Cruising the Mississippi River - Alton, St Louis and Saint Charles

Making our trip from Grafton to Alton was a very short venture especially now since we are getting a push from the current as we begin going down the Mississippi River. We will travel 218 miles on the Mississippi. The "Muddy and Mighty Mississippi" lived up to its name!!

We had to pass under this span bridge and go against the current into the marina on the right between the land and a rock pile on the left. Going against the current and the swirls had its challenges too. Not to mention the shallow water at the entrance to the inlet.

Misty Pearl and Second Wave entered the marina together and went and got fuel since there are now not too many places to take on diesel. We left the fuel dock first and went to our slip and as Misty Pearl was making her way around the corner she ran aground.  Check that off the list! 

It took a dinghy pushing in all directions to free her but then it happened again as she was trying to side tie to the dock.  She draws 5 feet and even though the marina folk said there was 5.5 feet there apparently wasn't!!

This guy was a huge help as we tried to wiggle 56,000 pounds through the silt.  He got a 50 foot line from Dana and brought it over to Brent on the dock.

50 feet is a long way to pull a vessel sideways when the keel is digging further into the silt bottom.  45 minutes and a lot of pulling later she was secure to the dock.  Now the question was how was she ever going to leave?  Stand by for a future post!

Finally we are all secured to the dock and are surrounded by almost 20 other Looper boats within the marina.

An example of the current against a buoy today (over 4 knots).

Second Wave was greeted with a good size tree trunk in her slip.  One end was tied off but we soon tied the other after the wake of the first barge came by. That's when we both looked at one another and said, "what's that sound?"  The tree trunk was bouncing against the nose of the boat.

Brent relaxed on the bow below watching me check weather on the iPad.

Pretty pic of the span bridge at night.

Look at all the Loopers that are here and not everyone is in the picture. This is our largest crowd yet.

We went into town and visited the statue of Robert Pershing Wadlow, also known as Alton's Gentleman Giant.  This is a life size statue of him. He is the tallest person in recorded history, 8 feet 11.1 inches. He was born in Alton on February 22, 1918 and only lived to be 22 years old.

His shoe size was a 37 AA.

Thought this was ironic that his replica bronze chair was sculpted by a guy from San Antonio.

Adriana's was the place to go for lunch. Only open from 10-3 and as you can see they were packed.

Look how long my hair is.  I so need a professional haircut!

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Before we cruised Second Wave past the Arch we visited on foot and went to the new museum at its base and then went up to the top!

Lewis and Clark are kind of a big deal around here.

I didn't know you could ride to the top of the arch in these capsules but now I do.

These next pics are views from the top! (actually inside the Arch, not really the "top")

Since it was 95 degrees in Alton when we were there we actually used the marina pool!!

Fast Eddies was a must see, so we were told. They only had about 5 food items to choose from on the wall displayed menu and you had to order a one drink minimum. That was no problem.

Yes, that's one of Robert's shoes in a shadow box inside the restaurant.

When is the last time you saw cigarettes in a vending machine?

In a separate part of Fast Eddies there was live music.  All in all a pretty cool place.

Does the ice cream ever end??

This place was awesome; probably the best we've had on the Loop.

Brent got the half gallon turtle sundae below.

We were looking for some more entertainment and so we took a short trip to Saint Charles and oh what a charming little town.  We were sorry we didn't have more time to stop and visit all the shops but we had a rental car to return.

As a reminder, Mackinac Island is at the top of Michigan. There were fudge shops everywhere up there!

This guy made us feel at home!

There was also a Casino near the marina that we took a shuttle to. We didn't gamble but just walked across the street to visit downtown Alton and have a nice dinner. We then took the Casino shuttle back to the marina.

That's a statue of Miles Davis below. He was born in Alton in 1926.