On the Mississippi River

         We decided, after one night in Grafton, not to stay a second night.  The festivities were fun, but there were too many party boats coming and going, and they were not playing country music, but treated us to very loud rap and lots of cheering.  The marina was very accommodating about refunding us the second night’s stay and the three of us (Hygge, Katmat, and us) departed late morning, after Dan and I had borrowed the courtesy car to make a grocery run to nearby Jerseyville, as Grafton has no grocery stores.  We made a short run into the Mississippi River over to Alton, where we spent the night in a covered marina.  Dan and I walked into town - a quaint river town filled with brick houses and sporting brick sidewalks and roads.  It was very hilly, but gave us some good views of the river.

Monday (Nov 6) we formed a new flotilla that included Grand Banks Vigilant, s/v Wayward Wind, and Cool Change (whom we’d met in Waukegan) as well as s/v Fyka, and left just before sunrise to get through the first of the two locks on the Mississippi River.  As we approached the locks, two more sailboats hailed us from their anchorage across the river and asked to join us through the locks, so we became a temporary flotilla of nine vessels. 

        We got through the Mel Price Lock by 0800, and soon after entered the Chain of Rocks Canal, a manmade channel that avoids the actual Chain of Rocks rapids.  We didn’t have to wait for the Chain of Rocks Lock at the end of the canal and then we were passing by the Gateway Arch of St. Louis.  We took turns passing by while someone else circled around to get pictures.  This one of the Willie Dawes  was taken by Kathy Murphy on Katmat.  

We had another fifteen miles or so to our destination, the infamous Hoppies.  We’ve been hearing about Hoppies since we started learning about the Great Loop.  It’s a must stop.  You need reservations because it fills up fast.  It’s the only thing around and if you don’t stop, it’s several miles to an next anchorage.  It’s a difficult approach and they will guide you in.  Don’t deviate from what they day.  And one of the guidebooks says Hoppies is the most interesting thing there, that the walk into the nearby town has nothing to offer.

Hoppies is literally a couple of rusty barges tied together and anchored to big logs buoyed alarmingly in the way of approach.  The River wasn’t running that strong, so the approach for us wasn’t a big deal, but we waited our turn as they brought seven of us in one at a time and listened to their instructions as they grabbed our lines and tied us in place.  The barges were littered with trip hazards and the offered electric hookups were sketchy and ungrounded, so Dan declined to plug in.  There were big gaps between the barges, which were all at different heights, and there were two lights - one at either end of the entire enterprise.  A partial trailer sits on one of the barges - this is the office and gathering place - and there are no amenities at all beyond fuel, which is a separate barge off to the side.  No water, no pump-out, no bathrooms, no showers, no laundry.  After Dan re-tied our lines, we walked into the town, which, though closed entirely on Mondays, was a cute little touristy/historical city of Kissimick, MO, with several nineteenth century log cabins and a historical museum.  Definitely worth a visit!  

Back at Hoppies, one of the owners came to the gathering place at 5:00pm to give us a talk about the river.  This was similar to the one we’d received from Jeremy at Heritage Harbor Marina after our first flotilla cruise, and covered much of the same information, but was still informative and a good refresher course.  The basic advice was to respect the River and be courteous to the towboat captains.  

We left Hoppies about 0900 this morning (Tues Nov 7) and traveled in company past limestone cliffs and fleets of barges and eventually into the Kaskaskia river to tie off for the night at the Kaskaskia Lock wall.  We will not be traveling through the lock, but will head back out to the Mississippi River to continue on between Missouri and Illinois.  

Sometimes Tommie helps Dan at the helm by keeping watch from his lap.