Last night we sat on the back deck and watched a fantastic lightning show. The noice from the storm kept Shelly awake and scrambling for quieter sleeping areas.
In the a.m., without showers or any other luxuries, we untied and left Logston Tug Service. Within a few minutes we hit the first lock, and we ended up waiting for 2 hours to get through. We anchored and waited.
After the lock, it was great guns to get to Saint Charles, Missouri. With cameras out, we tried to catch a picture of the "flying" fish. Are they carp? Rick did manage to get a picture for you to see. It was so funny.
At Grafton, we left the Illinois River and turned onto the Mississippi River. It was a beautiful area. We arrived at Port Charles marina and we thought we were checking in at the Ritz. We received can koozies, an entire book full of maps and things to do, and a key float. The slip was $30, the slip was covered, the laundry service is free, the docks are all soft water, the gas was $3.19 a gallon, and we have a courtesy van that we can use during our stay. Can you imagine! A police boat went by, and Kip, seeing that, decided he wanted to be a water patrol here so he could drive the cool boat.
We drove into St. Charles (the town) and shopped: Kip and Rick for boat parts, and Wendee and Shelly for clothes. We had dinner at the River View Restaurant and even had a one-act guitar player / singer who was fun to listen to (but not entirely that great of a singer). The town is very historic, and Kip noticed that Captain Clark (of Lewis and Clark) was not a very good speller (see photo). Kip can relate...
We went 91 miles today in 5 hours (7 hours including the lock delay). The trim tabs are now fixed, and tomorrow Kip plans on fixing the windless anchor problem. The air conditioner still needs to be primed everytime we stop. He also bought some paint for fix a small mark on the front, and cauk for one spot that leaks. All very minor things.
Tomorrow we are taking our van to St. Louis to explore and to take Wendee and Rick to the airport. Kip and Shelly are staying at the marina again because it will be too late to travel. Since Carlo is now home, Kip and Shelly will be on their own for a few days.
The connection is slow right now, so I will add the pictures tomorrow! Stay tuned.
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