Thursday, July 23

The night was one of those that you hate. You know you need your rest because the day was going to be long but you keep waking up because your worried the alarm won't go off. When the alarm did sound I thought about the beautiful sunrise pictures I might get as we moved toward the lock, which made getting up at this hour on my vacation more palatable. What I saw was fog! Thick, heavy fog that made it impossible to see the shoreline across the river. My heart sank, but I kept thinking positively. We completed our morning routine of checks and I voiced my thoughts. You know I don't do fog! Of course I already knew the response, if we want to get through this lock before Saturday we don't have much choice. We waited as long as we could but witnessed no change in the fogs density. The decision was made to go ahead. Tom concentrated on the radar and depth finder and I on the computer and the river directly in front of the boat for logs. We kept reassuring ourselves quietly and out loud that it was going to burn off at the first signs of light, but it didn't. When we came within a mile of the lock we came upon a a tow tied up and waiting as well. We were told to be here at 7am. It was now 6:50. I called the lock on the phone and told them we were here. The news was not what we wanted to hear. They had problems overnight and the gate was not yet repaired. It would be noon or 1pm they hoped. As far as we were concerned there were no choices, we were not going to go back through the fog to Riverview, the river was calm so in neutral we went. As we drifted we could faintly see a park and small dock. Since our options were to float for several hours or tie up we carefully moved towards the dock and successfully tied up. About thirty minutes later we received a call from the lock to come ahead and tie up on the lock wall. They would talk with us when we arrived. The Lockmaster, Billy Boyd and Mark met us and explained the situation. The engineers were working on the gate and would have to test it before they could chance having a tow come through. They were going to try and get us through on the test run. Once in the lock, if the gate didn't open we would have to turn around in the lock, exiting the way we came in. Billy Boyd and Mark stayed and visited with us. It was a great conversation filled with laughter which made the time pass quickly. We expressed our gratitude for their kindness and willingness to help us. Their response was so genuine, "we believe in treating everyone like they are our neighbor". We wanted to help you if we could! Why are we living up North! Billy Boyd has worked at that lock for 21 years. I would love to hear some of the experiences with boaters she has had. A little over an hour passed and we received word to move into the lock. We secured ourselves to the mooring pin and waited. The fog had lifted and the sun was warm and bright. About 40 minutes later the engineers signaled they were going to try the gate. We listened to the calling of orders with nervous anticipation. The gate creaked open several inches at a time with each call. When I realized that gate was really going to open a sigh of relief traveled the length of my body and a smile the width of that gate appeared on my face. Because the gate had been closed for two days, a lot of logs and garbage had drifted up against it. Once given the word to exit the lock we carefully maneuvered around it all. Billy and Mark wished us a safe journey and the best of luck in arriving at our destination on time. They asked us to make sure we stopped in if we came back that way. We again thanked them for all of their efforts, making it possible for us to get through. We had met two more exceptionally kind people! At 10:15 we were on our way. We arrived at Barkley State Park marina at 7:45. We had been on the river for nearly 13 hours, a very long day!