Integrity Cruise

Day 147: Maitland Island to Alton, IL

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Day 147: Monday, September 12th: Today was planned to be a short run down the final 18 miles of the Illinois River and into the Mississippi River for another 18 miles. We slept in.

After a quiet breakfast we got underway and headed downstream. Another hot day. The final miles of the Illinois were pretty and we anticipated the "Mighty Muddy". A few miles before the two rivers met, we passed this little ferry:

We had heard all these horror tales about the heavy barge traffic, strong currents, floating debris, deadheads, logs and everything else - all about traveling the Mississippi. We arrived to see none of this. Here is the view looking back at the confluence of the Mississippi, on the left, and the Illinois, on the right. It was really quite pretty and devoid of any of the horrible hazards. Well, almost.

A few miles downstream the Illinois bank turned into a high wall of limestone. It was hundreds of feet high. You could tell this land was once underwater for eons:

The cliffs seemed to go on forever:

Looking back up the cliff face was even more impressive:

Soon we arrived in the friendly town of Afton, IL. The town has its share of "gaming boats". They are floating gambling casinos designed to attract attention:

On the left was Argosy, V; note how the smokestacks have been folded over (for clearance, we guessed):

And on the righ were - uh - two rather gaudy boats:

Just downstream is the Clark Bridge. Its design is very pretty but, sadly, we couldn't get the right angle to get a really good picture:

This town is the home of the Afton Marina, one of the nicest on the Great Loop, and famous for its hospitality. We tied up and immediately were greeted by Ken and Joyce from Joken. They are Canadians doing the Loop for the second time.

The local grocery store was closed so we couldn't re-provision. Instead, Bill worked on website logs and Ruth did laundry. We went to supper at Tony's Restaurant, one of the best in town, with the Joken crew. It was very good and lots of fun swapping stories.

Position tonight: N38 53.088 W090 10.698

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