We were up before the sun! After breakfast on the boat, even though everything was wet, the sun was shining through the clouds, and we were excited to be on the boat and ready to get started! We pulled away from the dock at 9am, 55 degrees and 10 mph westerly wind, creating some whitecaps on the river. About an hour later and 15 miles, we reached the Mendenhall Lock and Dam. We didn't have long to wait and were alone in the lock. Around noon, we cruised through downtown Cincinnati/ Newport/Covington. Along the route, we were met by the Augusta Ferry, BB Riverboat, and the Anderson Ferry, as well as a number of barges traveling up and down the river. We had lunch while underway on the boat. We arrived in Aurora, Indiana, just west of town, around 2:30. We grilled burgers on the marina grill. It was a lovely autumn day to begin our first loop!

We forgot to share this story from the first day of the trip! We had one casualty on the first day...Tony's glasses were broken before we'd even left the dock. Thankfully he had his backup pare as a spare. As we were getting closer to the end of our day, Tony chatted with the marina manager at Lighthouse Point Marina in Aurora about a place to have his glasses repaired. When we arrived, she'd already talked to the vision center at Walmart, a little more than 4 miles from the marina. A man who moors his boat at the marina was in the marina office and offered to drive us to Walmart. We gratefully accepted and knew that we could either walk the 4 miles back to the boat or try to get an Uber. Tony's classes were easily repaired. The manager of the vision center called her boyfriend to come and pick us up from Walmart and take us back to the marina. Turns out he's a TV star! He's just started being a background actor on the TV series Chicago Fire! We are happy to report that good karma is with us on this trip! We hope to pay it forward as we continue on this journey!