Sept. 16   Visiting with a lovely couple from Hudson who had made the trip to St. Louis and back in their speed boat,  Earl really wanted to go and Sid was willing also but they needed more time to plan to be gone.  Earl said he's 75 doesn't want to wait but would rather do the trip with someone else.  Good Luck Earl, you can still catch up with us.  Met another gentleman at the Marina Jason who also is wanting to go to the Gulf but not ready yet.  So many people wanting to talk to us about the trip, the gentleman in the Marina office made a comment  "Does your wife know you're going that far or does she think you're taking her down river for the evening dinner and then back?"  Also met two older gentlemen yest. that have already left this am early to to the Gulf of Mexico and I think to Florida, they had quite a small boat to do that but we're going 100 miles a day and stay at hotels every night.  Needless to say we didn't leave till around 10 am with Earl and his wife helping us out of the slip and giving us more advice of places to stop at, also promised prayers for our safety.  What a blessing to meet this couple.  Beautiful weather today, a little chilly, went thru St. Paul area, neat to see by the River, all the railroad swing bridges were willing to open immediately and the other bridges were raised immediately after they called, no delay.  Had to wait 2 hours for Lock #2, but all went well in the Lock, nice gentleman to visit with while they water lowered us down.
Thanks to Earls suggestion we stopped at 5 pm at Prescott, got gas and went under the bridge and anchored with other boats in a protected area.  Didn't drag anchor, yea, some how lost a buoy off our boat.  Weird.  Tried finding a good spot to sleep, was very cold, in 40's.