At anchor in a narrow creek off the Mississippi River one night, I noticed a ghostly light in the darkness. As it got closer, I realized it was someone in a dinghy, swinging a flashlight back and forth, looking for something on shore. A moonshiner looking for his still? A pirate looking for an x … Read more

The Mississippi River is as famous as any body of water in North America. One would expect it to be a cruiser’s paradise with first-rate facilities and history around every corner. One would be wrong. After leaving Alton, Illinois where the Illinois, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers meet within a few miles, we were dismayed to … Read more

I don’t wear a coonskin cap or carry a musket, but I could imagine myself on a keel boat while cruising down the Illinois River this past week. Today boats carrying products to market aren’t narrow or made of wood. They’re covered barges pushed by powerful tugs…three across and five deep and cruisers in pleasure … Read more

Tied to a dock in downtown Chicago, I realized it’s time for a third quarter check in. We’ve gone about 4,000 miles since beginning this trip in Mobile, Ala. six months ago. The waterway guides say we have 1,200 miles to go, traveling through the inland waterways of Middle America. It’s fall and we’ll be … Read more

In a romance novel (or any novel), the main character has flaws that need fixing. The character grows and changes and by the end of the book has overcome them. That’s fiction. In real life it isn’t so easy. The presence of flaws is essential to the believability of the character. They make the hero … Read more