Day 4 - We Leave the Illinois River and Enter the Mississippi River

Today was a short travel day as we only had to travel about 20 miles –to the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.  Our day started with breakfast at the Riverdock restaurant that extended for over 2 hours so we could use the wifi.  You may have noted that we added pictures to our first 2 posts!  To get to the restaurant, we had to climb a ramp that ended abruptly about 3 feet  above ground - watch your step took on a whole new meaning! 

 
We took a short walk through Hardin, then left the dock at 11:20 AM.  The river is getting deeper and wider; going from 9-11 feet deep to 20 feet deep.  There are lots of small homes on stilts between Hardin and Grafton, our next port.  We passed Pere Marquette State Park about halfway to Grafton.  There is a nice looking lodge, walking trails and a shallow harbor.  There is another car ferry at Brussels and one in Grafton too.  We saw a small enclosed house type boat on pontoons that turned out to be a state police boat.  A tug was pushing barges through the river confluence just north of Grafton.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived Grafton Harbor at 12:30 PM.  This harbor has a number of amenities including a small pool, ship’s store, restaurant, showers and Wi-Fi.  Grafton is another small river town with a few restaurants, small hotels and shops.  There are several wineries here and we hope to try a few local wines tomorrow.  We braved the 97 degree heat and walked a few blocks to a small deli and ice cream store.  Later, we cooled off in the pool and chatted with a couple of other “loopers”.  Grandad and Me (the other boat that stayed at Riverdock last night) is here – they are having engine trouble and hope to get it repaired tomorrow.  A Canadian couple on their boat, Time and Tide, are making their way to the Gulf and the Bahamas – they have done the loop before so are called Golden Loopers. 

We are not far from Randy’s home town of Granite City, IL.  His brother Tim drove up to have dinner with us at the marina and it was good to see him.  Tomorrow promises to be another very hot day and we plan to relax in the pool and our air conditioned cabin.  It will be the first place we have stayed for more than 1 night and we are starting to feel like we are truly on vacation now!