guts from me than I’ve ever needed – driving Flying Colors out of the “safe” channel and then upstream in a 3 knot current while nosing into pools between big towering rock levies – if I lost power I’d be on rocks in 30 seconds.
Reimanns 'round the loop in 2022 
It sounds like you are developing boating and anchoring nerves of steel. Great pictures and fun to read your posts.
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