Its So Hot You Can Bake A Pumpkin On A Step

Day 123  | Grafton 

The To-Do list never ends. In the relative coolness of the morning, Barry cleaned some of our white fenders that have gotten very dirty over the last four months. It takes only one nasty lock wall to make our white fenders brown, and we've been through 72 locks so far. While Barry was outside, I dusted the inside top to bottom and then pulled out the vacuum cleaner to run over all the carpet. I'm not sure where all of that gunk was hiding, but its not as bad as it looks. The collection chamber in the handheld vacuum is pretty small.

We finished our chores and left for our walk shortly after noon. The water level in the rivers is still falling, and land that was flooded three days ago, is now a sun-baked mudflat. All around town, businesses are decorating for fall. This restaurant was sporting freshly-planted mums and pumpkins in their front flower beds.

We still have no telephone service at the dock, yet needed to make some marina reservations for the upcoming week. All the Loopers are starting to log-jam on each other and dockage space is at a premium. Up the hill we walked in search of any kind of service on our Verizon phones. Verizon proudly touts that they have 98% coverage in the US. Well, this is a time that its not good to be in the 2%. No coverage in this section of Illinois, from Peoria to St. Louis, has been very frustrating. We knew there was a single cell tower on the hillside, so we kept walking towards it until they "could here us now." We received a strong enough signal at the edge of town, but only when facing the tower. Calls made, we now have claimed our spot in the next three towns, taking some of the stress away. The rocky hillside where we ended up marked the end of town.

Its hot here, especially as we approach the first day of autumn. The humidex was 101 at 1:12 and rose a bit more by the middle of the afternoon. We've always joked about frying an egg on the sidewalk, but I've never seen or tried it. Today, however, we did see a pumpkin baking on the step. The commercial district on Main Street runs for maybe half a mile, and within that span are three ice cream establishments. We had passed by without temptation during our previous walks. Today, however, we gave in and stopped for a waffle cone in the shade. An additional treat was watching the monarch butterflies flit from flower to flower just in front of us.

The road signs in front of the marina are dominated by the river -- Great River Road, America's Byway, Meeting of the Great Rivers. The proximity to the river is also noted on the white sign on the side of the red restaurant. It marks the water level of the 1993 flood -- a rise of over 38 feet.

We came back to Crossroads and Barry changed our air filters, checked the oil level, and removed some original electronics that were no longer connected, but taking up valuable storage space. I started a new book on Fiberglass Beach, knocking out the first 60 pages before dinner time. We went up to the Oyster Bar at the marina and were not disappointed. Dinner also came with a show as we sat on the deck and watched the parade of nine more Looper boats come in for the evening.

We have a reservation at Hoppies tomorrow night, but its a long day with two locks and over 60 miles to cover. These locks have auxiliary chambers that cater to pleasure craft. This and the boost from the current speeds up the process greatly. Tonight we topped off the water tanks and removed the sun screens in preparation for a 7:00 am departure with a few other Looper boats. We are ready to get moving again.

It Was A Dirty Job, But We Needed To Do It

Day 122  | Grafton 

Can someone please tell the Mayflies that this is September? We opened the curtains this morning to find Crossroads covered in these insects, attracted overnight to the pedestal lights on the dock. They have two long tails, big wings, and don't bite or sting. They're just a nuisance. We quickly used the water hose to spray down the exterior, temporarily ridding ourselves of most of the swarm.

Today was forecast to be another hot one so we went for our walk early. A metal sculpture of Canada geese in flight sits next to the river. Circling back to Main Street, I stopped to admire the selection of wood on display at Knotty by Nature. Their collection of live edge slabs had me thinking how I could install a mantle onboard. There were beautiful pieces of cherry and walnut, but the aromatic cedar slabs are what I'll remember most.

At the opposite end of Main Street we stopped at the community ball field. The calliope of the Spirit of Peoria whistled in the distance prior to the riverboat passing us as it plowed upriver. The water level is dropping dramatically and the floating logs we've been dodging have now been deposited as driftwood on the shore and in the shallows. Our friends aboard Misty Pearl (a fellow Selene 43) contacted us warning of shallow water at our next planned destination. We saw evidence on shore of a significant drop in water level.

For the heat of the afternoon, we moved inside and began work on a major upgrade project. Out came every tool from every cabinet. Doors were removed from their hinges and set aside. The carpet was rolled up and floor hatches opened. It was time to change out the original 18-year-old stinky sanitation hoses for some shiny, new, fresh-smelling ones. There were two hoses (one for each head) and four hours later installation was done, the old hoses deposited in the dumpster, and the boat put back together. She smells better already.

We cleaned ourselves up then walked to the marina restaurant to celebrate. Clouds were moving in creating a dramatic sky where the contrasting shades of blue rivaled the bright halo and rays for top feature. Since it was International Talk Like A Pirate Day, we settled in at The Arrr Bar and sampled the remaining two flavors of wine slushies -- blueberry pomegranate, and peach Bellini. My choice for winner was the strawberry mango I had yesterday. Storms on the horizon were providing a nice show, but once our drinks were done we headed back to Crossroads. A shower passed over us, but failed to cool the temperature down as hoped.

We spent a quiet evening onboard -- me working on a photo project and Barry revising our travel plans. We will stay one more day in Grafton which sets up a long travel day on Friday to make reservations at our next stop. Tomorrow I will finally vacuum and we'll top off our water tanks in preparation for a first-light departure, hoping to gain quick passage through the Mel Price Lock.