Up the river we go

[Teddy (punchie)]

Good time to start on the water. Winter is rough and spring high water.

Enjoy the water ride.

[Buzz Krumhunger]

That’s a cool job and great money. Congratulations!

[Wolfdog91]

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[WRideout]

Well, I'm jealous! Be sure to chew, not smoke your tobacco.

Wayne

[John Guedry]

That job can be very dangerous , dont ever let your guard down even for a minute. Had a friend fall in the river in Illinois when the ice was just breaking up, had his life jacket on and all ppe he said if his co-workers hadn't seen it happen he didn't doubt for a second he'd have died. The cold water pretty much paralyzed him.

[jdfoxinc]

Good eating.

[MaryB]

Miss the river life... dream retirement would have been a houseboat on the Mississippi River... go south in winter, back up to MN in summer... fish along the way... hunt in season...

I grew up on the Minnesota River. We boated it from Minnesota highway 4 south of Fairfax all the way down to Minneapolis(several portages required, why we used small boats that were light). Camped on it, fished and hunted up and down it... met lots of good people! River folk are a different breed! Many are poor but they will always scrape up enough food to share a meal! Spent many nights by a campfire sharing whatever food we had with, and a few beers of course!

Up until a few years ago I helped a group that cleans a 30 mile stretch of river near me. We had to build a special pontoon barge that could operate in 6 inches of water. Used parts off a wrecked jet ski to power it. We removed TONS(literally!) of trash from that river. Now it is maybe a ton a year, all the big pieces of scrap metal are out, junk cars are all out(you don't know fun until you are standing in 2 feet of mud torching a junk car into pieces!), all the abandoned appliances are gone... still get people dumping tires but we have caught the worst offenders using game cameras. River has changed from when I was a kid, it is a LOT cleaner, less silt, less pollution, less ag runoff... Can actually see a couple feet into the water now! Sand bars have started returning as silt has flushed out... they think in another 30 years it will be like it was before the state was settled.

[Winger Ed.]

As I look at these pictures, sit on the patio swatting mosquitos, being too old to get another cool job like that:

The cranky old geezer in me thinks, 'all the advantages of youth are wasted on young people'.

[slim1836]

Keep your eyes peeled for the submarine races.

Slim

[jsizemore]

Spent a bunch of my off duty time at sea reading tech manuals to understand how all the stuff around me worked. Most manuals had never been opened. Just about every one of them started with theory and finished with specifics. Still use most of it 50 years later.

[Wolfdog91]

So the first time we actually had to sit here and wait on a lock. Well as far as having a line at least. Noted alot of wildlife congregates around these things

Got some cobra chickens as me and my friends call em.... Canadian geese for everyone else,mean critters

And lots of different fish. Been seeing some trophy class common carp that would make my friends in the UK extraordinarily jealous lots of these little gar too! Beautiful little critters. Love how they just kinda lazily cruise around. The first mate just told me I could have been doing some fishing if I had brought a rod ,so I'm a little miffed right now never caught a gar and would love to !

Also saw this fin come up for a minute and wag around before goin back under.. too far up for bull shark I think so reckon it's a paddle fish ?

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[quack1]

Interesting job. How far north are you? I recall reading bull sharks have been seen as far north as the St Louis area.

[WRideout]

Paddle fish do like big water. They are plankton feeders, so need to move a lot of water through their mouths to get a meal. In places where it's legal, you have to catch them by snagging.

Wayne

[MaryB]

Gar back straps are good eats! Alligator gar down that way get HUGE, I have seen 6 footers and they get bigger than that!

Want fun wait to lock thru in a canoe!

[jsizemore]

Chunks of small gar was really good trot line bait. Bigger gar was good smoked.

[jlm223]

Great pics, thanks, enjoyed them!

[Wolfdog91]

So we've been tied up most of the day. Got a fleet boat to help us re arrange tow so where sitting 4 wide four long now and where just creeping on down the river


One of the anchors bargers we where tied up so had a bunch of bird life having around it. Swallows....well what I think are swallow I'm pretty sure where nested under the rake and inside of it there where a bunch of old stacked up damaged lids for the dry cargo barges and a flock of pigeons made it their little roost. Honestly I have to say it's pretty amazing how critters adapted and nature it's self has made little micro ecosystems out of all our junk and places we never really look.

But yeah other then that been pretty laxed day. Engineer had to do a oil change sor he started lunch and I tended to it for the most part. Some of they guys where complaining about beef roast vs pork roast but idk tasted good to
me.


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[Wolfdog91]

My usual spot here on the second deck. Just nice to soak up the view, an audio book is pretty nice too up here

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[jim 44-40]

My brother told me he ate like a King, working on barges.He traveled the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers back in the 80's . Enjoy your new job and be safe out there.

[ulav8r]

One of my mom's caregivers had been a riverboat cook for several years. She fed mom some real good food.