Carl Henry on Upper Mississippi

The guest speaker at this year's River Ramblings festivities at Howard Steamboat Museum put in an unexpected appearance on the Upper Mississippi this week. A few days ago I received a call from Capt. Carl Henry aboard the m/v SCOTT STEGBAUER, informing me that they had received orders to head to the UMR with four loads in tow, and that he hoped to visit with his UMR friends en route. After Lock 25 finally opened earlier this week, a literal parade of boats headed north to open the towing season on the upper Mississippi, several weeks later than is usual up here. They dropped off two barges yesterday at Clinton, and are taking the remaining two to Pine Bend at St. Paul. The STEGBAUER peeked into view around the bend at 3:15 this afternoon south of Julien Dubuque's Monument, and arrived at Lock 11, Eagle Point, at 4:30. We had a nice visit, and since the Cookie Lady of the Upper Mississippi (a.k.a. Judy Patsch) was unavailable to bake her classic chocolate chip cookies during her hiatus in New Orleans, my wife did the substitute honors and Carl and crew received their allotment this afternoon as usual. Carl introduced me to the boat's Chief Engineer (I'm sorry, Carl, that I don't recall his name right now) and said he had worked on all three DQ company steamboats. The STEGBAUER is one of four Z-drive vessels owned by Southern Towing, and Carl is getting good experience handling this newest type propulsion system on the rivers (same set-up as the AQ has, minus the sternwheel, of course!)

For those posters who don't know Carl well, he began his river career as pilot on the m/v LA CROSSE QUEEN and the steamer JULIA BELLE SWAIN. Carl served for several years as Mate and pilot on the RIVER BARGE excursion vessel before joining Southern Towing as pilot. He will share his many and varied river adventures this August 18th at the River Ramblings series put together by Keith Norrington at Howard Steamboat Museum. It is sure to be a top notch program, and y'all are invited to come to hear and visit with Carl, say hello to all your river friends, and ride the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE. Posted below is the STEGBAUER approaching Lock 11 at Dubuque, Capt. Carl outside the PH, and the STEGBAUER shoving out of the lock at 5:15. A good day was had by all!