Outstanding Harbor
Hosts in Alton IL
From Grafton we tootled
a few miles down the Mississippi to Alton IL – just across and slightly up the
river from St. Louis MO. This is a town with history which we learned on our
guided tour courtesy of Robert and Patty Mitchell, the AGLCA harbor hosts in
the Alton Marina. We actually met Robert
and Patty in Grafton as gold loopers – the designation for loopers who have
completed the trip once. Besides looping and cruising the Bahamas, Robert and
Patty have lived on their boat for seven years and have a wealth of information
and adventures which they generously share. As just a hint, Patty is a pilot
who flew for United Airlines and search ‘n rescue for Montana among other
things. She met Robert when she taught him to fly. Such are the priceless treasures
found while doing the loop.
Best Bathrooms are in ALTON
Current loopers are
finally catching up with us so we found five other looper boats in the marina.
Patty and Robert organized a looper dinner at Mac’s a local restaurant. After a narrated tour of the historic
district in old Alton, eight of us enjoyed steak and potatoes. We have not been
in a looper group this size since we left Marathon. It was interesting to
compare stories since we had taken a different route than most of the other
boats. We were taking notes since we hope to go back to that northern territory
on future trips.
Just a few miles from
the marina is the Melvin Price lock or lock 26 on the Mississippi River. This is the second to the last lock before
the long stretch to New Orleans, and it is located a few miles from the
confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. It is also home to the Great Rivers Museum. We peddled our bikes down the level bike path
for a visit and tour of the lock. This is one of the newest locks in the river
system and is impressive in size.
Actually there are two locks and one dam at this site. The “smaller”
lock chamber is usually used for pleasure boats and the larger for commercial
traffic, but we found that is not always the case when we locked through the
next day using the larger chamber. The
lock construction is a little different to the ones up river to accommodate the
winter ice on the river. The upriver
gate drops into the water and the down river side has the more traditional
swing gates. This allows the water and ice to be pushed out during the winter.
These commercial locks operate 24/7 year round. The view from the top of the
lock was a whole new perspective for us although we were disappointed not to
see a barge lock through on our visit. I took a picture of the graphic
explaining the reason so many barges run on this river system.
In Alton we also
visited another famous restaurant called Fast Eddies. The food is cheap – i.e. .99 cent burgers,
but there is no take out and all food must be accompanied by adult beverages.
We were told they open at 1 PM for lunch because the local businesses
complained their employees would go for lunch and not return to work. We got there at 1:10 and the place was
packed, but the bartender assured us they did not open early – No surprise the
place was originally operated by the Busch family as a beer parlor on the
river.
