Thursday afternoon we left Grafton on the Illinois River and started our way down the mighty Mississippi!! We had no locks and only 14 miles to get to Alton Marina. It's another warm sunny day...but the wind has picked up and we have seen gusts up to 26 knots.
It is amazing how quickly the landscape changed from flat lands to bluffs on the IL side.
We got into Alton and had plenty of time to clean up and head over to Argosy Casino for a little early evening entertainment. 😉
Friday morning we woke up to a gray and windy day. We had two locks and 44 miles to Hoppie's Marina, which is simply three barges tied onto a high stone cliff with cables. On the way to Hoppie's we went through St. Louis passing the Gateway Arch! We got into Hoppie's at 2:30 and it was time for a little nap. It's Friday the 13th so we ordered a pizza that was delivered to the marina and watched a scary move called Babadook. It was pretty good.....scary with a good storyline.
Heading into the Mel Price Lock, our first of the day.
Passing the St. Louis Gateway Arch
Tied up on the barge in Hoppie's
Bill attended Hoppie's daily river briefing while I took Roxie for a walk. Look! Roxie and I found Mater!
Saturday morning we left Hoppie's at 7 for a short 4 hour run to the Kaskasia Lock where we anchored for the night. It was a dreary day with with pretty good winds. We decided on a short run because we wanted watch the OSU football game. Now that the mast was back up we can also get the dingy down and so some exploring and get Roxie to shore.
Roxie got to shore, but there wasn't a whole lot of exploring to do. We ended up going to bed at 7.
Sunday morning Bill was up at 5am and made a hearty breakfast of sausage gravy and biscuits. We had originally planned on a 65 mile run today to Diversion Channel to anchor, but being that we made good time with the current, we decided to push on to the Boston Bar anchorage another 45 miles
We arrived at 5:3, set the anchor and got Roxie up to the sandy shore as the sun was setting.
The Diversion Channel, which we decided to pass and keep going.
There's a tug boat in all that rubble!
Anchored at the Boston Bar Anchorage. Yep, as you can see we were in the river, in 3 knots of current, hiding from the barges behind a bridge support column. 😕
Monday morning we were off early again to finish up the last leg on the Mississippi River and start our trek against the current on the Ohio River. We had to anchor and wait for the Olmstead Lock for about an hour and a half.....from what were hearing it wasn't a bad wait. We are headed to Paducah, KY where have hope to stay on the town dock.
In the Olmstead Lock
We made it to the Paducah town lock to find there was no room for us! They did say that if we found someone that would let us raft off of them, the would allow it. After doing some checking, the crew on Dove kindly let us raft off of them.
Dinner at Doe's Eat Place. That steak fed us for 4 meals! LOL!
Coming back to the boat after dinner.
God speed to you and Captain Bill!
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