Day 35

As far as mornings go today's was fairly typical.  We got up bright and early booted the grumpy pup out of the tent and were  on the river around 830.  Just a short ways down river from camp a green object darted across the main channel and headed straight towards us.  At first it looked like a kayak.  As it grew closer it became aparent that it was John Sullivan in a solo canoe. We were both suprised to see him.  As we approached he was snapping pictures with two cameras in quick succession.  As we pulled along side him he handed us a bag that contained two muffins and a Wisconsin DNR map of the Mississippi River down to dubuque, IA.  As always John was full of good information and informed us of good places to camp and other quirks about the up coming pools (sections between dams).  As we rounded the next bend we came to the place on the river where the boarder of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota all meet.  We positioned ourselves so that for a moment we were in three places, well technically three states once, since even that is just one place.  John took pictures of the three of us by the sign that marked the tri-state boarder, said our goodbyes and we were off.  As the day went on mile after mile of beautiful bluff country unfolded before us.  On this section of river the scale of things was spectacular.  The river here was no less than 5 miles wide and unlike up river there were no islands of tall trees obstructing our view.  Each side of the river was lined with towering bluffs covered with trees, many of which were beginning to turn beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow.  It was truly breath taking.  After reaching Lock and Dam 9 we learned that there was a barge being locked through in two sections and we would have to wait about 30-45min.  We knew this could happened but had not as of yet had to wait on a barge.  All in all though not a bad wait at all.  As we locked through we heard the lock operator tell some random folks on the side of the Lock that no more barges would be passing through for five more hours.  Aparently people, by the hundreds, come to the locks along the Great River Road (the series of roads and highways that follow the Mississippi) to watch barges.  Hmm..well not to sure about that but to each thir own I guess.  We ended our day about a mile down from Lock and Dam 9 on and island we dubbed Blue Bunny Island be to the random blue jug on the beach with a large blue bunny sticker on it.  Tomorrow we head to Prairie du Chein to see our good friend Patrick.