William chaffered us to Clark Boat Store and to grocery store.  Tracy and Guy and Jon were at the boat when we returned.  Joseph and Heidi arrived right after we got back from shopping and brought macaroni salad.  Eric and Kristine brought lots of groceries for us to travel with.  We had a fabulous time with our children and grandchildren.  Kids cooked out under a pavilion and we had a great picnic.  Joseph’s parents, Kathy and Vernon, joined us.  Kathy brought delicious homemade cookies, enough to feed an army.  They were all eaten before the day was over.  We went out for a cruise on the Missouri River.  The water was smooth and the scenery was breathtaking with the bluffs and fall foliage.  Everyone who wanted to took a turn at the wheel.  It was nice to have Guy, Will, Jon and Vernon handle the lines when docking.  Heidi and Joseph went to Will and Lynn’s house to sleep because Joseph was playing piano at a church near their house on Sunday morning.  Tracy and family went back to Columbia, Eric and Kristine to a motel.  Will and Jon slept aboard.

Rainy day.  Put clothes in closets.  Did lots of laundry.  Talked with a guy from Minnesota doing the loop.  He filled me in on the next leg of the trip – not much in the way of grocery stores, marinas, etc.  I’ll have to stock up here in Alton.  Will, Lynn and Paul came by early evening.  Sat on the fly bridge and watched the sunset.    Went out to a small restaurant, Jessica’s, in Alton and had a nice dinner.  Paul is 17 today.  We loved being with him on his birthday.  Jessica brought out cupcakes with decorations in celebration of his birthday.  Will spent the night on the boat.  Lynn has to work Sat. and has a photography class but hopes to come by after that.  Paul is working til 4:00 Sat. and a double shift on Sun.  Unfortunately the hot tub/pool area was locked by the time we walked over there.  Eric and Kristine called-they are at a motel and will be over in the morning.  Jon, Heidi, Tracy, and others will also arrive tomorrow.  I have to get to the grocery store.  This is really different living on a boat when it comes to having a group over for a meal-limited space to put large amounts of refrigerated food ahead of time.

Relaxed in the early a.m.  Worked on engines, sewed, cleaned, etc.  Relaxed in the hot tub.  Nice facilities at this marina.  Courtesy car picked us up – had dinner at Casino.  Al dropped $5.00 in the machines.  Returned to the boat. 

Illinois’s MM 0 joins the Mississippi River at 220, by Grafton.  At MM 210, port tank was below ¼, starboard tank just at ¼.  Engines sounding slightly sluggish.  Switched to aft tank and smooth cruising after that.  Possibly the sluggishness was simply a change in the river current as we entered the  Mississippi.

Judy is fascinated with the barges and trying to not take too many pictures of them.  Find ourselves passing and repassing some of the same barges after our lunch.  Great fun following the river as it winds down towards Alton with it lush foliage, islands and streams feeding into it. 

The bridges are all quite different.  Some are very old and ornate constructed of all steel.  Some bridges are railroad tracks that stay in the raised position and lowered when there is train traffic. Others are long sleek spans of concrete.  Watching the charts for the heights is important.  We need 18 feet.  Measured it ourselves with a clothesline hung from a long pole and marked with duck tape, so it must be an accurate height.  We have had clearance along this leg of the trip, unlike our trip from Cal Sag to Wilmington where we radioed almost every bridge tender requesting them to open the bridge.  That was a long run down the Cal Sag/Illinois River with our terrific Captain Walt Pilny when we first brought our boat home from Eastlake, Ohio.  It was the likes of a survival trip.  Warning:  never, you hear me, I said, never, run your boat at night on the Cal Sag unless you are feeling suicidal or paying a captain $200 a day and you hear on the radio that they are closing a lock for two days.