Traveling the Great Loop

Dear Readers, I apologize. I posted ‘Saying Goodbye to the Ohio River’ before I had posted Evansville and Hurricane Island. This post plus the following post, are places located on the Ohio River.

Sept. 26; today’s run 69 miles

En route:

A dredger works to maintain a depth of at least 25 feet/ 7 m in the Ohio River. It was unusual to see the water below 30 feet. The river is wide and in one area, extends to one mile across.

Evansville: Following the war of 1812, Evansville was selected as the county seat of Vanderburg County. The settlement became the centre of trade due to its proximity to the Ohio River. With the development of the Wabash and Erie Canals, the economy grew. Today the population is 115,000.

 Nu Plaza Yacht Club Marina: mile 797: A quaint looking marina with fuel, water, power, pump out and laundry facilities just steps away from our boat. It is common practice at marinas on the Ohio River not to offer refueling or pump-out service but instead, hand the nozzles to boat owners to do their own. It’s not required that all passengers be off the boat when refueling like it is in Canada.

My plan was to take an Uber four miles to a plaza for groceries. My Uber app wasn’t working and Mike and I stood at the top of the marina stairs in what appeared to be a trailer park, trying to figure out the problem. We hadn’t seen anyone other than Marathon Mike since arriving to the marina the day before. The solution was for Mike to order the Uber on his phone and for us to exchange phones. Mike had things to do and I stood there alone for about 20 minutes waiting. I saw a car turn off the country road into the very long driveway leading to the marina and trailer park. I could sense the driver didn’t know where he was so I waved hoping that it was my Uber guy. It was him alright and after we drove away, I realized I didn’t know how to access Mike’s phone. He uses some kind of convoluted swipe. I worried about that the whole time I was shopping. How would I order another Uber to return me to the marina? I couldn’t even contact Mike because I couldn’t access the phone. But just as I was leaving the grocery store, Mike called. He explained the swipe pattern, and I order an Uber to take me back to the marina. It would be the driver’s first time there. My first driver was a young man who had moved from Mississippi to be with his finance who had an office job here. He was hoping to get work as a carpenter; a really nice young guy. His uncle was a tow captain, he said. “Say hi to him if you meet him on the river”, he said. “His name is Tom.” I laughed at that because we never learn the name of the tow captains. Our conversations are short and to the point. The young driver was surprised to learn that a Canadian would bring their boat this distance to see, and learn more about his country and to meet people like him. The second driver who returned me to the boat had his own story. He had years earlier, escaped from Cuba to the U.S. on a small rickety boat. At the time, he was eighteen years old. Since then, he had brought his mother, father and brother to the United States.