Wednesday August 24: Alton IL

We left Havana Saturday morning after breakfast. The great small diner we went to last time was now closed. Sad but then I'm not sure how any of the businesses in these small towns make it.

There just doesn't seem to be industry of any sort and I'm not sure how folks here make a living.  It's not like there is a large city nearby or anything ...

The overcast skies provided Steve the opportunity to continue sanding the railing. He now has most of the entire starboard side sanded.

The barges continue to move with us. Most are now 15 barges - 5 long by 3 wide. So 600 feet long and 90 feet wide.


Usually they are traveling about 5 mph (thanks to the AIS information from the new VHF radio!) and with our current driven 10 mph, it's not too bad trying to pass them - still like a turtle trying to pass another turtle!







Along the shore, most of the homes are built well above the river level.

Apparently well protected against the threat of flooding. I'm thinking experience ....

Our 'dock' for the night was at Beardstown - a barge from which a tow company operates. After passing the barge and turning into the current we were able to spot the pusher to which we were instructed to tie.

It was a pleasant stop although quite warm.


Sunday was a beautiful travel day again. The river is mostly tree lined with a few homes sprinkled every one in a while.


The eagles continue to be visible - mostly juvenile (so no white on the head and tail) but the occasional very visible adults. It takes 5  years for the juvenile  eagles to grow the white feathers of an adult. For more info about the bald eagle, click here.

After 68 miles we stopped at the only dock around. No power or anything - but there was a restaurant!!

Hardin, Illinois. Very, very small community. Seems like everyone came in for Sunday brunch.

But they did have wifi - which was more than we could get on the boat. No 3G or anything. No signal at all!

So Steve went to the restaurant to call Christy and Will who live in St. Louis to make arrangements to see if we could get together in a couple of days.

The night was pleasant enough but quite warm. What's with the weather??

Wednesday morning we were delayed by fog on the river so it was a sleep-in morning :-)

Finally about 9 or so we were able to shove off - next stop: the Mississippi River!

As we made the turn were the Illinois River joins the Mississippi, the cliffs formed by the glaciers were amazing - no wonder the river makes a wide sweeping turn as the waters are simply brushed aside by the massive rock formations in the way.

A lone house stood on the top of the cliffs - with some really fun looking 'caves' below it. Wouldn't those have been fun to play in as a kid?

The current continues to carry us downstream - adding an average of 2 mph to our usual speed of 8. Funny how much difference it makes going 10 mph instead of 8 mph when headed 60 miles downstream!

It wasn't long before we arrived at our place for the next few days - the Alton Marina in Alton, Illinois. Very nice marina and convenient for our planned visit to Christy and Will.

Plus we were able to finally have our mail sent (first time since we left New York). In theory we should never have anything of consequence in the mail but once in a while we have a surprise - like finding out that one of us was to have reported to jury duty!

We rented a car for a couple of days - drove around the area to check it out. It seemed that the downtown is no longer a 'downtown' as may of the businesses are now located at the edge of town in a new large mall area or the like.

Similar to many of the towns we stop at on our travels - both along the rivers and the east coast.

The National Great Rivers Museum was on our list of places to see as well. It''s located at the next lock we go through - the Melvin Price Lock. He was a senator from Illinois that fought relentlessly for this new lock as the old one just couldn't keep up with the barge traffic and was creating a bottleneck on the river.

The old lock could handle 600 feet of barge - so a tow and three barges. The new lock can handle 1200 feet of barge! This allows a tow and it's five barges to pass through in about 30 minutes instead  of the hour and a half needed to unhook and rehook the same 5 barge tow.

The museum itself was pretty well done.  Very informative. There was a guided tour of the lock but sadly the elevator to the top of the dam was broken so that part of the tour wasn't included. It would have been interesting to see the lock from above.

Swallow nests.

It was amazing to learn how much more a barge can carry as compared to a train or a truck.

There were hundreds of swallows flying around - apparently they love the concrete underside of the lock structure for their homes!

Since we had a car there was of course a major shopping trip to Walmart for supplies! Tom and Carolyn from Su Sueno had caught up to us again so it turned into a party :-)

The Magician and his assistant!!

Highlight of the stop here in Alton? A chance to visit with Christy, Will, J.P. and Kaitlyn!!

We saw them in December in DC when Nora, Mary and Christy's families gathered for the holidays. We were there visiting Wendy and Matt so it was perfect timing to see them.

A bonus was to have the chance to see Aaron who is attending Washington University (son of Nora and Mike from N. Carolina).

Another bonus? A well done magic show for after dinner entertainment compliments of J.P. and Kaitlyn :-) These kids are growing up so fast .....

Tomorrow? We'll be passing through St. Louis with a view of the arch from the river!