Two nights in Trempealeau

Sunset Bay Marina in Trempealeau, WI is a sweet marina, inhabited by houseboats and powerboats.  It's sole proprietor is Vicky Husby, and she runs the marina.  Things were kind of slow, so she had some time to chat.

And Sunset Bay has its own Tiki Bar!  Last time we were in a Tiki Bar was probably the old Hilton Hotel on the river in downtown St. Paul!  As Tim tells it, he and his buddies went to the Hilton Tiki bar and roasted marshmallows on the torches for their senior class prom.  I think this is a different kind of Tiki Bar.



Sunset Marina Tiki Bar on a warmer day

 

It is adjacent to Lock and Dam #6.  Sea Fever was the only sailboat in the marina, which caused a bit of interest when the houseboat and trawler entered the marina.  As Tim had explained, marinas are friendly places.  At least two boat owners came over to the boat to talk about routes, and navigating the river.

 

 One of the memorable notes was that it is bordered by the river, and by highly used train tracks...all day and much of the night.  And the trains used their whistles as they barreled through town.  We were so tired, we slept anyway.

Tuesday dawned, and we missed our window of opportunity.  By the time we hailed Lock and Dam #6, there was a two hour wait, that stretched to four hours.  It seems that it takes several hours for a barge to go through the lock, and being commercial vehicles, they have precedence over pleasure craft like Sea Fever.

 We stayed put, Tim cleaned the outside of the boat, and Kathy worked on the inside.  The weather reports were not favorable for Wednesday, so we chose to stay put yet another night.  And when we woke up, indeed, the day was gray, and the winds were howling.  It was the right decision.  Although it will be cold on Thursday, we hope to get an early start.

We braved the wind to walk to the Historic Trempealeau Hotel for late lunch.  What a place!  We each had a 7 ounce hamburger with fixin's.  The tomatoes were REAL ones that came from a local hot house.  The beef was locally grown.  Best burger in a long time.  They also have a music festival, in case anyone wants to take the trip.

So we spent time organizing and stowing stuff that didn't get stowed when we left Lake City.  Hopefully Thursday will be a better weather day!

Thanks for reading.