Rolling... Rolling.... Rolling on the River.
We came 86 miles down the mighty Mississippi today, burned 60 gal of diesel fuel, and we're tied up to the Kaskaskia River lock wall.

Yesterday was Sunday so we walked uptown into Alton, IL to a local bakery for donuts and the Sunday newspaper. Their donuts were passable to good (I consider myself a donut expert). Last evening some friends from the Hatteras owners forum, Jim and Dudley Grove, visited us. Over drinks on the aft deck, we learned a little about cruising to the Bahamas, which they do every winter in their Hatteras. Then we went to dinner together at a very nice restaurant. We hope to have Jim and Dudley join us on the Tennessee River later.

We passed by downtown Saint Louis
as we left Alton, IL. There's a nice view of the Arch, but not much more.








This is the Kaskaskia River lock wall. It's nice and secure for the night and you can get out and walk on the lock wall, but it is effectively a cement island in the Kaskaskia River, so you can't get off the wall. Kathy did about 20 laps of the long wall instead of the usual treadmill exercise she does at home. I caught two catfish from the aft deck this evening as Kathy was walking. Then she made an excellent pasta with fresh oyster mushrooms and some other strange but delicious fungus she got at Sulard's Farmer's Market in Saint Louis on Saturday.

There are no marinas in this area, so you just have to make do with other places to stay. Tomorrow we plan to anchor in a small channel off to the side of the Mississippi River, just to have a place to stay out of the current and the barge traffic.