Alton IL

 We arrived at Alton Marina in Illinois last Tuesday after 3 of the hardest days for me on the loop.  It was a  huge relief and I felt like I was part of the civilized world again! We planned to stay for 3 nights in order to give ourselves time to rest and re-group, but circumstances and weather made us extend that stay. The weather report for this past weekend originally called for rain and thunderstorms both Saturday and Sunday and we certainly did not want to travel down the river in that, so we cancelled our Saturday night dockage reservation and the first night we could get in again was Tuesday (tomorrow) night. Just so happens that this marina loves loopers and not only is the cost of a night $1/ foot ($43 for us), they have a deal where if you pay for 3 nights you get 3 nights free! So - we had an economical stay here…

We have met new friends and re-connected with old ones as we all begin to converge on the river system doing down to the gulf coast. It has been such fun seeing people that we hadn’t seen since New York or Cleveland and swapping stories. We did laundry (twice), washed the boat (twice), replaced the impeller on the generator, installed a new anchor light, re-wired the running lights on the flying bridge, put the arch back up, put the bimimini back up, grocery shopped (the grocery store manager comes to the marina, gives you a ride to the store and back again), ate out with loopers at least 3 times, had countless docktails by the pool, defrosted the fridge, went to a farmer’s market and caught up on much-needed sleep. The WiFi here is sluggish at best and cell service spotty, but the facilities here are wonderful and so are the marina employees. We will miss it here, but it is time to move on, which we will do tomorrow.

There are 9 boats leaving in the morning, so we elect one boater to call the lock and schedule our lock-through and alert the rest of us via radio. We have to be ready to leave anytime after 6:15 am, so sure hope I sleep well tonight!

I will try to upload some pictures to this post, but no guarantees….  Our next 4 nights will be sketchy on services since we tie up to a barge tomorrow night and anchor out the next 3. I will update our travels as I am able….









Comments

Jennifer Holsen said…
So good to hear some news from you. Think of the friends you are making!!!! What a life!!
October 5, 2021 at 8:51 PM
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