Day 150 – 152; Oct 18 – 20: We left our anchorage behind Quiver Island around 11:00 am, having waited to get started since there were tugs with barges in the locks. Carol had already been on her zoom call since 7:00 am, so Tonia joined Gary to handle the lines, fenders and anchoring. We proceeded to the La Grange lock where we anchored for about 30 minutes, waiting our turn. Gary and Tonia managed Legacy in to the lock, where we went down 8 feet. Carol’s break was timed perfectly so she was able to help get us off the wall of the lock and Tonia went back to her own boat. All worked out and then it was back to the Zoom call until 3:15 pm while Gary navigated on his own for a few hours. We arrived at our next anchorage behind Willow Island around 5:30 where magically, dinner was ready! Mayli and Boris made pork and chicken filled fried rice while Barb made a carrot and raisin salad as well as amazing white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies! Starship and Surprise joined as well with grilled chicken fingers and a salad.
This brought together 4 boys all between 11 and 12 years old who had a blast rowing a dinghy around with 2 dogs. What could possibly go wrong there? Well how about not tying up the dinghy when you take the dogs on shore? No worries – it was one of the Moms to the rescue on a kayak! Later, they had a blast chasing flies and little gnats in Legacy with the zapping tennis racket bug killing thingies…. We were quite grateful for their “work” and they had a blast….just little Huck Finn trick!
Thursday, 10/19 was another early start for Carol (on Zoom by 7:30 am). Shortly after coffee and on a zoom break, we broke up the raft around 9:30 and headed to Grafton, arriving a little after 1:00, right when Carol’s call ended. Perfect timing! After everyone got settled and had a quick lunch, we were off to the Grafton Sky tour, a ski lift that takes you to the top of a hill where you can ride the Alpine coaster, do a zip line adventure or enjoy a full service restaurant with a big deck and view of the valley. We all enjoyed the Alpine Coaster that reaches speeds of 28 miles per hour while screaming around tight corners…. Or was that Carol screaming?…… anyway. We passed on the zip line being a 1.5 hour commitment with a hike between 4 different zip lines; that cold beer was calling very loudly at this point! Around 5:00 it was back down the ski lift while some headed to the restaurant and bar at the marina (Grafton Oyster Bar) and some took the marina courtesy car to the grocery store, but all ended up at the Oyster Bar later. Food was fabulous – highly recommend the seafood ravioli or the jambalaya.
We only spent one day in Grafton, which bills itself as the Key West of the Mid West. Kind catchy, but we weren’t so sure about that, although we did see lots of restaurants, bars, wineries and craft breweries.
Leaving Grafton, we crossed onto the mighty Mississippi River where we found the river 2-3 times wider than the Illinois with a lot more maneuvering room for both us and the tugs. We’ve been warned the barge configurations will be much larger and the traffic will be greater on the Mississippi.
As we progress southward, the leaves are beginning to turn and we enjoyed the views of the quarries which provided 1000’s of jobs back in the day. Grafton stone was used to construct many buildings and homes in Grafton, but was also transported to St. Louis for use in structures like the Old Cathedral and the Eads Bridge.
Next stop Alton where we will spend a few day and use that as our home base to tour St. Louis. Hoping to visit with Rick and Heidi Vierstra (cousin) while we are here and of course get the obligatory picture of the boat in front of the arch.
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