Beardstown to the Mississippi

October 10, 2001 - Beardstown to the Mississippi

It's raining but we decided to leave and go to Grafton. We left Beardstown around 9:00 and went through the Lagrange Lock - it was still rainy and very windy, but not too cold. In about an hour, I called Grafton on the cell phone, only to find out that they are only open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. What to do? So, I called Alton Marina, about 15 miles from Grafton to see if we can stay tonight and get diesel. Next, Tom and Bill had to do some figuring to make sure that we have enough fuel to get there. I guess they think that we do, so we're on our way to Alton. Just discovered that we don't have any running water left, as we all took showers last night. Oh, well, maybe we'll have to start the cocktail hour early - just kidding. This is going to be a long day on the river - about 9 hours or so. We'll stay in Alton for a couple of days, so we can "regroup". We passed Grafton and left the Illinois River and joined the Mississippi at Mile Marker 217. What a humongous river! We arrived at Alton with 50 gallons of diesel left just as Tom had predicted, at about 6:15 p.m. We docked with the help of a security guard and got settled in. It's almost dark, but this looks like a very nice marina. They even have some covered docks, which we have never seen before. There is a swimming pool and Jacuzzi right next to us. Bev and I fixed a spaghetti dinner, and we watched the news.