Key West on the Rivers

Key West on the Rivers

The town of Grafton and its Grafton Harbor Marina, sit at mile zero on the Illinois River – where it empties into the Mississippi. From our mooring at the end of B Dock we had a view of both rivers and the traffic moving up and down the waterway. 

 

This marina has a Key West theme that it tries to live up to with décor, music, and attitude. A friendlier marina would be hard to find and a hardier party mentality as well – even in the Florida’s Key West. Now, while Put-In-Bay called itself the Key West of the Great Lakes, it was really more like Panama City Beach during Spring Break.  The Grafton Marina, was more mulit-generational fun and very relaxed like the Key West we know.  We include a few photos of the décor on the docks and the marina offices. Did I mention the floating pool and hot tub? Seriously, this is one of the most welcoming marinas we have visited.  They love loopers coming through and seemed to have endless time to chat and share stories, but I think they have a great time whether we come or not. Our stay included the beginning of their annual Rock’n on the River celebration with music and great food.  It was hard to leave....

IRONY: Is it any wonder from the rest of this décor that the sign on the left was ignored?

 

We also took a bike ride out to Pere Marquette State Park with its Civilian Conservation Corps lodge. On the way we made a short stop at the spot (they think) where Louis Jolliet and Pere Marquette first landed. The visitor center at the park included a short film on the CCC camps and the men that built the first buildings at the park.  We enjoyed lunch in the old lodge dining room while admiring the massive beams, 700 ton soaring stone fireplace, and hand wrought iron work details. Then we hiked the trail to the river overlook to work off the calories before biking back to the boat.

 

 

This area is famous for wintering Bald Eagles - or the occasional Eagle Scout?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did I mention this we did this jaunt while the temps were still in the mid 90s? Steve found some innovative ways to keep cool.

 

Grafton itself does not have services like a grocery store, but the marina supplies a courtesy van which we used for a trip to nearby Jerseyville and a Wal-Mart supply run. We also found Hanson’s Meat market for some local brats. Seafood might be a luxury in these parts, but beef and pork are abundant. This was one of our rare motor trips and we were not too surprised that a few seconds out of both towns we saw nothing but fields of corn and soy beans and a few isolated houses, barns and silos. Not surprised since we had almost no cell coverage – google maps failed again! Fortunately we left a trail of bread crumbs and made it back to the boat to continue our journey on the Mighty Mississippi.