Good morning!!  We are still in Alton Marina waiting for tomorrow to go down the river to Hoppies.  That is a completely different story.

Notice the water line on the tall posts?  It is about 5 foot higher than the current water level.  Nice floating docks!!  Here at Alton Marina, like at Grafton, everything is floating.  The bathrooms, pool (only 3 ft deep), all the docks, and adjacent buildings.  Obviously, the waters have recently risen 5 feet.

Nice covered parking, don’t you think?  The staff were extremely nice and helpful.  The bathrooms are top notch.  Each bathroom is really a bath suite with a toilet, shower, and sink in each one.  Very nice.

Our day was filled with reading and preparing for our river voyage.  Which locks are we going through?  Which marinas?  Which anchorages?  There is a huge bottle-neck at Lock 52 & 53.  Where is that?  We didn’t venture too far from the marina with so much homework to do.  What rivers are we cruising on?  Where are the charts?  Can we download the charts?  Really?

We will be leaving here to go to Hoppies Marina.  It is a small marina along the Upper Mississippi River.  Hoppies is the last place to get diesel fuel for over 200 miles.  Hoppies is really a collection of barges tied together on the side of the river bank that Loopers and other transients try to get a space on.  There are only 3 barges…100 feet long.  Which means an average of 6 boats can tie along the side of Hoppies each night.  Space is tight and we were able to find space for tomorrow.