The End of the Illinois ~ Hello Mississippi

It is Sun. the 9th. and another early morning, 6:30 AM and it looks like another great day ahead.  This is the longest day for us.  We have 88.4 miles to do today.  We all depart heading for our last lock on the Illinois, at La Grange Lock and Dam at mile 80.2.  All of the locks we have gone through have been very friendly and very accommodating, but not this lock.  He was snippy and made us wait.  Once through we had a day of dodging barges and floating logs.  It was a great day for cruising and the shoreline scenery was nice.  Mile 0.0 was just ahead of us.  The pleasure boat traffic has picked up.  Grafton Harbor was just in site. 

A very large marina very well protected by a large floating concert break water.  Once there we got fuel and there we were greated by the owner of the Marina.  After fueling we then headed for our slip and were glad that there was help for us to dock the boat.  It was very narrow for our 16ft beem boat.  Don is great at backing the boat in and had no problem but it was nice to have a couple of dock hands there just in case.  We were put next to our friends Tom and Linda Geiger on Q's End.  Linda greeted us and later Tom came up with Tony and Shirley Seager on Headquarters, the couple that are from New Zealand that have the same boat as us....  Small world....  It was so nice to see Tom and Linda again.  Don and I had cocktail on their boat and caught up on the last year.  It was nice to finally meet Tony and Shirley after we had corresponded with them earlier. Tom had invited us to join then for dinner at The Hawg Pit, and BBQ rib place, that Tom and the gang had spent the afternoon over music and a few beer....  After we got there Belinda and Jim, Bev and Bruce and Diane and Rick arrived, so we all sat together.  It was fun and to listen to some of the stories that Tom told us, made us wish we had been there.  The ribs were awesome, and the wine not bad either.  After dinner we walked back to the boat, had a glass of wine and called it a nite.

The next morning we got up a little later.... Hah at last....  I had promised Tom I would make some banana muffins.After breakfast I went to take to Tom and Linda with regard to their blog and some techie stuff.  we took the bikes for a ride thorugh town.  It was a nice day for a ride.  There had been a big festivel in Grafton on the Sat. and town was pretty much out of food and some stores were closed.  We came back to the boat and decided to go to the pool for awhile.  The water was a cold as Don used to have the pool at the Resort, but it was refreshing on a hot day.  Went and had a drink at the Marina restaurant called the Big Kahuna Bar and Grill.  As we were sitting there Wild Goose pulled in.  It was nice to see Jim and Ann again. 

Tom had recommed the Aerie's Riverview Winery at the top of the hill.  The winery came and picked us up at 7:15PM to see the sun set but at the top you can not see the sun set.  But it did not matter, the view was amazing.... As we arrived the patio was filled with other Looper's.  They told us that the kitchen was closed at 7:00 but the Chef said if i am cooking for these other people what are two more.  We order pizza and a bottle of wine which was one of the best pinot grigio's we have had.  The pizza was great.  After dinner they took us back to our boat.  I took some great pictures of the town but for some reason or error on my part it said that the pics were corrupted.