Extended stay

Tuesday: This is the first marina that we have actually run into other people on the loop. They all just came down the Illinois River and had lots of stories to tell about the Asian Carp. All had carp jump on their boats and one jumped right through his screen door!

We have extended our stay here in Alton for two reasons. Lock 27 (Chain of Locks), was closed down for repairs and now there is a bottleneck of barges and pleasure craft. There was a 23 hour wait with 15 barges waiting to go through the lock and it is now down to a 13 hour wait. Second, the next two days they are predicting a 70% chance of thunder storms so we decided to stay put.

We walked over to the museum this afternoon. It was worth the walk in 90 degree weather. They had a Tow simulator; Keith did real good but I hit the wall. Driving our boat is easy compared to driving a Tow with 15 barges. It was fun even though I did bad.

The grocery store close to the marina picked me up and I did my shopping and they brought me back. I thought that was very nice of them. Keith also needed oil and filters for an oil change and Car Quest delivered. Can't beat that.

CO's comments: I have time to wash the boat. Bobbie forgot to mention that the Liquor Store also delivers. This is a must because our next stops are all in dry counties. The Alton Marina has all covered slips which is nice because our air conditioners do not have to work as hard in this 90 degree weather.

Degrees_____Minutes_____Seconds

Lat.

N 36 53 069

Long.

W090 10 532