Nellie hits the newsstands!

MUSCATINE, Iowa —A Lord Nelson Victory Tug passing through Muscatine stopped for about a day to let her passengers off to explore.

Dave and Vicki Howell, of Cambridge, Maryland have been making their way up the Mississippi River on their tugboat, the Nellie D.

They have been traveling for almost a year, beginning in Florida last November, until they paused in Muscatine Monday evening. They will be leaving to continue their journey Wednesday morning.

"We'll keep chugging up," Vicki Howell said.

She said they began their cruising 20 years ago in a sailboat.

"You have to have a little bit of wanderlust, a little bit of adventure, and you have to be willing to learn in order to do it," Dave Howell said.

The Howells said they are typically on the water four to six months out of the year, although this trip has been longer.

"You meet people that know things that you don't know and mentor you and help you," Vicki Howell said.

She said they love learning about history along the rivers they explore, and were intrigued by their visit to the Muscatine History and Industry Center.

"So it's kind of fun here to hear all about the button industry," she said.

Dave Howell said at a previous stop, on the Tennessee River, they saw a display of a flat-bottom boat that was used to collect mussels.

"We asked what did they do with the mussels, and they said 'Oh they sent them some place to be turned into buttons,' so we sort of closed the loop on what happened to them," he said.

The Nellie D. was made in Taiwan in 1987, and the couple said the almost 30-year-old boat has been with them for 10 years.

The outside of the boat is composed of fiberglass, but Dave Howell said the wood interior was created by woodworkers, often a family who would stay on the boat to finish.

The wooden floors, furniture, and decoration have a lot of detail, surrounding the occupants of the boat with beautiful teak.

With river levels high, they said they travel around five miles per hour up the river, so they take turns steering.

Navigating through the locks and dams along the river can take time as well, they said, as they may have to wait for barges to pass through before they can.

"So if the water's calm we drop anchor and wait," Vicki Howell said.

Although they were not able to stay long, the Howells said they look forward to stopping in Muscatine as they travel back down the Mississippi next year.

"Everyone's been so friendly," Vicki Howell said.