Our final morning in Winona, Gurdy took us on a boat trip through the mississippi river in a boat he built himself. The wood is mostly salvaged or bought cheap. And the long tail engine is converted from an old snowblower and gets about 20 miles to the gallon (way more efficent then most boat motors) He learned about longtail motors from a trip he took down the mekong river a few years back. He tells us stories about the river and the trips hes taken from minneapolis to new orleans. Lots of folks do it now, pretty much every year, folks float up and down the mississippi in their junk boats built for next to nothing.
We talk about the history of Latch Island, the people that live there pay around $200 a year to live in their boat houses. But the Island is full and it takes a super long time to get a spot. He got a huge dome a few months ago and is working on fixing it up. He has to wait to do most of the work till the river freezes, and pops the foundation up on the ice.
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2 Comments
i ck to latch island in 2000cklived at latch island 1977 1982 owned a boathouse that is posted in your photos my son noah was born on the river in 1980 we loved we moved to a farm house in ridgeway when a child drowned it was to hard as a mother to stay it was great to see the pics we came band to show our children ck in2000 with our 5 childrento latch islathe local musem may have a copy wond to show them where we came from we are currently living on whidbey islandwa. great place to be but do yearn for river life i have a documentry film of latch island i did in1976 tndhe local musem may have a copy would love to here how life is on latch island
cool thanks for sharing your story!