Safe Harbor

80 miles including two locks today, and we’ve made it to safe harbor in Evansville, IN. Our friend Jan can’t join us cruising until January, but until then he follows our cameras and sends text messages including diagrams suggesting ways to improve our trips through the locks. Today’s diagram really worked, after we understood what we needed to do with the ropes and the boat engines to keep from drifting sideways in the lock while waiting to be let out at the other end. Tomorrow morning we will spend a few hours preparing South Pause for the storm, and then the marina staff are going to give us a ride to a nearby hotel where we will be warmer and safer for the high winds and sub-zero temperatures. There is a big box store nearby, so after the storm we plan to pick up some supplies and get ready to head down the river again. Tonight we both imagine this trip would have physically been easier ten years ago, but are even happier we didn’t wait ten more years to start it. I had a friend in college who used to quip, ‘It’s five o’clock somewhere…’ when he felt like celebrating. In that same spirit, after a long day in a time zone where the sun sets at 4:30 pm, Lisa and I long for bedtime and opine, ‘It’s nine o’clock somewhere… ;-o