Day 42 Sat Sept 20th Final Day

Day 42 Sat Sept 21th Final Day

After almost no rain for the entire trip, our final day opened with rain, quite a bit overnight, and it coutinued into the morning. as it was predicted to end during the morning, we did not leave the house where we stayed overnight until it ended about 10:00AM. then we picked up cousin, John, and proceeded to the boat.

We started the motor and proceeded to the gas dock to pick up some ice, but when we tried to start the motor again, it would not start and run, now what, “Rain, did we get water in motor or gas???” Yes, checked for water in gas and found it. Of course, in the only tank that we had gas in. Switched tanks and filled it with fresh gas, cleaned gas filter, still would not start, switched to a new fuel line, cleaned filter again, change spark plugs, and finally it ran OK and we started out. But the time delay let a barge get ahead of us tward the lock and it looked like we were in for a 3 hour wait, but lock operator said if we could get past the barge we could get thru. so we opened the throttle and went past the barge who had to move slow in the lock channel anyway. got to lock, had to wait about 45 minutes for the lock to empty and open. Then in to the 100 foot high chamber. tied off to floating bollard and we started up.

About 1/2 way up the current inside the chamber started swinging us around and the motor in reverse die not have enough power to hold us back and we started swing around and toward the upper gate, we finally released from the bollard and then the moter in reverse could pull us back and away from the gate. but did get a little hairy for a minute.

After getting out of the lock, which now showed 112′ of water under us, we proceeded up the lake to shold creen, and on into brush creek. About 1/2 mile from our destination, we ran out of gas (Oh-OH). But we had a 1/2 in a can so added that, then we stopped at our friend and former neighbors house and dock and visited for a couple of hours. W

We then pumped some gas off of the top of the tank with water in it and added to the good tank so we could make it on to cousin John’s house and dock where we tied up, took final pictures, and Kathy took us back to pickup at marins, as well as set us with a nice helping of beef pot roast, which we ate as soon as we got back to Greenbrier housem

Then we return to the boat and unloaded some neccessary items and returned ro the night. On Sunday we will continue some unloading and on Monday, Milt will take the bus back to Iowa and get the trailer so we can pull the boat out and store for the winter.

Approaching Wilson Lock, our final and highest lift	Entering lock chamber
Inside the lock with 100 foot walls	Now at top of chamber with upper gate being lowerd to allow exit.
Depth sounder shows 112 feet of water under us.
Entering Shoals Creek Arm of Wilson Lake	Entering the Brush Creek Arm, our destination
John’s dock just ahead	Boat at destination at Cousin John’s Dock
Boat at destination at Cousin John’s Dock and the final sunset of the trip
R2 c1	R2 C2