September 30 2013 Grafton, Illinois Grafton Harbor Marina

Morning fog

We woke up to a heavy  blanket of ground fog but since we decided to eat breakfast at the Riverdock restaurant again we figure it would burn off before we left the dock.

Mary and I ordered omelettes.  I wasn't prepared for the massive edifice laid before me.  I couldn't even come close to finishing it and lying in wait was the cherry pie they had so carefully set aside for us the previous night..  So there I was with this gargantuan omelette accompanied by an enormous piece of cherry pie.  Life is not dull out here.  Did someone mention blood sugar?

Heading towards Grafton

We wound up leaving around 10 am and made it to Grafton around 1 pm.   Easy run, no locks, no barges basically just a winding river which began to widen the closer we approached Grafton and the junction of the Mississippi.

Grafton marina

There were pretty strong winds at Grafton but luckily  we were docking where the winds were blowing us into the dock so I just brought the boat parallel and it drifted in without any interference with me.  Easy in, but possibly not so easy out.  We'll see tomorrow how the winds play out.

We passed on a group going on a Walmart run (there are several loopers here).  The marina courtesy van is a big full sized, old red Dodge van complete with the typical courtesy van decor: well worn, not pretty but  perfectly functional.  My kind of vehicle.







While our fellow loopers scampered around Walmart we attended to unfinished laundry and many email and software updates that have been languishing of late.

Later that evening we got together with the other loopers for drinks and dinner across the street.  What began as a planing session evolved into a looper tales event.  We did though end up agreeing to leave for Alton tomorrow morning around 9-10 am.  Alton is about 20 miles down stream, but down stream on the Mississippi river now not the Illinois river. We will probably end up staying there 2 days as we wait for some packages to arrive at Hoppies (another marina) down river

Grafton marina laundry room

Here at  Grafton  is the junction of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.  There is an impressive amount of barge traffic chugging through on both rivers.  The Mississippi is visible even though we are technically still on the Illinois river

The city itself is a typical small river town.   We had to walk 6 blocks to the yogurt stand!   The marina staff here are really fun and the river traffic makes it a pretty interesting.  We do have a floating pool and hot tub but what lured us was the snug little laundry room.  Hey, you gotta do what ya gotta do :-)




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