Our 650 mile “exit ramp” from The Loop to Afton, MN

by Ron

Heading north on the Mississippi while dozens of our looper friends head south was a unique experience. It was like turning off a busy freeway onto a mostly scenic back road. A relief, but also a feeling of leaving “the party.”

Of course I (Ron) felt like Nancy and I could party as we had actually completed the “official” loop with no major mishaps and many amazing memories.

So when Captain Matt Larson said we had to try Martini’s Grill when we stayed in Burlington, IA it was an easy choice.

The tension I still felt was I had 650 miles to go, so as much as I just wanted to relax, the disciplined approach to navigating was still required to head against the current and through another 22 locks. I got this far without running aground or running into something, let’s not do it on the home stretch!

Several martinis and a great river view made for a special evening. We called it our early 37th wedding anniversary dinner.
We had lots to celebrate so we did!
Excellent waterfront view from Martini’s restaurant. From our table, if you zoom into this photo, you can see Flying Colors out there on a riverside dock just downriver from the bridge.
Another spot we have come to like is Burlington, IA
This is the Keokuk Yacht Club. I got a $2 7-7 and you dock right in front of the clubhouse, usually stocked with lots of friendly locals.
A dose of reality was watching Hurricane Ian move into SW Florida and decimate several places that we had been with our boat just last fall. Imagine if we were heading south this fall instead of last fall. We stayed at the Ft. Meyers Municipal Marina, the Pink Shell Resort on Ft. Meyers Beach, and for a week at South Seas Resort on Captiva when the whole family flew down for mom’s 90th birthday. All are partially or mostly destroyed and won’t be operational again for months.
Got to appreciate the little things!

Meanwhile, back in Minnesota, I (Ron) am the St. Croix Yacht Club Fleet Captain, in charge of hosting a dinner for the distinguished Past Commodores. Lucky for me I have friends like Dan Blodgett (on the left) who facilitated this group at the Pool and Yacht Club, without me. They sent photos and called me from dinner while we were on the Mississippi.
These are the locks we are most familiar with…tall walls, the lockmasters fetch you a line or two, and they are large locks compared to many we saw in Canada. That also means you compete with commercial traffic, and they get priority, which is a 2-hour wait if you just miss one. So we watched AIS and more than once we outran a tow to beat them to a lock so we got through ahead of them.
The general rule of thumb is don’t let your fuel get below 1/3 for a safety margin. Our planned fuel stop turned out to be too shallow to get to the dock (“we can get a couple of guys to help push you out of there,” they said!), so we had to run another full day to Dubuque, Iowa to fill up at the Ice Harbor Marina, where there was plenty of depth. It also turned out they were shutting down for the season the day after we got there! So as usual Nancy’s planning was spot on. This was our largest one-time fill on the entire trip, the $1800 fuel bill reminded me of that.
Last morning in Dubuque
Just when you think the surprises are behind you, you get another one. This “pretty” fog lowered and we were in 500-foot visibility, with a tow in front of us, one coming towards us, and one behind us that we were trying to beat to the lock to avoid a 2-hour delay.
Marine radar is not something I needed much, but I was sure happy to have it in fog situations. This was my view from the bridge. Coming towards me was a 9 barge tow. We radioed each other and we both had AIS. The two long orange stripes are shoreline, we are right in the center of that smallest circle heading “up”. That verticle orange skinny rectangle is the tow, only the radar can see it, heading “down”!
I’m also watching my charts so I stay in the channel and don’t get too close to the shore I can’t even see. Finally, the tow becomes visible and we pass safely. He called to say the fog lifts in a mile or two, but it didn’t.
Once again, our “adult supervision” friends took their boat south and met us in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Curt and Marjorie Southward on their boat Penalty Shot then traveled with us all the way home over the coming days.
In LaCross we relaxed a little more, now we were really getting close to home, we had friends with us, and the weather looked good too.
The locks were well kept and the fall colors were showing.
Yes before I went into Afton Marina, I nosed up on Catfish Beach. As far as I know, this is the first time the boat has touched the bottom since we left September 15, 2021.
Of all the wonderful boating scenes we saw around the country, our home waters on the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway are still something special, too. Clean mostly deep water, sandy beaches, bluffs, no commercial traffic, and beaches big boats can drive right onto and spend the weekend, even with shore power, like on Catfish Beach in this picture. Several quality marinas, anchorages, and only 35 minutes from Minneapolis-St. Paul by car.
Finally, a chance to land in a familiar slip…but no, due to having rented mine, I had to use Jim Goren’s slip, which he graciously offered since he was already pulled out. But we had a family welcoming committee and then about 30 friends and family showed up to help celebrate and polish off 12 bottles of champagne and some apps.
A fun project while I was gone for a year is the marina is building the framework to cover our slip or dock where we keep the boat. In this marina, you own your dock. The marina staff did a great job getting the heavy lifting parts all done while we were away. Next year for the first time Flying Colors will have a “roof” over her head.
Well this is really it. This is really “The End.” 10 days after arriving home, the power is off, the engines are winterized, and the boat is wrapped for six months.
This is our actual recorded route from “Nebo” summarized on one map. The green is our normal speed, red spots are stops, the white is where we went fast on plane. The trip miles is lower due to lag for the GPS starting up.

When the AGLCA (America’s Great Loop Cruiser’s Association) announces your completion on their social media outlets, we get to write a short comment, ours was:

“Navigating your own boat through all the varied rivers, the gulf and coastal waters, canals, rocky northern regions and the Great Lakes is a remarkable experience. Exploring each destination reveals history and something new about America or Canada. When you do it all in a glorious one year adventure with a spouse, it draws you closer and creates memories to last the rest of your life, both for you and all the friends and family that find ways to join the adventure with you.”

Some stats:

6,976 miles

55 weeks away from home

7 nights off the boat, slept on the boat the rest

334 nights at marinas

12 nights on anchor

17 nights on lock and free walls

180 new looper  friends met

116 friend & family visits

144 locks

0 groundings

0 engine repairs

0 dock mishaps

4 Vacu flush repairs

5,800 gallons of diesel

1.2  miles per gallon

8.7 mph average speed

300+ turkey/ham/tuna & corned beef sandwiches at the helm

Post Mortum: We spent two more nights on the boat in Afton before we drove back to our house that we hadn’t seen for over 10 months. Our daughter Lisa did a great job keeping the place in good shape, even with two female “room mates” that she had. So it was easy to walk in to our home and not feel too overwhelmed.

I look on Nebo and see our friends still moving south. I miss it but also feel accomplished for having completed this adventure with Nancy successfully. We can say that now without jinxing it. Of all the things that could derail a trip like that, none of them did. It was amazing. The boat was amazing. Nancy’s planning was amazing and my navigation was, well, good enough too.

Nancy must have attached and detached our fenders (the bumpers) 500 times, and not once did one slip in the water. I landed the boat for the first time at 150 docks or walls that I’ve never seen before and we had no mishaps. The boat propellers traveled over 6,975 miles and never touched bottom (at least not that I know of!). The Cummins diesel engines ran flawlessly the entire trip. Our health held up, and we had no major slips or falls. We thank the Lord for having his hand on us for this trip and we hope it blesses others too in some ways.

Gold Looper Flag and the St. Croix Yacht Club burgee

5 thoughts on “Our 650 mile “exit ramp” from The Loop to Afton, MN”

  2. Congratulations on completing your trip of a lifetime! I am certain you made many friends and memories! Thank you for sharing your trip! I loved reliving our Great Loop!

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