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Published: September 28th 2016
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Wing Island IL
Anchored here a mere half mile from "Living Aboard" The past number of days have been busy ones. Because of the heat, we decided to stay in Havana for a couple days. The arrival of two other boats both from Ontario to keep us company finalized the decision.
The family that had been docked in Peoria with us the day before showed up the day after us. This is the couple (James and Nancy) from Peterborough with two young boys (Lucas and Marcos) aboard “Living Life”. We had a great time visiting, as these were some of the first boaters we met who are closer to our age. As Nancy had commented, while everyone on “the loop” is so friendly and kind, it is nice to chat with someone your own age. Nancy has a very similar personality and sense of humor to mine; there were times she would say something that was exactly something I would say. On top of it all, I got to finally meet her sons, and have some “kid” time.
Shortly after their arrival, another boat from Ontario arrived carrying a son and father team, Andrew and Jack. Both again, are very easy going and we ended up having a good
Mississippi River
The water must get VERY high sometimes...we saw many houses on stilts this tall or even taller. Seems a little drastic, but must be for a purpose. visit on the dock.
Havana is a sweet little town, complete with cobblestone streets and storefronts from the early 1900’s. However, it, like so many small American towns, sits half empty and run down. The people, on the other hand, are friendly, down to earth, helpful and kind. It is something even the two young boys noticed and found surprising. One of them actually asked his mom “why is everyone so nice to us?”
It did strike a chord to hear that. It seems on the water, people are more relaxed, less guarded and open to strangers. Perhaps in our every day lives, it is harder to slow down and remember to consider others, we have so much to do in a day. But it made me a little sad this young boy found it so remarkable to experience generosity and kindness from strangers. We expect it from friends and family, but it is still unexpected when it comes from someone we don’t know. It was a reminder to me of part of the original purpose of this trip; to share love not only with those we know, but to demonstrate love to anyone and everyone we meet.
Leaving Havana, we traveled about 80 miles and anchored for the night off a little island. Ironically, it turned out Living Life anchored ½ a mile further down, just on the other end of the island. We had a fun time honking and calling out over the hailer (sort of like a PA) to see if we could hear each other (yes, this is our kind of entertainment when anchored on a boat…).
From our anchorage spot, we departed at 8:00am to arrive in Grafton, IL on Saturday afternoon. This is where we finally end our voyage on the Illinois River and join the Upper Mississippi. We decided to spoil ourselves and go into the marina for the night as we had heard that Grafton has a lovely marina. Upon arrival we found out that the marina also has a pool, hot tub, amazing restaurant, and…a winery! My kind of place.
Upon arrival, we learned there was a “rat rod” show just a couple blocks away. I was a little afraid to ask what a “rat rod” is, but apparently, it is just home built cars using spare parts. Amazing to see what people can
come up with.
That evening, we ate a fabulous dinner with our new friends, Andrew and Jack, feasting on alligator (yes, I ate alligator! Guess what? Tastes like chicken…ha ha), fresh oysters and crawfish – seemed a pretty apropro dinner in celebration of hitting the Mississippi.
With full stomachs, we decided to hit the pool. Although a shower was one of our first indulgences after we arrived, we figured all those killer chemicals in the pool would do away with anything left hanging on! At the pool, we met up again with some fellow loopers including Nancy and James. Their boys were already well established in the pool and happy to have new people join them in the pool.
Lukus and I both enjoyed splashing around and getting to know the boys better (I know more now about Yu-Gi-Oh than I think I will ever need to). Funniest moment of the evening: Marcos, the youngest at age 7, heard how much I love hanging out with kids. He looked up at me with an innocent face and offered “you can borrow me anytime you want. Even for a whole day!”
Leaving Grafton early on Sunday morning,
Grafton Marina
Beautiful marina with covered slips, a pool, hot tub (not really hot...but at least warm), restaurant and...wine! we flew down the Mississippi past the St. Louis Arch. It is ironic how 10 knots (approximately 11.5 miles per hour) would have sounded painfully slow before, but now, compared to traveling at 6.5 – 7.5 knots, it feels like you are zooming by everything. With the strong current of the Mississippi helping us along, we are able to cruise at 9-10 knots and still burn only 0.4 to 1 gallon an hour! We even reached an all time record speed of 12 knots! (May seem trivial, but these kind of moments are truly thrilling when you are on a journey like this…it’s the little things!)
Since then, we have anchored in a couple spots overnight, enjoying a day of rest in a particularly beautiful spot yesterday. Today, we are voyaging on our last leg of the Mississippi, where we will meet up with the Ohio river. For those who have ever thought of boating down this way, this has been one of the most scenic parts of the river voyage so far!
Just asked Lukus if there is anything he wanted to add...his response “we are still looking for the edge!”
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Tom Whitney
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M-I-SS-I-PP-I
Where is the second ISS? You and Lukus seem to be having the time of your life - congratulations on that! We are on holidays as well. Today we visited the Martyers shrine & St. Marie's of the Hurons - interesting but not like yours.. Enjoy Tom