Fish Tales and History in Peoria

Day 114  |  Peoria 

The two larger boats at the small Peoria dock had left before we were up and about. Our first order of business was to reposition Crossroads from the outside of the finger pier which was exposed to the river current and wakes from passing boats, to the more protected inside of the finger pier. We found that it seemingly rained fish overnight as eight Asian carp had left the safety of the water and found there eternal home on the dock. I had Barry place his foot by this one to show their size. The scene was both sad and gross so we set off for some exploration of Peoria.

The sign at the top of the dock was a bit disconcerting. We are very glad for the predicted fair weather during our stay. It was actually a bit warmer than we expected and the two-mile hike uphill to the CVS seemed longer than it actually was. The same two miles back went much faster and we stopped for lunch before heading over to the Peoria Riverfront Museum. While waiting for our BBQ, we checked updates on Hurricane Florence's track and Barry spoke with our neighbor Todd about anything that needed to be done to prepare our house. We think we're as secure as we can be.

Outside the museum the Return Visit statue has Abraham Lincoln presenting the Gettysburg Address to a modern "common man" to show its continued relevance today. The first major exhibit we saw was the history of Peoria's Duryea Manufacturing Co. and their 1898 Motor Trap, the first mass-produced gasoline powered car.

The featured exhibit was Mythic Creatures - Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids and we walked areas based on the inhabitation of sea, land, and air. The large unicorn was neither pink, sparkly, nor fluffy, but was huge. The Roc (from The Arabian Nights) seemed to come out of nowhere in attack mode. We attended a planetarium presentation of what we'd see in tonight's sky. There were several space-themed interactive exhibits and we had fun trying them all out. We learned that a landmark book, The Stars: A New Way to See Them, which was written in 1952 by H.A. Rey, is still in print today. Rey is best know as the author of the Curious George series.

The Discovery center confirmed that the moon is the best place to have a weigh-in. A single wing was devoted to an Illinois River Encounter. Large aquariums featured the major native species. We found out that we Americans are actually to blame for the Asian carp problem. Two species were imported into the southern US to control the algae in catfish farms. They escaped into the wild and have been swimming north ever since, overwhelming the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and squeezing out native populations -- sort of like aquatic kudzu. The display on the right is a great summary of the lock system on the Illinois River, showing the elevation change made at each.

Peoria has a rich history in transportation, manufacturing, breweries and distilleries. It also had a huge presence in the button industry at the turn of the 20th century. Freshwater mussels were harvested from the Illinois River. As many as 20 button blanks could be drilled from a single shell. Our final stop in the museum was the Peak Performance Interactive wing. In it were areas to test grip strength, reflex speed, balance, pitch speed, and vertical leap. We played around on of these, with varying degrees of embarrassment. My favorite was a full sized basketball shooting gallery that had a moving and rotating goal. It took one round to find my range, but I did pretty well on the next and still had pretty good form. On our way back to Crossroads we had to pass through the finish line chute setup of a 5k being held this evening. Seeing folks walking around with their race bibs on sure made me miss the competitions and camaraderie among race friends.

We had dinner onboard and watched the Spirit of Peoria riverboat depart on its sunset cruise. We called Uber and got a quick ride across the river to Walmart for little grocery shopping. When we returned, it was dark and Crossroads looked good in the reflections of the evening.

We will spend one more day here in Peoria. Tomorrow morning we will finish up at the Riverfront Museum with the Amazon 3D Movie in the dome theater. We will then go tour the Caterpillar factory visitor center, conveniently located next door, in the afternoon.