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THE ADVENTURES OF THE BLUE BIRD

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Photos of trip (Page 1)
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KeyTrax Home Page -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1997, Marty Fancher / KeyTrax Productions Inc. banner generator by All-Yours Internet Solutions WE HAD A GREAT TRIP DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER THAT TOOK US 8 MONTHS TO COMPLETE. Here is a little bit about us. I am Bill 44 year old male and there is Robin my 43 year old wife we have been married for 26 years. No kids. We have travled all over the U.S. and Asia. I am from Bucyrus Ohio and Robin is from Carey Ohio. We ended up here in New Orleans after our last adventure which was a trip down the Mississippi River. I guess you can blame this one on Mark Twain . I can't think of any boy that has read Hukelberry Finn. That haven't day dreamed of drifting down the river taking one day at a time, just seeing what the river brings into your life each day. Our trip began like most a long cold winter weekend in Ohio. Siting around with friends talking of what we would rather be doing then freazing our buns off. I owned a 29 foot sail boat {THE BLUE BIRD} and we talked of sailing her to South America and going up the Amazon River. Sounds good at least it would be warm right? Well we figured that the first part would be to get the boat from Lake Erie to the Mississippi River and head south. Well that turned out to be harder the we thought. We didn't want to sail her across the Great Lakes to Chicago. Because of all the locks you would have to go through to get down river. So we decided to truck the boat over to the river. So I built a trailer for the boat out of some old housetrailer axles. The weight of the boat gave me a lot of concern, it weighed in at about 12 tons. After a couple of tries we finally had a trailer that would support the weight. The next thing was to find a truck to pull the trailer. After shopping around I found an old 3/4 ton ford that was beat up but ran good and the price was right. So now all we have to do is stock up the boat and go. Friends of ours Brian and Katie wanted to go with us so we stocked the boat with enough food for one meal a day,for 4 people, for a year. Then we were on our way. We loaded everything we owned up into the boat, hooked up the trailer, said our goodbyes,and left. Everyone thought we were nuts,but we had been planning this for two years now and we are ready. I couldn't think of any thing that we could have forgoten. No matter how well you plan though you always feel like there's something you forgot. By this time it's to late any way we're in Indiana at a truck stop eating breakfeast with 800 miles behind us. Looking at a road map trying to figure out where we were going to put the boat in the water. We chose a small river in Illinois, called The Kaskawaka River. It was only 30 miles from the Mississippi, with one lock onto the river. We got in Evens Ill. abought 3:oopm the next day without any trouble I might add. We found a public accesss ramp to the Kaskawaska River and launched the boat. Now that the boat was in the water I could relax. I have to admit the road trip was stressfull and I was happy to have that part of the trip over. The next step is to find a junk yard to get rid of the truck and trailer. I was lucky there was one just down the road. I sold the truck and trailer,got a ride back to the boat. We settled in for the night knowing that finaly we were done with everything and that in the morning we would finaly start down the river. The next morning after breakfast ,we started down river.One thing we hadn't thought of was how we were going to raise the mast. On the lake we had always used a crane to lift and set in place but here we didn't have one around. Brian and I were sitting there trying to figure it out when we came upon a brige. Looking at it I said if I could get a rope around a beam I could pull the mast up and set it. After thinking it over. Brian went ashore and went out on the bridge dropped a rope down that I tied to the mast. Then he pulled it up. It really isn't that heavy but its 35 feet long. (ever try to stand a 35 footlong 8 Inchs diameter pole on end) Getting it up was'nt that hard But that last winter I had a friend help me take it down and he had wrapped the stays all around the mast and had them all tangeled . It took us about 4 hours to untangel them. After a hole lot of cursing and yelling we did it finally the mast was up .Now we're really ready, mast up we head on down river. Now that the mast is up the deck is clear and its time to start thinking of getting the wind generator up. We had planned to mount it to the mast about half way up but the brackets that I had made didn't seem to work. So after great deliberation and consideration we finally mounted on the bow sprint didn't look real pretty but it worked great. Now we have all the modern convieneces of home. In day three of the trip and even with all the problems with the gear, which were minor. The weather has been good and great fishing. Just an all around good time. Today we go through the lock that will take us off the Kaskawaska River onto the Mississippi River. This is not one of the things i have been looking forward to, Basically because I have never done it (you always fear the unknown). We got to the lock about noon we radioed the lock they opened it and we went in. Then they closed the doors and pumped the water out. It only took about 10 minutes to bring us down to the level of the Mississippi. Then the doors opened and we went on out to the Mississippi River. At frist I was lost didn't know which way to go. The river wasn't at all what I had excepted. It was so small. I was looking for the mighty Mississippi river and it was so small. Well thats because we were on the upper river. We finaly got our bearings and headed down river. We have been on the river for abought 2 weeks now and its abought time to get fuel and drinking water. Looking at the map we could see we were coming up on Chester Ill. Yes I know that its only about 60 miles down river but we're not in any real hurry and most of the time just drift. We came upon a bridge and chose to pull in to shore at the base of it. Robin and Brian elected to go a shore and look for water and gas. they were gone abought 45 minutes. When they came back they informed us that we were on the Ill. state penitrary grounds and they were politely asked us to leave. But we did find out that there was a public acess just down river. So thats were we headed. It didn't take long to get there. only abought 30 min. after setting the anchor we set out to find drinking water. We fond it close by at a rest stop at the top of the hill. Which was abought 300 yards straight up a rocky embankment. IT took 5 trips up and down to fill the water tanks. But we did it a lot of work but it had to be done and as we will find out this was one of the easier times. The next thing we need was fuel. So Robin and Katie went for a walk to try to find gas while Brian and I filled the water tanks. Abought 3 hours later they returned and said that they couldn't find any gas stations any where so we waited till the next morning and Robin and Myself stated out looking for gas . Well we found it the nearest station was in Chester at the top of the hill 5 miles straight up. So we filled the the two can we had brought with us and started back. The only bad thing abought this is we have six more cans to fill, I am not looking forward to the walk back up that hill So we will wait till morning to do it again. When we awoke the next morning to our suprise there were people all over the place. We hadn't thought that the reason nobody was around was it was the middle of the week. It was now Saturday and everyone was out to play on the river. After meeting a few people we got a ride to get gas and discovered a few things abought Chester. Chester was the birth place of PoPeye the sailor man. The author used people from the town as characters in his stories. Popeye was a steam boat capt. Oliveoil was his grilfriend, wimpi was the Mayor of Chester Ill. There was a little park set up in rememberance. was interesting something different that you normally wouldn't think of. well thanks to the help of some new friends we now have gas and water and ready to head on down river. so in the morning we get up we will start down river again. Today we passed Ciaro Ill. thats were the Ohio river run into the Missippi river. almost ran out of gas geting to the Kentuky side of the river. lot of trafic and rough water but we made it. Wickfeild Ky. is were we are at. after getting gas and water we spend the night then head out. This is the part of the trip I love were out here in the middel of nowhere. the river is so peacful you feel like your the only people on the planit. we are anchored behind a sand bar out of the chanel for the night. Infact if you go to the pictures the one labeled sun set on the river was taken from this spot on the river. As we ate diner that night the kingfishers were diving in and out of the water as the as the sun set on yet another great day. The next morning we started out agian the day was the same as always peacfully drifting down river. We came around the bend and there was a sand bar with a downed tree and the wemen said that would be a good place to put up a close line and do loundry. so we pulled up and tied off the fishing was ok and the spot was nice. We ended up staying there about a week swiming, fishing, hunting just relaxing in fact the pictures of Brian & Katie walking an the sand bar were taken at this spot. It was time to get freash water so we finly had to leave and find civilization. Cape Gerardo Mo. was just down river so thats where we got water and gas lucked out was a service dock on the river. Didn't stay long too much trific to be comfertable. but there was a state park at Grand Towers Ill. and thats where we spent the night. We have a habit of putting fishing line in the water every time we stop to our suprise we cought a stergion ther are pictures of it in the photos it was good eating to hard to clean but good eating. Made a pot of gumbo out of it. The next moring we pulled up anchor and started out agian the stop was New Madrian Mo. a nice little town on the river. had a nice civil war museam. It also was the center of the worse earth quake that ever hit the center of the U.S. happen in the mid 1800's was so great that the Missippi river ran backwords. It also was the site of the largest battles in the civil war the south held the river captive with a blockaid. The north finaly captured it by digging a canal across a bend down river and attacking from both sides at one time. Preaty enteresting if you are into that kind of thing you could go to he library and find more infermation on both the earth quake and civil war. also was one of the largest barial grounds for the Mississippi Indians also had a very interesting museiam on that also. and this is the place that Brian & Katie decided to leave and go home. Katie's father was ill and they felt they should be there. can't blame them so off they went. now Robin and I are on our own. We stayed there and relaxed and checked the town out and fished and now its time to leave so after geting water and gas we headed out agian. A couple of days down river we find a iland and get in behind it the fishing is real good. so we end up staying there abought a week. then we started runing low on water so we headedout. the next stop is Crothers Mo. nice little town along the river. Met a few people got the badly need water and gas and after a few days we left. next stop should be Memphis Tenn. if every thig goses right. well we haven't made it to Memphis yet we are at a state park out side of Rosedale Tenn. spent a few days fishing and taking it easy then on down river we head we finly make it to Memphis to our suprise we find that the river has been closed to comercial travel it turns out that the river is at it's lowest in 100 years and not deep enough to handel the barges. Iguess that explain why the trafic was so light. After a day or so we headed on down river. The next stop is Friars Point Miss. realy the only reason we stoped here was to get water and gas. It turns out that Friars Point is the oldest township in Miss. was founded in the 1600's by some spanish Friars from what we saw it was a nice little town. they had a nice little museum that had arteficts that dated back to the mississippian indians and covered the civil war. was real interesting. after getting the water we need and a few grocries we went on down river. The next stop was Greenville Miss. The river front for Greenville was on a lake Ferguson about 5 miles off the river by the time we got there we were in need of gas and there were two marianas on the lake right at the cities river front so we got gas and went in to the marina to eat. we heard that they were going to have a river fest the next week end so we decided to stay for the festival. it turned out to be a good time met a lot of nice people that were quite helpfull in getting resupplied and new charts of the lower Miss. river. We stayed there for two weeks then it was time to leave so after our goodbyes we headed on down river. we are only one day out of Greenville we always try to find a inlet or sand bar to get behind for the night that way we are out of the current and shipping chanels for the night and we have realy found some beautiful places that few people have seen . but this time trying to get into an inlet we ran aground and i do mean realy good a sand bar had closed up the inlent and the deepth finder did't pick it up till we were already over it at full speed I tryed to turn off butt ran right over it and now were stuck realy good. It only takes 2 feet of water to float the blue bird that was the reason for chousing her for this trip she has a retractible keel but unfortionaly the keel was up and were siting in a foot of water. we have been realy lucky this is the frist time we realy had a problem. the only thing i could think of was to swim out with the anchor set it then using the sail wenches try to wench us off the bar but the anchor would break louse the i would have to swim back out and reset it. when the barges what few there were would come by ther wake would lift us slitly and i would wench after about 3 days we finaly worked our selves free. Being free of the sand bar we decieded to settel in for the night. The next morning iam sitting on deck drinking my morning cup of coffee and i here a voice say and your from ohio too. Thinking it was robin who was inside fixing breakfest i said what and the voice said your from ohio too i'm from cincinati were are you from and a long side of the boat comes a canoe with Ray from ohio he had went down the ohio river into the miss. and now headed foe new orleans by himself in a canoe.we had a couple cups of coffee and swaped a few tales of our tripsand he said he had to be off so we parted. so shortly after we started out and few miles down rive we ran into Ray again and inited him on board for dinner. we ate and talked and Ray said he did't know how much ferther he could go because the river was getting more comercial as we go and he was having troble finding a places to sleep along the river so one thing lead to another and we invited him to join us for the rest of the trip to new orleans. The next stop was Nazzais Miss. this place use to be quite a shipping port but do to the tim tombee water way opening up from moble al. to the tenn. river(cut almost 1200 miles off the trip north) this place was almost closed. some realy nice antibellum homes open for veiwing but as far as the port there was nothing. It's a same win you think of all the rich history and how important it was to the country in the begining. well after getting gas and food we started out agian. Next stop Vickesburg Miss. Vickesburg is a nice clean city with a nice port has a bueatful river front town restored to the 1800's with a coca cola musem (was the birth place of coca cola) after checking it out and a few other tourist interest. we decided to take a tour of the vickesburg civil war mermoural battelfield after all it was one of the bigest battles in the war and we were there. well i hily recomend the tour it was realy interesting they even have a museum set up with an old iorn clad ship from the war. defently a must see . check out the pictures on page 7 . after spending a couple of great days we headed on down river. Next stop Baton Rouge nice place heavly industeralized did't stay lone to much trafic just got gas and water and headed out. After all were getting close to our destanation New Orleans after a few days of messing around on the river we finaly reached New Orleans has a great river front with a french Quater for tourist after a good meal and a good night sleep on the river front we said our goodbyes to Ray and took the industral canal over to Lake Pontcatrain to New Orleans Harbor and thats were our adventure ends and we start getting ready for the next one. What ever that may be.I'm sure this one will be hard to beat but i now have a 40 foot eastly sail boat and I'm thinking well maybe Micronessia well we'll have to see.

Email: b14c@bellsouth.net