Day-5 Wednesday, May 9, 2:13 p.m.

Fort Madison, IA

The boat barely made it under this bridge coming into Fort Madison, IA. I spoke to a local and found out that this bridge carries both cars and the railroad, if you had a larger craft you have to wait for a barge. They only interrupt the traffic for a barge and no pleasure craft, who knows when that happens.

 We stopped for fuel this morning at 7:50 a.m. The marina and bar was not open, no sign with hours. I flagged the truck down in the photo below to ask what their schedule was, he said there is none, it might be 9:00 or 10:00, he did not know if she even has gas yet. I asked him if he would bring us to a gas station, which he did. He was a great young man, he took us a mile to the station below and
advised us against the lower price premium which contains ethanol. This is not good for marine motors. We filled up 6 cans, filled the boat and back on the water at 9:09

Our new best friend

 Dave made a gourmet breakfast. Spam, cheese, bread, tomatoes,and apple sauce. Willis said Perkins should offer this.

We almost had a catastrophe I smelled smoke and found a bad electrical connection the wires were arcing. Removed the auxiliary battery.  Made a tight connection to the main battery.

We have gone thru locks 19 and 20. The picture above is of lock 19, the drop was 32 feet.  Keokuk, IA. It is located at the border of Iowa and Missouri. We are now waiting at lock 21, there will be an hour delay here at Quincy IL. Lock 20 was our biggest delay an hour and a half.