Day 2-311 in Alton, Illinois
We never knew how long Terry's father (Jim) was going to travel with us, but today is the day that he heads back home to Rockport, TX. Of course, it was very nice to have him along since Chicago, and once again we realized that it was really useful to have a third person aboard for locks, as well as docking and undocking. The picture at the right shows Terry and her father with coffee in hand about to head for the St. Louis airport. Although it was only about a 25 mile drive, we left a little early at 7:30 am since we were going to have to deal with some unknown amount of rush hour traffic.
I mentioned in yesterday's post that we had run aground entering the marina. Well, this morning the water level appeared to be something like 2 feet lower than yesterday. This was definitely not good news although we had planned to take a couple of days break here. We found out later that the Corps of Engineers had lowered the level to the minimum level at the Melvin Price Lock and Dam about one mile south of the bridge, and it would stay down for an unspecified time until water levels upstream had fallen.
The picture at the left shows Terry and her father heading into the airport to check in. I was assigned to keep the rental car from being towed away. On the way to and from the airport we did get to cross the Mississippi River both above and below where the Missouri River flows into the Mississippi River. Once again the actual junction of the two rivers is not very spectacular, but the Missouri carries enough water to about double the flow of the Mississippi River. Note, the volume of water will double again downstream when the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River. On the way back from the airport we stopped in East Alton to pick up three cases of motor oil (9 gallons) for our 3 diesel engines, which are all in need of an oil change. We also visited another auto parts store to get oil filters for the generator. The good news out of all this is that we discovered that the NAPA store that sold us the oil would also recycle the old oil after the oil change. Not all marinas offer the service of recycling used motor oil so this was important information.
In the afternoon we headed out to the local theater complex and saw the movie "This is where I leave You". Both of us liked the movie, but it was not as much of a comedy as I thought that it might be...
Day 2-312 in Alton, Illinois
Today we set out to see the movie "When the game Stands Tall", but we got there way too early. With some extra time we drove a few miles to the Lewis and Clark Memorial on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River where the Missouri River flows into it. The picture at the right show the memorial, and the picture was taken from a 40 (?) foot high dike or levee that keeps the area in this picture from flooding. Thus, part of the reason for the monument being a tower is to see over the dike to view the confluence of these two mighty rivers.
The area is very simple in its architecture, but it did include this lovely fountain. The Admiral took this picture of me in front of the fountain. For some unknown reason, she kept telling me to back up....
In May, 1804 the Lewis and Clark Expedition departed from St. Louis about 20 miles down river and came up river to this point where they headed up the Missouri River. President Thomas Jefferson had commissioned this expedition to explore the vast northern reaches of the area of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. So, it is unlikely that Lewis and Clark may have visited this spot, this is the juncture where they headed up the Missouri into vast uncharted areas. Pretty soon it was time to head back to the movie theater for the start of our movie. We will pass this spot shortly on the boat after we leave Alton and pass through the Melvin Price Lock headed south.
Later, we went to the Alton Little Theater to see the play "Leading Ladies". On the way to the theater we did get to see some big beautiful old homes higher up the hill above the city. The picture at the right is an example of one of the homes which ranged from wood to brick to native stone. We had been unable to get tickets in advance so we went and put our names on the waiting list. There were 6 people ahead of us, but fortunately there were 10 "no-shows" so we made it with room to spare. The theater was in a converted church that was about 50 years old. The group has been putting on plays in Alton for 64 years and seems to have quite a local following. The play was pretty well done, and the last 15 minutes or so was literally full of good laughs.
Speaking of churches, the picture at the left shows one of the splendid examples of older churches. Once again they were built higher up the hill than the old downtown. Presumably, this was done to protect them from flooding.
Day 2-313 in Alton, Illinois
Today was the day for oil changes in the two main diesels. The scenario is to run each of them for about 20 minutes to warm them up and hopefully get all of the bad particles in suspension in the oil. I managed to do the whole process in about 3 hours including pumping the old oil into the now empty one gallon containers that the new oil had been in. In spite of my best efforts, I end up pretty oily from head to toe. So, after a quick shower, we headed back to the NAPA store to re-cycle the oil. The timing of all of this was critical since we had made arrangements to take the rental car back about 2:00 pm. We were a little late as we stopped at a "Steak 'n Shake" for what we thought would be a quick lunch. If I am lucky, this will be both my first and last visit at this restaurant chain. The food was okay, but they took the word "fast" out of fast food...
It was a busy day with a lot of work, and we both slept well that night. Tomorrow we plan to set off early
IF we can get out of the marina in this low water. We have been watching other boats go through the channel into the marina, and with that local knowledge we are optimistic that we will be able to get out...
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