Day 2-310 to Alton, IL on the Mississippi River

     We left the anchorage near Mortland Island about 7:00 am with a destination of Alton, Il on the Mississippi River about 33.3 miles away. While on the Illinois River, we continued to see large flocks of White Pelicans. They seemed like this was where they had spent the summer since we never saw any large flocks like this flying overhead. This flock was really crowded onto the end of this sand spit, but remember that they are "herders". They swim in the shallow water and herd small fish into the shallows where they surround them. Then it is dinner time...

     The sides of the valley often had nice limestone cliffs where the river had once been eroding at the base of the cliffs. You can see some small areas of shadows in the cliff face, and this is where the ground water percolating down from above has dissolved away some of the rock.

     Later, we were to see some large caves in the cliff face. There is a railroad track between the river and the cliff face. There is also a tunnel for the highway so that some of these "caves" may have been enlarged to make a tunnel for the highway (?). Okay, as a retired geology professor, I still like rocks, but I am not "big" on caves. I have been down 4,850 feet in a mine in Butte, Montana and have done a little caving in largely unmapped caves.  However, I have given up on caves due to just a little bit of claustrophobia...

     The Illinois River entered the Mississippi River after about 14 miles into today's trip. The junction is rather unremarkable, except that the Mississippi River becomes wider as a result of the extra water from the Illinois. The city of Grafton, Illinois is just below the junction and has a marina that is popular with Loopers, but we could not get a reservation there due to the large number of Loopers in the area. Just below the junction of the Illinois River and the Mississippi River, we saw this Madonna called "Our Lady of the Rivers" that was erected to honor a flood that was averted in 1951.

     We arrived in our destination of Alton, Illinois and ate lunch at the marina's deli. The marina is just upstream of this beautiful new suspension bridge over the Mississippi River.  We ran aground as we entered the marina. It was a soft grounding in mud, and I just backed up while turning around to get out of the mud. Thus, we actually came into the marina backwards... Anyway we got a much needed pump out before going to our slip.
     Thanks to a tip from the marina staff we got a rental car through the local Toyota dealership. The marina is right between the downtown area and the Mississippi River, but there are parks, railroad tracks and a fairly major highway in between. Thus, we drove to Mac's Restaurant downtown for dinner. The restaurant occupied at least three storefronts, which included most of a city block. There was a dance hall, gambling area, bar with booths and a special function room. Really good food but as usual in a "bar" there was too much food.