IVY Club, Peoria IL to Grafton Harbor, Grafton IL

We left IVY (Illinois Valley Yacht) Club, Peoria and went down river a few miles to Eastport Marina to have Maggie Jo pulled from the water to inspect the prop. We had hear a couple double thumps (keel and maybe prop hits) and a little vibration after the second thump. There was some minor damage to one blade so I pulled switched props being we carry a spare. We were back in the water in 1 1/2 hours and down the river.

We then had a beautiful run of 45 miles down to Tall Timber Marina in Havana IL. There was two pvc pipe markers in the water to mark the shallow channel in. When we pull into the marina basin the Asian Carp started jumping all around, none into the boat. We walked a couple block to a Dollar General and picked up a few more groceries. Seems to be our store of choice on the Illinois R.

Do to lack of Marinas and really not good anchorages we headed south for 100 miles (our second largest run since we traveled from Manistique MI to Sturgeon Bay WI. We tied up at Mel's River Dock, Hardin IL ($25 overnite if you eat at the restaurant). I wished we could stay for the Church supper that night.

In the morning we got two large cinnamon rolls to go and could only finish one. We traveled 21 miles to Grafton IL, north of St Louis. This is the area where the Illinois, Missouri, and Mississippi join. Very nice marina where we will leave Maggie Jo for 10 days to rental car back to Pella for our first grandson's first birthday and to empty our house for a renter for a year. Chris (son) and Rachel (daughter in-law in October) came over to visit from Kansas City.
We went to the City Museum and then back to the marina's oyster bar restaurant for supper.

I crossed over the bridge today to 65 years old.
Tom