Alton Marina in Alton, IL
Day #87: Up at 6:20 A.M. for coffee, We met Bruce and Bev at 8:00 A.M. in the marina store/restaurant for breakfast. We all chose the French toast as Mike had brought the homemade maple syrup that we had bought at a farmer's market in Sheboygan, WI. We had a great breakfast. Mike went over to help Bruce finish the dinghy motor project. I headed over to "Baytripper" the guys were just putting the final touches on the dinghy motor they took it out for a spin, While Bruce and Mike were in the dinghy Mike took our depth sounder out to determine water depths in the marina. Not much water here in the marina basin. Mike and Bruce dug into Bruce's generator issues as Bruce would like to get that fixed before we start anchoring this week. At 11:00 A.M. Bruce needed a oil filter for the generator so the four of us decided that we would combine a trip to get the filter with a trip to the grocery store to provision for the next week. We headed for Godfrey, IL to the NAPA store where Bruce was able to find the oil filter that he was looking for to use for the generator. We stopped at Ruler Foods which is like a Sav-A-Lot they have name brands and Kroger brands. We were able to get our groceries. We headed back to the boats. Mike and I put away the groceries then had lunch aboard. Mike headed over to see if he could lend Bruce a hand with the generator. I worked on blogging and paperwork. Mike headed back to "Parrot Bay" we sat up on the flying bridge. At 4:00 P.M. we headed up to the pavilion for docktails we were joined by "Baytripper", "Tyche", "Miss Utah", "Sunshine Rose" and "in HIS time". The winds picked up about 6:30 P.M. everyone headed back to their boats. At 6:50 P.M. Bev texted wondering if we wanted to take the rental car to the casino for a couple of hours so we joined them, I won $54.57. We had pizza for dinner at the casino. Time now for blogging and reading.
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| Bruce starting up the motor out of the water. |
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| Bruce and Mike going to go for a ride in the dinghy. |
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| Motor battery needed a boost. |
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| There they go!!! |
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Mike checking water depths while out with Bruce in the dingy.
"The Piasa Bird" a fearsome monster known as the Piasa once terrorized the Illin Indians near what is now Alton, Illinois. It ate deer at first, but corpses from a war gave it a taste for human flesh. Swooping down, it would snatch victims in its talons and carry them back to a cliff stone cave, tearing them apart for dinner. The Piasa was essentially forgotten from Alton, Herbert and Orland Forcade, chose a likely cliff and painted what has become the accepted modern version of the Piasa.
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| We did some grocery shopping here. It was a combination of brand name and Kroger foods. |
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To use a cart you need to put in 25 cents when you return the cart you get your money back. We also had to spend 10 cents for a plastic bag to carry our food out of the store.
As we move down the rivers the houseboats are getting fancier.
Great night out with friends, I can't believe that Mike actually went to the casino!
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