Day 59-62 Grafton, Illinois

Since we were only going about 20 miles, we weren’t in a hurry to leave in the morning. We slept in a bit, which is kind of hard to do. The cats apparently are on a routine now, and meow and cause a fuss to wake us up, if we’re not awake by 7am. They expect a can of food first thing in the morning. This is the only time they get canned food, and we keep a bowl of dry kibble for them the rest of the day, if Frank doesn’t get to it. We usually keep it up on the front window ledge, but sometimes put it on the floor if cleaning, which is when Frank strikes. Before we left I took Frank for his walk, and he found a dead fish on the bank of the river to roll on. Gross. Now he will need a bath.

Grafton is one of two stops, with Alton being the second, just before the long journey with no fuel until we get to Paducah, Kentucky. There is a somewhat famous Looper place between Alton and Paducah: Hoppies Marina, which used to have fuel, but they were also negatively affected by the floods, so they do not have fuel this year. Even with no fuel, it is a ‘must stop’ to at least say you’ve been there, and get valuable river information from one of the longest surviving family owned marinas on the Mississippi. At this point in our trip we do need to plan a little farther out due to it being so desolate. There are anchorages, but some are not good when there is high water levels and the river is rising according to our sources.

We had called ahead and reserved a spot in Grafton. Approaching the harbor, like most around here means you have to pass it, then turn back upstream to enter. Shoaling tends to develop which will make it shallow, but they dredge the entrances clear following the flow of the river. Most of the docks here are covered, but there are a few at the ends which are not. We could not fit under the covered dock due to the mast, so we were assigned an end slip; we were good with this as it made it easier to dock. Another interesting fact about this marina is everything is floating: The docks, the office, the restaurant, the pool- all built on floating cement pads, with huge poles 30 feet tall and anchored in for them to raise and sink in place. When we looked on Nebo, there were several Looper’s here, and some had been here for up to a week or more. The marina has a deal for Looper’s: pay for three nights, get one free. Pay for four nights, get two free. We hadn’t decided if we were going to stay four nights or six. So far everyone had been good and easy going about deciding, except maybe IVY, which ended up working out anyway. On approach, we passed a few boats that we knew for other marinas, as far back as Joliet and the fateful lock incidents. There was a dock hand ready to grab our lines and we docked with no issues. Once secure the usual routine was had and I waited for Lauren and Frank to return.

I mentioned it has been hot and Grafton has a pool. Lauren went there and I hung out on the dock, giving Frank a bath and the boat a wash down, as well as getting the blog caught up. Almost there. Once done cleaning the boat I moved to the shade and a small bar was set up with chairs around it, sans alcohol. It was someone’s set up in front of their boat slip right next to us. The slip was empty, so I made myself comfortable in the shade. Eventually we were hungry and made our way to the restaurant on site, The Grafton Oyster Bar. We had some dinner and retired for the evening.

The next morning we took the bikes for a ride around town. We had lunch at a roadside fish stand and had Buffalo Fish, which we’ve seen on the menu at Mel’s but wasn’t sure what it was. According to this guy, Craig Phillips, “If you’ve eaten the baked fish in one of the common buffet-style cafeterias in America, you’ve probably eaten buffalo fish. In fact, the smallmouth buffalo is the most commonly sold commercial fish in America. Buffalo can be very difficult to catch, as most species feed primarily on vegetative matter like algae. But when you do hook one, they can be great fighters. They also grow very large, so if you can find some buffalo that are willing to bite, you could tangle with a 20-pound fish. Obviously, most buffalo are good eating fish, or they wouldn’t be commercially harvested. As members of the sucker family, they are rather bony. Some people pressure cook and can them, others fillet and score them to allow the oil to soften any small bones when deep frying, and they are pretty good smoked.” Some people actually use bow and arrow to ‘catch’ them. The fish was tasty. We eventually returned to the boat and I continued working on this blog and Lauren went back to the pool. As I was sitting there some people next to the empty slip between us arrived and was preparing their boat. We spoke and I asked if it was okay for me to use? He responded yes, and we got to chatting. Dave and his wife Karen were awesome. Dave is a musician on the side and I had noticed the musical notes on the boat. I had also noticed a flyer hanging around the marina about a ‘Harbor-Q’ scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, with live music and covered dishes. He was going to be playing at the party. The day passed on and . Lauren and I walked to a winery close by: Aeries. It is located on top of a hill and is supposedly the best view in the Midwest. It overlooks the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and is quite a spectacular view. I mentioned we walked, and the walk was a trek a quarter mile almost straight up. We had brought Frank along as well. There is a sign at the base that says 1/4 mile to winery- half way up there was another sign saying 1/4 mile to winery. This was a trick! We eventually made it, out of breath and sweating dripping off of us. We earned our wine today. We hung out for a couple of hours drinking and eating and listening to the live music enjoying the view, then made the walk down. This was much easier. Later I found myself hanging out with Dave, Karen and their friends who showed up and docked right behind us. They have a 45 foot boat, and we moved forward a bit to try to accommodate them so they didn’t hang out in the fairway too much. We ended up staying up late and having a good time until early morning hours.

Saturday we slept in a bit as we had nothing planned. We did nothing all day and it was as wonderful as it sounds. Later it was ‘Harbor-Q’ time, so we wandered up to the area and had some food. There was also a ceremony taking place with a flag raising of the largest flag on the Mississippi. It was quite a ceremony, with speakers and honoring of veterans. The ceremony concluded with the flag raising and fireworks, We listened to the band for a while and drank some beers. It wasn’t a late night, and we retired peacefully.

Sunday we had put our reservation in for their courtesy car. It was a van I had been told from other loopers we’ve spoken to, and was handed a set of keys to a pick up truck. I thought maybe they have a couple of courtesy cars, so I found the truck and wasn’t sure what to think. It was a work truck, and the bed was filled with large gas cans and empty beer case boxes. I pulled the truck to the end of our dock, and threw out the beer cases. One of the gas cans was tipped over and a stream of fuel was filling the truck bed. I retrieved Lauren, and once inside, we were overwhelmed with the smell of gas. This was not something we wanted to drive 20 minutes in to a store, so I went back to the office to ask for the van if it was available. The receptionist looked at me and said “what did I give you?” I explained about the truck, and she looked horrified. She had given me the wrong set of keys. Now that we had the van keys, we located it and started off. The check engine light was on, the headliner was falling down and it made strange grinding sounds, but we carried on anyway. No a/c and it was hot already. We went to a Walmart, through back country roads and cornfields, and stocked up on items needed such as dog/cat food, engine oil, and miscellaneous food and supplies. We were working against the clock as we wanted to get back to watch the Cleveland Browns game. We are an hour behind so it started at 12 noon here. We’re still on Chicago time. We made it back to the boat around 12:15 or so, fired up the a/c and watched the game. What a game! Later we wandered down to another bar, The Loading Dock, according to the website: Once the area’s best kept secret, The Loading Dock has become known as a top St. Louis destination.  Featuring stunning river views, outdoor dining, live music, monthly flea markets, overnight accommodations, and seasonal ice skating, The Loading Dock guarantees a fun time for all.” There was live music and we did have a good time with a great sunset.

We had decided we will be departing tomorrow for Alton. It is the last stop before the long stretch, but we hear they have great facilities, a pool, and we can rent a car to get to St. Louis from there. We want to tour The Arch, visit Anheuser Busch brewery and maybe the stadium, and explore some of the city. There were no car rental places near Grafton, so Alton it is. Again it is a short trip, about 14 miles and they also have buy three day, get one or two free deals and cheap fuel. They have been affected in a different way. They are very shallow right now, and it will be close to see if we can get in and out without grounding.

We are now caught up (kind of) with where we are and what we’ve done. I am posting this from Alton, which we are secured at a dock and heading to the pool, as it is 90 degrees at 11am. We will be in Alton for a few days and will post updates on a regular basis.

Thanks for following along and please leave comments and tell others about the blog!