Beardstown, Bar Island, Grafton

    Well we are now in Grafton the intersection of the Mississippi and the Illinois river. It was a long run of 86 miles to get here. The current should have added 1.5 mph but the 15 mph winds slowed us down a little. On todays trip we had the company of Tika, Always Home, Sea Moss and Elizabear. Tika is a fast cruiser and headed out ahead of the group after the first lock. The rest of the pack cruised at 10-11 mph for about 8 hours to get to Grafton. We passed several up and down river tows. One had fun with the Fryedaze name. These captains are very helpful and take care to keep us pleasure craft armatures safe.
    Yesterday we made a run from Tall Timbers to an anchorage behind Bar Island just south of Bar Island. Sea Moss and Fryedaze tucked in behind the island for the night.  We were very protected from the river traffic but at night you could see the bright flood lights of the big tows as the headed up and down the river.
  Tomorrow we head down the mighty muddy Mississippi. We have about 185 mile on the Mississippi before we hit the Ohio river. We will go to Alton and catch up on laundry and other chores for two days and the head farther south.

 Always Home and Elizabear tied to barges at Breardstown. Fryedaze and Sea Moss are anchored three mile down stream.

 Camera experiment panorama view:-)

 The debris on the banks is 10-15 feet above river level. In the spring this is no place for pleasure craft.

 There are flocks of white pelicans as large as the geese we see in Maryland. They are more beautiful than the geese. Their flight path seems to swirls on circles.

 Big bad eagle. You see eagles everywhere going down the river.

 Note the tree roots. The next spring flood should carry then down the river.

 This is a mom or dad eagle that was with 3-4 young eagles on the bank.

 

 See the flood level at the bottom of the windows.

 Tall Timber Marina. Everything floats. In the spring this office will float up so the ramp behind it is level with the bank.

 Young eagles

 At sunrise a large tow pushed his barge into the bank to wait for upstream taffic.

 White pelicans swirling in the sky.

 

 We passed two car ferries going down river. The run across the river in about 5 minutes. They are pretty quick!

 High wire act. Just had to take a picture.

 Bets is on the bridge driving the boat and goofy Dave is standing by to raise the anchor for an 86 mile run to Grafton. We have to wash the chain down so the mud doesn't get into the chain locker.

We see lot of barges abandoned along the river. This is an example of one that's been there for a long time.