Day 37 onward to Hoppies Marina - a Looper "favorite"

     This morning we did another quick trip to shore at the boat launch ramp before stowing the Kayak and taking off.  We left the lock wall at 6:45 am, and we hope to arrive at Hoppies Marina mid to late afternoon. Since it is a short trip, we will be going at our normal cruising speed to enjoy the views as well as save fuel and wear and tear on the engines. After all, it is not a race even though we want to get off the Mississippi River in a timely fashion to avoid long wait for flood events.

     We started to see more power plants as well as some industry probably directly related to our approaching St. Louis, Missouri. I was impressed by the size of this cement plant although we really did not get a good view of the limestone quarry and much of the transportation for the aggregate. Once again, transport of the product is by barge, railroad and probably trucks as well.

      We arrived at Hoppies around 3:30 pm.  The marina was interesting, super friendly folks, and have a wonderful reputation with the Great Loopers. I met Fern and her daughter. We had not stopped here on our trip down river during our first Loop because we came past here in the early afternoon and decided to keep going so that we could do the Mississippi River in only 2 days. The photo at the left shows the dock at Hoppies that consists of barges anchored about 50 feet from shore. As you can see, the moorings are really stout, and as it turned out we had to contend with the current and some large debris.

     Lucky was pleased to be able to take walks on land finally and I promised her many miles this evening and tomorrow morning.  The Admiral figured that I was tired of sitting on my rear too. I did manage over 3 miles walking with Lucky, and the Admiral added another couple of miles. The skies did darken, but fortunately our efforts were not thwarted by rain. There was also a little town about a mile away, but I never made it that far in any of my walks. A very short distance up river from Hoppies is this rather pretty horse farm (photo at right). The Anheuser name is famous as the Anheuser-Busch Company that is the famous beer brewing company. The horse barns are adjacent to the right and prominently feature several programs for giving challenged children opportunities to ride horses as part of their therapy program.

     The photo at the left shows another view of the dock, but it also shows the shoreline. The fresh dirt is part of the sediment deposited during recent floods. Right behind me was a boat launch ramp, and according to Fern, they had something like 20 truckloads of dirt hauled out to re-expose the launch ramp. They have 3 dwellings on the property, and all of them sit directly on the bank so they were flooded as well. This is unfortunately probably a regular event (or normal cost of doing business here). With time the rains will wash this sediment on the bank back into the river, and the whole process will repeat itself again next time.

     I cannot resist one last picture, and it is of this classic Chris-Craft from the late 1950s (?). It is a classic woody with the downturned deck right at the bow, which was a design feature that I believe was exclusive to C-C. It looked to be in very good condition, except for needing a good paint job.

One change to our plans for tomorrow (Day 38) are to go to the Alton Marina, in Alton, IL instead of Grafton, IL at the start of the Illinois River.  We will stay there for only one night and then go on to Grafton. The reason for this stop is that their diesel fuel prices at $1.999/gallon are the lowest in the area so we will refuel before moving on. We have plenty of fuel left, but a really good price is hard to pass up... Besides, we stayed in Alton on the last Loop and enjoyed the city very much.