Memorial Day Weekend

Rock Island, IL
Mississippi River Visitor Center
May 25, 2015

This reminds me of the song by Otis Redding, "Sitting on the dock of the bay..."!  The rain was coming at the boat and the little bit of sun was shining on the rain.  Rainbow, actually two rainbows for a minute or two.  The rain was heavy enough that the I-74 bridge, about a mile upstream, was hidden by the rain. This photo was taken from the back deck of a boat in the Lindsay Park Marina in Davenport, IA.

Today is the end of my first month at the Mississippi River Visitor Center.  It has been a busy month, learning the information about the river, the locks, the bridges, the river traffic, and always the surrounding area.  As a former Iowan, it is interesting to come back for more than a few days at a time.  I get to reacquaint myself with the folks I knew growing up in Muscatine.  I get to revisit those neighborhoods I haunted as a lad.  Some have changed big time, some not so much.

I am working on Monday (Memorial Day) so on Sunday, my sister Anne and I drove to Muscatine to meet with our Wheeler Cousins, Bill, Sue and Kathy.  We met them at the graveside for their parents, Raymond and Emma, at Memorial Park Cemetery.  Afterwards, we drove to St Mary's Cemetery to visit our parents, Bernard and Elizabeth, and our brother Patrick.  It was very nice to reconnect with the cousins, as I had not seen them in about 30 - 40 years.  After our memorial visits we adjourned to Boonie's Restaurant in downtown Muscatine for lunch and conversation.  We had a great time and it was good to reconnect after so long a time.

Whenever I come to Iowa, for a week or a day or a summer, I like to seek out the tastiest Breaded Pork Tenderloin sandwich I can find.  Last year, we (wife and I) stopped at Morg's Diner in Waterloo, IA.

It was a taste sensation.  Hand breaded and cooked just for me.  I would return to Morg's for another in a flash.  The recent tastings have been less meaningful.  The Machine Shed, in Davenport has come the closest to Morg's taste treat so far.  I ate there about three weeks ago and the sandwich was splendid and the coleslaw and chunky applesauce were a perfect accompaniment.

And the crispy sweet potato fries were just right.

Of course this Pork Tenderloin Sandwich search is an ongoing effort.  Consequently, on Friday evening, I enjoyed dinner with my sister Anne and her husband Al, at the Lindsay Park Marina clubhouse.  While the sandwich was good eating, it did not match up well against the Morg's Diner selection or the Tenderloin from the Machine Shed.

The Tenderloin was thin and crispy, but the flavor was just not there.  While I would return to Morg's or the Machine Shed for another round, probably not to Lindsay Park for the sandwich.  It wasn't a bad sandwich, just not great.

Yesterday, for lunch with the Cousins, I gave Boonie's a shot at greatness on the Pork Tenderloin trail. 

Again, theTenderloin was thin and crispy.  And, as you can see from the picture, much larger than the bun.  The flavor was better than the Lindsay Park sandwich, but the texture was similar...thin and crispy.  The cole slaw was a fine complement to the sandwich and the hand made potato chips, still warm from the fryer, were absolutely splendid.

The search goes on!

Let's talk about the Mississippi River a bit.  The Mississippi is a very powerful river.  The current can be very dangerous.  Current, or the movement of water is typically measured by checking the movement of the water past a point or gauge.  That current is measured in cubic feet per second or 'cfs'  The volume of those cubic feet per second can be huge.  For example:

And the weight of the water depicted above would have been '146,643 X 62.5 =9,165,187.5 lbs.

Enough for this episode.  Stop in and check on the blog, you never know what you'll find.  Comment on the blog, let me know what you think.  Until next episode, good eating.

Rock Island, IL
Monday, May 18, 2015

I have been working at the Mississippi River Visitor Center at Lock & Dam 15 for about three weeks.  And I enjoy the environment very much.  I get to meet new people, talk to people and get to talk about the Mississippi River and barge traffic and the Quad Cities.  I have been able to tour the Lock and Dam with some school groups and beginning Saturday, May 31, 2015, the Visitor Center will begin giving tours of the Lock and Dam to the public each weekend, Saturday and Sunday, until Labor Day.  Tours will run at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.  All you need to do is sign up by calling the Visitor Center at 309-794-5338 and ask to be scheduled for the program.

I arrived in the area on Saturday, April 25th and set up the RV at Fisherman's Corner RV Campground, just north of Hampton, IL.  The campground is just above Lock and Dam 14 near Leclaire, IA.  This location will be home for the summer.

While Rock Island and the Quad Cities is a fairly large metro area, they still don't have enough population to qualify for a Costco.  This was an issue when I went looking for an optical shop to replace the lenses in my glasses.  I have tri-focal lenses and the optical shop gave me a price of $327 for tri-focal  lenses in my own frames.  I had used Costco for my current glasses and that price was $129 for the lenses.  Needless to say, it was cheaper to make 3 trips to the Costco and purchase two sets of lenses (clear and sun glass), 60 miles away, than to buy one set of lenses from the optical shop.

As some of you know, I grew up in this area.  My home town, 30 miles down river from Rock Island, is the splendid town of Muscatine, IA.  Born and raised in Muscatine, I left after the service and have been back occasionally since.  One of my sisters, Anne, still lives nearby in North Liberty, IA , actually near the Costco where I went for my new lenses.  Many of the folks I grew up with still live in this area.

The lock at the Visitor Center is the middle lock in a series of 29 locks on the Mississippi River between St. Paul, MN and St. Louis, MO.  The locks and dams create a stairway on the Mississippi River to allow barge navigation between St. Paul and St. Louis.  The Mississippi River climbs approximately 410 feet between St. Louis and St. Paul, a distance of about 750 miles.  To manage that feat, the Army Corps of Engineers, built a series of locks on the river to allow barge traffic to step up or down every so often while navigating the river.  The size of the steps vary between locks from a high of about 45-50 feet to a low of about 3-5 feet.  And the size of the step can vary depending on the volume of water in the river.  Flooding might lessen the individual steps and low water might increase the size of the step.  While the function of the locks helps the river traffic step up or down, the dams help regulate the flow of water to allow the barges and other river traffic to move between locks.  The dams seek to regulate the flow of river water so that the river channel can maintain a minimum depth of 9 feet.  It might be more, but the minimum depth of the channel needs to be 9 feet to allow the barges, when full, to move without fear of scraping bottom.  The dams create a pool of deeper water above each dam which facilitates navigation.  The rise or drop in the river bed dictates the distance to the next dam.  The next dam upriver from the Visitor Center is 10.4 miles (Lock & Dam #14) and the next dam downriver is 25.7 miles (Lock & Dam #16)

So, one of the questions I have been asked is, 'How efficient is it to move grain or coal or other products on a barge instead of a train or semi-trailer?' Let me tell you...one barge can move the equivalent cargo of 16 rail cars or 70 semi-trailers.  Or, the cargo in a single tow of 15 barges can move the equivalent of 240 rail cars or 1050 semi-trailers.  In end to end distance, 240 rail cars is a train 2.5 miles long and 1050 semi-trailers is a line almost 14 miles long.

Very efficient for movement upriver or downriver.  Not so efficient away from the river.  That's where the trucks and trains come in...

Let me know what you think about the blog.  If you live in the area around the Quad Cities, come visit the Mississippi River Visitors Center.  We are open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Saturday.  Sign up for the public tour of the Lock and Dam.  We open 7 days a week beginning on May 31st.  Come visit.