Day 98 – Sunday, September 19, 2010

090°26.298’ W
38°58.115’ N
Grafton, Illinois (day 6)

RAIN – RAIN and more RAIN! Last night was a boom bang type of night and sounded like the fireworks a few hours before. At times there was enough lightening to read by! The weather service has predicted flooding north of us which is not good when on the river. All the run off flows to the Mississippi and were staying on the junction of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. The debris and flotsam will increase and make the trip down the Mississippi a little uncomfortable.

We bowered the pickup and made a quick trip to Lowe’s to purchase 8 five gallon gerri cans to carry an extra 40 gallons of gas. We expect to get underway at 6:30am tomorrow and refuel in Alton at 8am. From there we will pass through two locks then cruise past the arch at St. Louis, MO. From there we will cruise down the Mississippi to Hoppies Marina in Kimmswick, MO where we will spend the night and top off our fuel tanks.

A couple looper boats came into the marina late in the afternoon and after having chips and dip we went to dinner with Chris, Bruce, Leslie and Greg Marsh. As always the company was great and the food was adequate enough to keep us going for one more day!

The next four days will be interesting: day 1 (60 miles) and day 2 (52 miles) will be reasonable days. Day 3 (128 miles) will be a very long day because there isn’t any place to stop and anchor on the Mississippi until we reach the mouth of the Ohio! On day 4 (91 miles) we will enter the Ohio then Cumberland River and arrive at the Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, KY.

The weather looks good for the next few days and the water up stream of us should stay up there until we get out of its way!