Our river adventure continues, from the Illinois River onto the Upper Mississippi River. Our first two stops, Grafton, IL and Alton, IL were very similar marinas. Grafton is on the Illinois River and just 17 short miles away, Alton is on the Mississippi River. Both marinas had their entire infrastructure on floating piers…not just the dock slips (of which many were covered slips), but also their office, pools, ships store, restaurants, and bathhouses as well. Alton Marina had extremely tall pilings to handle substantial water level fluctuations. We met up with several looper friends at both marinas, including congratulating Greg & Helen on River Ranger for “crossing their wake” (completing the loop) at Grafton and later Rick & Christi on Inked Mermaid in Alton. They are now both “Gold” Loopers and can fly a gold burgee on their bow pulpit. We fly a white burgee, symbolizing we are on our first loop. During docktails at the Alton Marina, we had the crews of 22 looper boats in attendance. Wow!
In Grafton, we rode the SkyTour to take us up to a hilltop winery. We also learned that Grafton is the home of wintering Bald Eagles and visitors ride up to the winery in the winter for spectacular views of the eagles. We’ve had the privilege of seeing many bald eagles soaring overhead on our river travels.
After leaving Alton and transiting two locks, gracious looper friends took our picture as we motored by the St. Louis Arch. Our next stop was at Hoppies, literally a barge on the river in Kimmswick, MO, where we tied up overnight. Right next door was an Anheuser Estate on a huge plot of land in which Murphy enjoyed several off leash romps.
However, the best part was walking a short distance to town to enjoy home cooking at The Blue Owl, famous for their desserts. We met Mary, who has run the business for 36 years. She asked if we were loopers when we walked in. Are we that obvious? The day before in the grocery store, the check-out clerk asked if I was a boater. Hum…I have been taking regular showers!
We are now headed toward Paducah, KY and stopping at several anchorages (and a lock wall) along the Upper Mississippi. When anchored, Dave often takes Murphy to shore in our dinghy to do his business. The water level is so low, the river bank was quite muddy. If you zoom in you might see Dave’s mud “socks”.
Below are some pictures as we traveled down the Upper Mississippi
Fun Facts: Distanced traveled so far: 3,888 miles in 186 days, stopping at 117 unique locations and traversing through 55 locks.
Thanks for following along on our adventure,
Brenda with Captain Dave, and Mighty Murphy