Today we passed the tow Hank Tulodzieski, with the largest number of barges we have seen so far. He was pushing 30 coal barges – six barges wide by 5 barges deep. We got a brochure from the US Army Corps of Engineers that compares barges with other methods of moving goods. The 30 barges Hank T. was moving equals 450 jumbo train hoppers (or four and a half 100 unit trains) or 1740 semi trucks. With numbers like that it is no wonder moving goods by barge is such a good deal.
We passed by the Trail of Tears State Park north of Cape Girardeau, Missouri today. This state park is along the northern route of “The Trail of Tears”. If you are not familiar with “The Trail of Tears” it is the route the people of the Cherokee Nation traveled when they were forcibly removed from their homes in Georgia and relocated to reservations in Oklahoma. This is one of the saddest episodes in US history. The Cherokee people were taken from their land, herded into makeshift forts with minimal facilities and minimal food, and then forced to march a thousand miles. The human losses were extremely high. The route they traversed and the journey itself became known as “The Trail of Tears” or, as a direct translation from Cherokee, “The Trail Where They Cried”.
Miles: 110 Bridges: 2 Locks: 0
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| beautiful cliffs along the Mississippi River |
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| Tower Rock - a very round island along the shore of the Mississippi River |
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| some of the limestone cliffs in "The Trail of Tears" state park |
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| the tow Hank Tulodzieski and his 30 barges as we approach to pass |
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| the tow Hank Tulodzieski and his 30 barges after we completed our pass |
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| Boreas at anchor in Little Diversion Channel |
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| the six boats anchored in Little Diversion Channel for the night |
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