Sunday September 28, 2014

Another wonderful night's sleep and feeling well rested. Before I got up Allan and Mary Lynn were entertaining themselves with reminiscing on Ancestry.com, many of stories coming to the surface. I had lots of chuckles listening to them.

 

Allan grinding his decaf kick ass coffee beans.

 

 

The marina here in Alton is very nice, apparently one of the nicer marinas the Fracas has been docked at on this trip.

There are two spotlessly clean shower houses, one for men and the other for women. Each shower house has 3 units, all of which are complete with towels, shampoo, cream rinse, soap, body lotion, hair dryer and more. You just need to take your change of clothing with you.

 

 

 

 

Anyone want to go in on the purchase of this boat with me? I haven't checked out the price yet but the phone number is on the for sale sign.

 

Today's driving tour first took us to a tourist stop and hiking trails called Piasa,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piasa

 This is a paining of the Piasa bird in the legend.

Some of the unique shops in Grafton, a previous 

dockage of the Fracas on her looper sailing.

 This could certainly come in handy!

This house is built on stilts

- in the event the river floods again.

 

The 1993 water level here shows 38.2 on this building.

 

Following our trip to Grafton we took a tour of the Mel Price locks we will be passing through tomorrow on the Fracas.

 

 

 

Inside the interpretive centre at the locks this fellow greeted us, Greg thought he should invite him along on our trip. 

 

This is a simulator where you can steer the tow boats down the river and into the locks. Greg did very well, Mary Lynn crashed us on the way in. It was great fun.

 

 

Enlarge this so you can read this unbelievable information.

 

Thousands of cliff swallow nests at the locks.

 The high water level of 1993 is on a long

narrow plaque on the wall beside Allan.

The skull of a Woolley Mammoth found in the lock.

 

 

This year is the 150th anniversary of St. Louis. The "sesquicentennial anniversary"

This afternoon at 5:00 the temperature is 90 F

in the shade and no one is complaining (only Allan of course but we did find him a shady spot).

There was a Calliope playing on the American Queen  this evening - the sound was beautiful. Here is a sample for your enjoyment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNBEVAmPwDk&list=PLQxMBmKRrsy0MrkJMXHCVtghq3POhUjio