Page 15 - USA ROAD TRIP SUMMER of 2000

WEEK TWO

LOOP - LACROSSE to DUBUQUE, thru IOWA - back to LACROSSE

Monday, July 24 - Took US 53 South down the Mississippi River.

What a surprise we had when just on happenstance we had
stopped at a dam and lock to see how they worked. In came the

Mississippi Queen on her yearly trip from New Orleans to the
Upper Mississippi for the summer. She almost filled the 600-foot

lock. The calliope was playing as she left the lock. It t took about
45 minutes to get her through. The whole neighborhood turned

out for the event - families with children, grandparents with
folding chairs and every tourist passing by at the time. The railroad

runs right along the river. The train tooted it’s welcome and all the
trucks on the highway sounded their horns in salute. We even had

a bald eagle fly overhead. A very festive occasion.

There are 29 locks between St. Louis and St. Paul. The waters

between the locks/dams are called pools. The level of water in the
pools stays almost the same throughout the year. The total drop

from the Upper to the Lower Mississippi is over 400 feet. Lock #8

where we saw the Queen has only an 11-foot drop.

We stopped at the next lock, #9, as there appeared to be a barge
coming towards it. Turned out it was a barge group with three

barges carrying diesel fuel and the massive, extremely powerful
pushing tug. The combination was over 1400 feet long and too

long to get into the 600-foot lock. So they pushed the first two
barges into the lock and decoupled them from the remaining

combination. The tug and its connected barge then pulled into the

lock snuggled up next to the decoupled pair. They strapped the
two segments side to side. The back doors closed and the water

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