Ottawa to St Louis - on the Mississippi

After a very enjoyable Labor Day at Heritage Marina near Ottawa, Illinois, we continued our journey down the Illinois River on Tuesday. At this point of the trip, there are not many choices for marinas nor good anchorages and proper planning is essential. Although we considered many anchorages along the way, we traveled over 70 miles because we were able to get a “slip” (tied to the gas dock) at The Illinois Valley Yacht Club for the night and joined fellow loopers “Pookie II”, “Rick and Roll”, and “Meander” for dinner across the railroad tracks at a local bar. The next morning, along with “Meander” we decided to bypass Peoria and continue our journey with the goal of reaching St. Louis for the weekend. The upper Illinois River is the least appealing part of our journey to date – very industrial with many barges – so we are looking forward to the Tennessee River in another few weeks! As stated in earlier posts, due to the Fish Barrier, it costs us $600 to be towed through the barrier created to keep Asian Carp out of Lake Michigan. Not only do Carp eat all vegetation and upset the environment, they also jump out of the water and are actually dangerous to boaters. (We witnessed a boater getting hit on the head by one!) When we arrived at our evening anchorage, we were very surprised to find a carp had landed in the dingy and joined us for a ride. Here is a picture of Jack holding our $600 Carp!

Our scheduled departure of 8 AM was delayed to after 9 due to heavy fog but we were still able to travel another 50+ miles to an anchorage behind Quiver Island at mile 121 (only 121 more miles to the Mississippi River). We joined Ron and Marji for appetizers on “Meander”, had dinner on “Still Busy”, and ran the generator so we could watch “America’s Got Talent” on the TV. Once again, due to heavy fog, our departure on Thursday was delayed until after 9 and but we still traveled to mile 46 (another 70+ mile day) to another anchorage at Buckhorn Island where we rafted with “Meander” for a pot luck dinner and early bedtime.
The lower Illinois River is much more appealing with less industry, fewer commercial barges, and trees and vegetation along the shore. This made for an easier trip on Friday. We arrived at the junction of the Illinois River and Mississippi River (mile 0 of the Illinois and 300 miles – 8 locks - from the Little Calamet River where we departed a week ago) mid-afternoon and were all amazed that we were at this junction of the trip. The “mighty” Mississippi River holds a lot of mystique and we were in awe. We continued for 15 miles to Alton Marina where we had reservations for the weekend. This is one of the nicest marinas we have ever seen – covered slips, new floating docks, swimming pool, hot tubs, and great shower facilities. A great place to stay for a few days and visit St. Louis. The next 3 pictures are our first view of The Mississippi as we departed the Illinois, rock cliffs on the River, and Alton Marina.

On Saturday, we rented a car for the weekend and drove the short distance into St Louis and spent the afternoon at the famous “Gateway to the West Arch” as well as an local art show near downtown. We also met some long time friends, Rick and Nanette Rice, for dinner at one of Jacks favorite restaurants in St Louis. Good food, good wine, great time reminiscing about our many memories together. The first picture is us at the top of the Arch and the next is dinner with the Rick and Nanette. On Sunday, we toured the “Lewis and Clark Museum” and did some much needed reprovisioning as we prepared to leave on Tuesday. Monday is devoted to maintenance day – change oil and filters, washing the boat inside and outside, etc. Once again, we look forward to continuing our trip but have really enjoyed the weekend in Alton and the St Louis area. We are 300 miles or so from Kentucky Lake and will slow down our journey at that point. Our plans are to travel up the Cumberland River for a side trip to Nashville as well as another side trip up the Tennessee River to Knoxville before reaching Mobile in early November.