Peoria to Beardstown, IL

October 8 - 9, 2001 - Peoria to Beardstown, IL

We stayed in Peoria on Monday. We thought we could find some shopping in town, but the cabbie told us that the downtown is all business offices and that all the shops had moved out to a nearby mall. He took us out there and we shopped a little while, had lunch and then took a bus back to downtown Peoria to go to the library so we could check our e-mail and the web page. However, it was Columbus Day, so they were closed. Walked around town, and found out that the cabbie was right - no shops. Bev did find one antique mall, so that kind of saved the day. Went back to the boat and had a pork chop dinner, worked on the computer (when the modem would stay connected) and went to bed.

Tuesday we left Peoria for the Peoria Lock, which was very close by and we went through with the pleasure craft "One Too Many". We are now on a working part of the river, with winds gusting up to 35k. We're working our way through a maze of barges, riverboats and dredges. We just passed the Delta Queen Riverboat, loaded with senior citizens, and the Dixie Express Tow and the Dell Butcher Tow. We called the Riversedge Boat Club at Browning Ill. and they said we could stay there, and get diesel. However, when we arrived, there was a big boat tied up waiting to get diesel. He was having diesel trucked down to him and it was going to take an hour or so, and there wasn't any place for us to tie up so we decided to go on to Beardstown. The Riversedge Boat Club was only a tiny dock next to an old beat up restaurant and it looked pretty grim. At Beardstown we had to tie up to a barge - a young man from the working tow helped us tie up, and soon the boat "One Too Many" arrived and tied up in front of us. They didn't have diesel and said we'd have to get it in Grafton. We visited with Todd (owner) and Carl(captain) from "One Too Many", and Bev and I went to town. We mailed some letters, and got a few supplies at a Mexican grocery store. We had dinner at a little restaurant nearby, The Riverview . The whole scene had something to be desired.