We ran 6 hours from Peoria and arrived at town of Havana, ILL nice little dredged out marina off the river. Although riverboat spotlights shined in sometimes. Little town struggling but hanging in there, Had dinner at Townhouse and had great conversations with the owner and young waitress. We bought 3 bottles of Fourteen Hands good wine for total of $15. Walked around town after dinner. Extremely hot all night.
On TH we left at 600AM and ran 12 hours to Dockside Restaurant dock on lower Illinois River at Hardin, ILL. Restaurant kind of acted as a community center. We walked half mile to new Dollar store for supplies of beer, wine, diet coke, lunch meet, cheese, and breakfast supplies. the town is very thankful to have a Dollar General store.
On FR we left at 800AM and ran 20 miles to the Big M Mississippi River at the confluence of the Illinois and Miss. When we entered the Miss River our speed increased from our normal 7.5KN per hour to 11.3 Knots per hour. The Miss River is truly mighty and the currents and eddys are scary. We are at a very unusual for Sept flood stage on the Miss at Grafton where we reached the Miss River. We went by Grafton and Alton which are very cure looking little towns up on hills especially Alton. As we went downriver we went through two locks very quickly as they had a small rec lock and so no delays. When the Missouri River joined us the current picked up even more and incredible big logs in river and other debris. We went by St. Louis and kept going till 500PM when we arrived at Kimmswick and the Hopies dock which is private and 3 barges tied together that we tied up to, and note a 4th barge that sank by mistake just off the others. I did a masterfull job of coming back up river and angling into dock and allowing a tie up in very rapidly moving water with currents and eddy's that were very powerful. After exploring the old town a half mile away we had a few beers and returned to the boat to here the lcoal experts daily briefing on the River downbound as there are no marinas for 200 miles and after we enter the Ohio River and make it to Padducah. Tomorrow night we will need to anchor out. the Miss River is very fast and at flood stage and the Ohio is running at 4 MPH so we can only make 3.5MPH for the 50 miles in the Ohio. This is a very dangerous run with only small anchorages behind sand bars and some of them are flooded out. Also wingdams just below the surface and most bouys have been moved out of position by flood water. Some are submerged and can pop up any time and currents can suck you into them.
We are now in Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn territory and looking for them as we need them. for guidance. We think we saw their raft go by with a guy named Jim and are looking to have a drink with them tomorrow when we are on the sandbar.
When you anchor, it might be a good idea to have a “night watchman” on the bridge! Remember anchors drag 😜 Jan-
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