Day 123 Dam Locks

No, I actually don't mean "dam". What a looonngg day on the river. The morning ride and lock traversing went great. Five other boats are traveling with us today. All great people. It works better to go to and through the locks with a group. It was sunny and somewhat warm - beautiful day. Passed a reserve where hundreds of (looked like) white pelicans were sitting on the water - the scenery is more natural in this area after Joilet. We all decided to do a third lock in Marseilles then we would split up and either go to a marina, the city dock, or anchorage. We passed barge after barge waiting on their turn. That should have been a hint. The attendant moved us right in front of the lock and there we sat for over 4 hours. He did not move all the vessels through in an efficient manner so the result was we finally got to go at dusk. By this time, all of us had called the marina and were staying there just two miles away. We were first, as we left the lock, it was getting hard to see and we had to maneuver around a waiting barge. Passed another barge coming around a corner. Remember these barge combinations are the size of a football field. Then it was so dark, we missed the marina canal and sign. We had to go around an oncoming barge, turn around and then come back to enter the marina. We had radioed the other boats so everyone behind us got in and we finally made it to our dock around 8:45. Giant carp jumping all around us in the dark. Creepy. We were all so grateful to other Loopers who helped us late comers. Another 13 hour day. Ended the night with some beer and burgers with our Looper friends vowing we were not going to boat at night again.