Little Divergence 37◦14'.990 N 089◦31'.117 W

   We managed to travel 110 Statute miles today. From Hoppie's Marina to Little Divergence. Along the way we had to deal with an awful lot of turbulence and very strong currents.  I put a picture of the wing dykes below. They are not much, just a stone wall, but the turbulence they create is incredible. At one point in time, one of our partner boats turned a full 90◦ when he hit the turbulence.

This high water level along with all this swirling also causes a lot of debris to flush down the river. When I talk about debris I am talking full trees! The picture below is actually a tree that lodged itself between "Priorities" and the barge we docked at last night. During our trip today, we hit 2 of them. Fortunately no damage... that we know of! 

 We are 6 boats here tonight. Unfortunately one of our cohorts Chantal and Germain on "Pimaro" struck bottom and apparently broke their rudder. I say apparently because we only heard the coast guard's side of the conversation. What we know is that they are in need of a tow boat and they cannot continue. What we assume is that they hit some turbulence and got spun around and hit aground. What we hope is that they are both OK and that they will be repaired and on their way quickly.

   We hit 14 mph today which of course is a new record for us. Fortunately the camera did not work so you will be spared another picture of the GPS (lol). This current can really add on the miles. Tomorrow we will be going with the current for 48 miles and then we will be going up the Ohio River against the current, so we will probably break a new record of how slow we can go!

   We arrived at this anchorage at 4pm and since we have the largest deck we invited the other boaters to join us for happy hour. John on "Freebird" offered to be the dinghy Taxi for this evening. So he went over to everyone else's boat and graciously delivered them to us. So to introduce you to the group we are currently  traveling with. The picture above show Randy and Sherrie getting their taxi ride. Below we have Simon and Sylvie from the "Seamont"; Burk and Stel from "Estrallita"; Tim and Cathy from "Seafever" and John and Sarah from "Freebird". 

We managed to fit all 12 of us on the deck, although the picture only shows Randy, Sherrie John and Sarah's feet.  Everyone brought some food, so we nibbled on stuff until about 7:30 pm. By then it was getting dark so everyone went back to their boats. All and all a wonderful day, but now I need to go make something to eat that is not junk food. Unfortunately Brenda, I have no biscuits and gravy, however the moment I find a restaurant that serves it, I will gladly indulge your hankering for them. Hey one question though, If I eat biscuits and gravy for you, do you accumulate the calories? Night all. 

Mississippi River cruising 38◦21'532 N 090◦21'613 W

   It was a scorcher day. I thought yesterday was bad, but today the indoor thermometer at the helm read 123◦F. That is not a typo! Now to be clear it was not actually 123◦ outside, but I was sanding the railings outside and I asked Jim to close the helm doors so the sanding dust would not get inside, I did not realize how hot it was getting until I came in for lunch and Jim pointed it out. That was the end of my sanding for the day. Doors open it took about 1h to get back down to the 80's.

   We left Grafton Harbor at 7am today and got on the Mississippi River almost immediately. The current on the Mississippi is a bit faster than the Illinois river so we hit a whopping 12.9 mph. Jim of course took a picture of the GPS again. 

The route had us go through St-Louis Missouri and we got to see the St-Louis arch and the really neat Bridge. Both Pictured below.

 

We ended our Day at Hoppie's Marina. This Marina is not a class act. It is actually 3 barges tied together and you get to tie up to them. Everything is very rustic but the people here are amazing.  Hoppie, the owner told Jim to come tie up between two boats. See pic, however the boats only aloud for about 5 feet clearance. Docking this boat is a tough job, Docking this boat in 4 mph current is very hard, Docking this boat in 4 mph current with only 5 feet of leeway between the other boats is darn near impossible. My Captain however did a fine job of docking it, without touching either boat in the process. I must say I was quite impressed. Small wonder I feel so safe traveling with him.  

   Once we got in and hooked up to power, we went for a walk into the town of Kimmswick. This is most definitely a tourist town. Every street has a shop or three and they all sell the same stuff. I added a picture of a street sign that shows all the shops in these two streets. It's incredible. There is one place here called the Blue owl. It was listed in Oprah Winfrey's top 100 places to eat.  Their main claim to fame dish is the mile high apple pie. We could not possible eat a mile of apple pie, so we opted for an ice cream cone instead. 

The town is a bit of a walk away, but there are some interesting houses (see Pic) and we had to walk through country to get there. We walked over a wooden bridge and I got a shot of Randy and Jim on it. We also walked through some horse stables and I got a pic of one of the horses thinking the grass was greener on the other side. By the way the horse was right!  

   Once we got back to the marina, we got a boater's safety session with Fern; the owner's wife; who gave us lots of tips on how to get out of here, dangers to watch for and how to deal with Tow barges in these tight and fast waters. The Mississippi has a number of wing dykes. These are 100 to 300 ft long rock walls built at 45◦ angles to the river. Their purpose is to slow the water down and direct it to the center of the river, but sometimes the water level is so high that you cannot see them. She advised us to watch for signs of wing dykes by watching turbulence. There are 5 boats here who are all heading down river tomorrow. The big issue is that there are no other marinas for 150 miles or more, so we really need to understand where and when to anchor; to stay out of the working boats way and out of the strong currents.  

   After our talk with Fern we were all invited to a potluck dinner that the seasonal marina slip holders hosted. The food was phenomenal and the talking and joking at the table where a really nice end to a very good day. Tomorrow, we expect to travel 110 mile. I should get lot's of sanding done! Nighty night. 

 

The Cowboy cup

    This is our last day in Grafton and I really have not told you a whole lot about this quaint little town. The streets are lined with cute little shops. I put 3 pictures of shops below for your viewing pleasure. The population of this town is 650 but on the weekends it triples! Today we woke up early as always and we went for breakfast at the "Peace of Quiche Restaurant"  where real men do eat quiche! Seriously, that's what the waiter's t-shirt said! The tables where lined with bumper stickers about peace and they really pulled it off well. The food was delicious and the company was awesome as well. After breakfast we went to the Grafton flea market. I took a picture but it is a little blurry. One thing about being on a boat is that it really curbs your desire to buy unneeded things. Since there is no room for anything on the boat; we left the flea market empty handed. After the Market we came back to our floating Marina. the picture below will show you that the entire marina is built on floating docks, so even the building, the restaurant the ship's store, everything floats up with the water. It is really neat. The picture of Jim and I standing at the sign will give you perspective as to how the water level can change around here. Right now it is a 7 foot drop to the buildings but at high water level, these buildings behind us would be level with the sidewalk. It's pretty impressive.

   We borrowed the van again today and went into the town of Godfry to do some shopping before we leave in the am. We got most of what we needed, but will need to order some filters and oil once we get to Rogersville since the Napa store in town did not carry the filters we needed for our fuel.

   I'm sure you are all wondering about the title of tonight's blog, so I will enlighten you. They are having a dock party tonight and there is a live band, the food tent and the beer tent of course. We decided we had to partake of this stuff so off to the party we went. The food tent was serving chili or the Cowboy cup. The cowboy cup is a large clear beer cup which they layer with first pulled pork, then baked beans and top it off with coleslaw. It sounds awful but it actually tasted awesome.

   Tomorrow you will see new coordinates as we are now leaving and heading to Hoppies Marina, some 70-80 miles down the river. Tata for now and Claire, you are in our thoughts and prayers. 

Funny boats in Grafton

   Today was another scorcher of a day. We decided to go biking early in the morning before it got too hot. Since we had slept 10hrs the night before, we had lots of energy! So we knocked on Sherrie and Randy's boat to see if they felt like going for a little ride along the bike path.  What we did not know was that the bike path ran along the highway. Although it was not the nice meandering bike path of Princess Point, it was actually quite nice. The picture below of Jim and I shows the junction where the Mississippi meets the Illinois river. The next picture is of the Bluffs on the opposite side of the highway. We did a few miles along the highway and then turned around and rode on the bluff side. This is where we found the Museum of Grafton. There was a lot of neat stuff in the museum, but the thing that struck me most was the punt boat gun. In the picture you see Jim pretending the fire this gun. It is huge. The barrel was about 2 inches in diameter and it was mounted to the punt boat. The descriptor said people used to load these things with nuts, bolts screws and other pieces of metal and then load the gun with black powder. When they got to a gaggle of ducks they would fire it and cultivate the dozen or more ducks they killed. This is obviously illegal now.

   We got back from our bike ride just before lunch, so we  went over to Sherrie and Randy's boat to go over some of our charts and books to plan the next leg of our trip. Sherrie very kindly made us lunch which was sinful but delicious and yet another reminder of the need for weight watchers when we get back. After lunch we did what has now become a habit, and we went to sit by the pool.

   I did take a walk down the docks today to see a few of the permanent slip holder's who get very creative. "Wayne's world" boat is obviously a guy who likes to party. The whole boat is decorated with grass skirts and he has this full size mannequin dressed in the US flag bikini on the back. A similar mannequin sits on the front of the boat as well. He has lights and tables set up all around. Really he makes that AUYC dock look tame, even when we pull the pool and the palm trees out (lol). A little further down there was this small tug, that mounted a love seat swing from the rafters of his covered slip. looks really comfy. And the last picture is of another gentleman who has some rather interesting signs up on the stern. Hope you enjoy them. Good  Night All.  

Steam cars and wine.

Steam cars and wine.  

   We started our day with a few chores. Jim got the oil change done and I got all the bed linens washed and dried. Once all the chores where done and we had lunch, we went for a drive to Aeries vineyard. The view from up there was amazing. I took a picture of a sign showing where we are in relation to a big flood they had back in 1993. We also got to do some wine tasting. I tried a French Bordeaux and Aeries wineries own "Confluence conundrum". I preferred the French wine. Once we had a drink and a few pictures, we came back to the marina. At the Marina which by the way is also a winery, we got to try out chocolate coconut and peanut butter cup wines. Hey it's a tough job but someone's got to do it!

   Randy had given Jim some test bottles to have our oil tested. So we grabbed those and went off to the post office to send them to the lab. The walk was so stressful that we just had to stop for an ice cream. I know again, tough life here, you guys have no idea the stress we deal with. There were 3 different ice cream stores, so this was a hard decision!. Anyway when all the tough stuff was over, we walked around town to check out some of the old steam cars. We saw a 1911, a 1914 and I did not get the year of the last one we saw. How cool are these thing! I can't keep a 5 year old car from rusting. They just don't build them like they used too.

   It was very warm here today, we had to turn on the air conditioner for the first time this year I think. Anyway, when we got back to the boat, we quickly decided to go for a swim.  The pool at this marina is quite cool but today it was very refreshing. Unfortunately Jim forgot to take the cell phone out of his pocket; but hopefully the rice thing does the job and we don't have to buy yet another phone.

   Tomorrow we plan on taking a bike ride through their bike trails and probably spend the afternoon at the pool again.  It's a tough life I tell you. 

Another glorious day in Grafton.

   We have had another lovely day in Grafton Illinois. Today we did some chores in the am, then we went shopping in Alton which is just 10-12 miles down the road. When we returned to the Marina, we put on the bathing suits to go by the pool and after that little adventure, we joined a whole bunch of loopers for happy hour at the Grafton dock. A wonderful day all and all, except that happy hour went a little long and we did not end up having enough time to make  dinner.

   There is a lovely little river boat coming up and down the river about 3 times per day. It is called the spirit of Peoria. I included a pic but it is a little blurry, (sorry about that.) When the boat does it's rounds it plays some old songs like Bill Bailey, Yellow ribbon, Ain't she sweet and some ragtime music. It is kind of a trip down memory lane. I am too young to know most of these songs, yet...I know them all.  

   This area is wine country and we are surrounded my many vineyards. Tomorrow afternoon we plan on going to do some wine tasting at one of the vineyards here that apparently has the best views in the Midwest, so we are really looking forward to that. Hopefully my pictures don't come out as blurry as they did today. Night all. 

And you thought we were nuts?

   I would like to introduce you to Jennifer and Pierre. They are a couple form Quebec City who decided to do the loop as well. The only difference is they are doing it by Canoe. I met them last night at a potluck. They have been paddling their way around the great lakes and now the river system. Pierre tells me they paddle 60 miles per day in the river because of the current. In the great lakes they were averaging 50 km or 30 miles per day. Wow! They have a tent; a bunch of barrels with food in them, and they burn about 4000 calories each per day. They are amazing people to talk to and certainly have some pretty good stamina for their age. Pierre is 52 years old and Jennifer is 34.  When I asked them why they are doing this; Pierre tells me he has 3 buddies in their 50's, one had a stroke, the other a heart attack and the third has cancer. Pierre is a contractor and says we live life at 200 miles an hour. Running all the time and going nowhere. They love to canoe so they thought why not go and check out the continent. We talked for quite a while and heard many stories, but the one that amused me the most is with the tow boats on the river.

   I told you before that the tow boats have the right of way here. If you want to pass a tow boat, you have to call them on the VHF and request permission to pass and direction as to which side to pass them on. The reason for this is because the tow boats are very long and the river is winding, with lots of twist and turns. If they have to take a corner they can sometimes take up the whole river.  Anyway, at one point in time they were coming towards a boat and they called him and asked for permission to pass. The tow boat captain just laughed and told him to pass on the left. When they actually passed the tow boat, the captain was in awe and he started calling all the other tow boats and telling them how they got passed by a canoe. When they actually passed every single crew man on the tow boat came out to see what was going on.  I wish I could have been there to see their faces!  So if anyone wants to read more about these two, then you can check out their web site at www.wildravenadventure.com

   As for us, we had a nice easy day. woke up early, saw Jennifer and Pierre out and then Jim cleaned the decks. We spent the afternoon at the pool and then dock tails on the Lido deck with Randy and Sherri. Tomorrow we shop. Night  all.

Where the Illinois meets the Mississippi 38◦58'079 N 090◦26'446W

   We are in Grafton Illinois, and I will not put our co-ordinates on again for a while since we will be staying here at least until Sunday, possibly Monday. Our next stop is Hoppies and they are not able to accept us until Sunday night at the earliest so we decided to stay here for the next week.

   I talk about the Pinta and the Nina the other day. I had not gotten a picture of them. This morning at 6:30 I looked out the window and there they were stealthily passing by us. It was still dawn and the black of the boat against the black of the trees, they were barely visible.  A little while later, say around 8am, we passed them on the river. Then when we arrived in Grafton, they pulled into the same marina. They are literally docked right beside us. So no worries about getting a picture now.

    The run down here was magnificent today. Very few tow barges and lots of fisherman. The river is so calm and the current running just right, we did 80 miles today and where still her by 3pm. I took a few pictures of some boats today. 1 I posted of a couple of guys fishing, the other boat was not doing so well.

  Well it is time to say goodnight, Enjoy your evening. 

The Lock that wasn't 39◦56'423N 090◦32'092W

   We had another wonderful day of cruising on the Illinois river. This section is not industrialized. Wooded areas all around for most of the trip today (see pic). Very peaceful cruising if it weren't for the wind. At one point in time the wind was howling at 24 mph. This wind though did help us in speed, because we hit the 11.2mph which is faster then we have ever seen this boat go. Jim even took a picture of our GPS/Radar so he could save it for posterity.

   I spent some more time sanding the railings today. The bottom rail is a bit more labor intensive then the top rail, so this may take a while. I am hoping to have all the railings sanded and refinished before we arrive at Joe Wheeler state park in October.

   The wind was so strong tonight that Randy called a lock and requested to tie up there. They gave us permission to do so. When we arrived though, the current was so strong that it was a real challenge to get a line on the bollard before the current pushed us away. Fortunately the veterans Randy and Sherri got their lines on and came over to give us a hand. Did I mention how much I like these two? The lock we are at is called a wicket lock. During low water the wickets are raised to dam the river to make sure there is enough depth to navigate, but during high water; such as we have currently; the wickets are lowered to the bottom of the river and we just float over them without locking through. This is the second such lock/dam we went over today. During low water we actually could be as much as 17 feet lower then we are right now. This stuff is just amazing to me.

   Tomorrow we have reservations at Grafton harbor. We plan on staying there for 2 nights. We need a little break from the boat and some time on terra firma. We certainly have made good time to date and are back on schedule so we can slow down a little bit and smell the roses.

    I have two people to respond to tonight. First Brenda- Docktail was not a typo, this is what they call cocktails on the dock and yes it is a very appropriate term (lol). Second Rhoda; Thanks for the note, Sherri and Randy say Hi. You two where the topic of conversations during our docktail hour. All 4 of us are hoping to see you again soon.  Nighty night all.  

Anchoring can be fun 40◦41.200 N 08◦935.186 W

   We had a very long run today, from Ottawa to Peoria. The ride was so uneventful that we took no pictures. We set off at 7am and landed here at 4pm and I spent the entire day outside sanding the bow railing while Jim took us safely down river. We only had one lock today and it was a 17 foot drop, otherwise the currents where with us all the way and we topped out at 10.2 miles per hour. This was perfect weather to dry some cloths so before we left I did a load of laundry and hung it out. By the time we arrived it was all dry.

   Peoria has Oktoberfest going on in September (what can I say) and we would have loved to partake in the festivities however there were no slips available to tie up to. You cannot partake in Oktoberfest and still drive your dinghy safely home! We are currently anchored right across from the festivities, so we can hear some of the music playing at least.

   When we arrived here It was windy and there were several boats anchored off in the area. Priorities set their anchor in 8 feet of water and all was well. We did not have enough swing room anywhere, We anchored once and it did not set, We anchored a second time and it set but we were swinging too close to Priorities. Someone called us on the radio and told us there was a dock normally saved for Spirit of St-Louis and it was gone for the week. So hoist up anchor and let's go. Just as we were pulling up, they called us back and said you can tie up there but you cannot get off your boat. Great! so back to the anchorage we go. We drop the anchor we hoist the anchor, SIX times !!! This is a new record for us and will go down in the history books. Twice we touched bottom, twice we where to close. By the time all was said and done it was 6pm and we were starving. So on to the dinghy we go and when we arrived at the dinghy dock, we were greeted by 3 couples who are also doing the loop. Simon and Sylvie are froggies from Montreal, so we started talking French while the other folks talked to Jim. By the time the greetings the chatting and the pictures (they had cameras) where taken it was now 7pm and now I'm getting grumpy. We arrive at the Crab shack and they have a 1hr waiting time. Now I am tired and grumpy, so we keep walking to the next place which was New Amsterdam and they have seating and quick service...they win. We had dinner and Sherrie and Randy joined us for a drink afterwards. So we are now back at the boat, have a lovely view of the Pinta and the Nina (I'll try to get pictures of them before we leave tomorrow) and we are fried. We are also being treated to a light show from the heavans. Lots of lightning but no rain yet. 

    I did include a picture of Jim tying up to a bollard and Randy Jim Sherri and I on the Lido deck for y'all Just so you have something pleasant to look at. Night all.