Finishing the Loop in Grafton, Illinois with a visit from Mike and Loree and then heading up the Mississippi to home!

On Friday, September 11 we left about 7:00 from our anchorage near Beardstown to head to Grafton. We had about a half hour wait at the Lagrange Lock  and they locked us through after a barge that came up river and before the next one that would be going down river.  They let us float instead of grabbing a rope since it was just a 5 foot drop. The drive was mostly uneventful although we did see a  deer. We also saw many pelicans as we got closer to Grafton. A strange sight was some sort of vine (I think it is Kudzu)  covered many trees on the east side of the river so that you could only see the shapes of the trees as if they had a green tarp over them. We saw a few ferry boats as well. We got to Grafton Harbor around 3 and Steve and Leigh on Eksit Strategy were already there so cheered and clapped as we came in. They owner, Brian, was very nice and said sometime over the weekend he would take our photo and give us a gift since we "crossed our wake" there. After getting settled we had drinks at Boarding House Bistro and had dinner with Steve and Leigh and also David and Jacque (boat Jobsite) at Grafton Oyster Bar and a mini beer toast to end the evening. It was fun celebrating the completion of our loop with them!

We spent the weekend in Grafton to continue the celebration! Saturday we gave the boat a much-needed cleaning and got ready to greet Tim's brother Mike and his wife Loree who came to visit us from Iowa.  As it happened it was the day of the annual college rivalry Iowa Hawkeyes vs Iowa State Cyclones and it so happened we are on opposite sides and we all came prepared with our own teams swag.  First we had a great lunch at Southern Coastal Cuisine and stopped at a couple other places before the heat drove us back to the somewhat air conditioned boat. We watched the game there at 6:30 and the Iowa Hawkeyes squeaked out a win, but hey we'll take it!  On Sunday we went to breakfast in nearby Clifton Country Inn and Bake Shop. We also left with a slice of apple pie and a slice of chocolate cream pie. On the way back we drove by the new National Memorial of Military Ascent,  tribute to soldiers who scaled the cliffs on D-Day in Normandy, France,  located at Grafton Visitor's Center . We could see the bronze statues scaling the wall from the car. Before Mike and Loree left, they helped us take our "crossing our wake" photos that we loopers traditionally do. After completing the loop we graduate from the white first-time looper to the gold completed-the-loop flag. After they left we cooled off a bit in the pool at Grafton Harbor. We watched a little of the Packer-Vikings game and then had dinner at The Boarding House Bistro with Debbie and Mike (boat 2nd Time Around) and John and Sharon (boat Zia Later). The charcuterie board and the flat bread pizza were amazing. We ended the night with the favorite looper toast, mini-beers, which are made with 43 and heavy whipping cream. We thoroughly enjoyed beginning and ending our loop at Grafton Harbor and it is a "can't miss" spot for loopers and any boaters! Tomorrow we will be heading home to Iowa on the Mississippi. 

On Monday it was time to leave Grafton Harbor and head up the Mississippi to home. Brian, the owner of Grafton Harbor, met us and others before they officially opened to sell us fuel and do a pump-out. He also gave us gifts of swag and a bottle of Caymus wine for starting and ending our loop there!! He also took our photo and posted a congratulations on the Grafton Harbor Facebook page.  Little did we know our celebration would soon be a little dampened. We left Grafton at 9 am and at about 11, just before the Winfield Lock(#25), we hit a huge log! Tim is always good at spotting those but we think it was a deadhead (a partially submerged log that only the top is sticking out of the water) that we couldn't see due to the wave chop hiding it. We felt and heard it happen and then looked behind the boat where a very long log was right behind us. (I took a few photos but the log itself is even hard to see in the photos.) We could tell by the vibration on the port side that we hit it and it damaged the prop. Tim checked the engine room and didn't see any leaks or shaft issues. The places on the way home didn't have the ability to fix us so we decided to continue on slowly home and have Unley Marine fix it. Meanwhile we called our insurance company  and the good news is our deductible for collisions is $0 so we are hoping to have their help in getting it fixed. We also saw that day,  and I had forgot to mention before,  lots and lots of dead carp! They had been all over Grafton Harbor too and Brian said the heat wave with the hot water killed them. They are invasive to the rivers so it's good they were dying but the smell was not so great in the Harbor. He said it had actually been worse during the last heat wave! So we continued slowly onward and since we had 2 locks (Winfield 25 and Clarksville 24) and an over 80 mile day, we finally arrived at Two Rivers Marina in Illinois across from Louisiana, Missouri at around 6:15. We finally got settled and the boat started to cool off and turned in early to get ready for the next long leg  with 4 locks to Keokuk, Iowa. 

On Tuesday, September 15 we left at first light about 6:30 am from Two Rivers Marina. The sunrise views were stunning. We had an 80 plus mile day with 4 locks. The first lock, 22 in Saverton,  we unfortunately had an hour wait. The rest (Quincy, Canton, and Keokuk) we really didn't have to wait. We passed more and more dead carp and still some live jumping ones too. We passed the cities of Hannibal and Quincy. The last lock  was Keokuk (number 19)  which is a 38 foot lift and has bollards instead of ropes (actually easier for me)  and we were at that lock about 6:30 pm and so we finally made it to Keokuk Yacht Club around 7:00.  Thankfully they were still open so could get a pizza and enjoy their club. We still needed to do a fuel transfer because the starboard tanks were getting low since we had to run those  at a higher rpm than the port because of the prop damage.  It took awhile, partly because we had never tried it before,  so we did not get into the club  until 8:00 but Peg still took care of us so we could enjoy their air conditioning while waiting for our boat to cool off.  The rain didn't start until after we were there so that worked out well too. 

On Wednesday, September 16 our plans changed from going to Muscatine because the entrance to their marina was too shallow we learned. We had called Burlington the day before and they had the same issue however they have a city dock that we could stay at overnight. It was actually the Mayor (Jon Billups ) that answered the phone so he encouraged us to come. This made for only a 5 hour day and no locks which was a nice reprieve. We had rain in the morning so didn't leave until about 9:45 in between storms with just light rain. We arrived in Burlington at 3:00 and it was quite a nice town. We had dinner at Martini's Grill which is in the River Place building which was formerly a hospital. The view, decor and staff were all amazing. The food was 5 star as well. I had never been to Burlington but Tim used to go there a lot for medical sales and he remembered a dinner program at the restaurant after we saw it.

On Thursday, September 17 we left at 7 am from Burlington and at the first lock we had a 2 hour wait. This was not a good start to the day. It could have been a lot worse because another barge was coming down river and that captain  asked the lock master to let us go  before locking them through! We continued onward (this was a 76 mile day) and at New Boston we did not have long to wait as the barge was coming out of the lock. We made it to Muscatine by 3:30 so thought we were doing great but there was a barge we again had to wait for so did not get out of there until after 5:00. The apps we were using for barge traffic and barge queues were proving to be inaccurate.  We finally made it to Sunset Marina in Rock Island at about 7:20 pm so we did not have much light. It was shallow there and we had a choice of 2 end caps and we were told earlier that we could pick based on depth. Long story short we did not realize our daughter had told some close friends we were coming in and so we missed their signs and greetings since we were so focused on where to dock and because it was a little dark. They later sent us photos of the amazing sign and the photos of us coming into Sunset Marina. We finally docked and discovered our friends were there as well as our daughter Caitlin and our daughter Kelley and husband Ethan and kids Edith and Aurelia. The kids had the grandkids make a sign earlier that day.  On Friday we had the boat pulled and took the dinghy the final few miles and one more lock (Lock 15) to our regular marina Lindsay Park Yacht Club. It was great to get back home and see family and friends!