La Crosse, Wisconsin: How Do They Do That?

 Sasha and I took an extended walk around the park this morning admiring the green grass and Mississippi River. In spite of the fact that wifi and utilities are limited, Pettibone RV Resort is a lovely place! Well, in the spring anyway!

I got to talking with a neighbor this morning and asked him what he had found to do in LaCrosse. His answer was noncommittal, so I figured there wasn't much to see around here. We headed into downtown, which is centered around Third and Fourth Streets, and started our tour with a look at the Worlds Largest Six Pack.

From the City Brewery, the tanks contain enough beer to fill 7,340,796 cans. OK, Next......

Zipping through downtown, 

we came to Riverside Park. Established in large part by the Rotary Club, the park provides huge areas of grass, long concrete walkways along the river, and access to paddle wheel river boat cruises. This is also the confluence of the Mississippi, Black, and LaCrosse Rivers. 

Looking north up the Black River, we learned that there is a paddle wheel shipwreck located in only 10 feet of water just a bit upriver. A fire while tied up at the dock destroyed not only the ship, but most of the dock, some adjacent buildings and ships. Seven people lost their lives in the inferno.

It's still unexplained as to how it arrived, but there is a cannon from the USS Maine, the ship sunk in Havana Harbor in 1898. Spain was blamed for the event, and the Spanish-American War ensued.

Our next stop was at the top of Granddad Bluff. Mountains aren't too high around here, but this is just about the highest point in the area. The bluff was left as the Mississippi River drained the glaciers in the north some 50,000 years ago. The glaciers didn't pass through the LaCrosse area, because the rolling terrain diverted them to the sides.

At the top, a perfect Memorial Day moments:

The views of LaCrosse and on into Minnesota are wonderful!

The last view was especially beautiful!

Making a big circle, we left Granddad Bluff and drove north toward Onalaska, Wisconsin, where we stopped for some iced tea and a mocha to go. Onto Interstate 90 West, got us to the Minnesota border where we turned south yesterday. Today we turned north and stopped at the Minnesota Welcome Center, which is just a stone's throw from Lock and Dam No. 7.The lock elevates or drops shipping 9 feet from one "pool" to another using lock systems.

Ok, nice, but nothing new, so we strolled on to the Visitors Center, where we were able to catch a glimpse of the I90 bridge as it crosses the main channel of the Mississippi River.

While we walked along the river, we spotted a barge heading north and shot back to Lock 7 to watch the fun.

As the barge slipped into the lock, we scoped out the connections between the barges.

The lock is 110 feet wide and the barge is 105 feet wide. Tight fit! Right about here we realized that the barge was too long to fit in the lock! The lock is 600 feet long and the lock master told us the barge was 1000 feet long!

So, how do they do that? Simple. the first 400 feet of barges are disconnected and pulled through the lock by a huge cable, while the remaining barges and the tug (pusher?) remains outside.

Then the gates are opened and the rest enter and are raised. The whole shootin' match is reconnected and continues on it's way!

And that's how they stuff 1,000 feet of barge into a 600 foot hole! The entire process took an hour and a half, and the deck hands and captain had time to chat with us and wave when they passed through the lock. Nice job, guys!

Off to the interior of Minnesota tomorrow!