It is Wednesday in Grafton (and everywhere else, I presume!) at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Four boats left around 8am this morning, heading south to Hoppies Marina about 40 miles downstream at Kimmswick, Missouri.
Included in those leaving was 'Halcyon' and her crew; our marvelous new Aussie friends, Richard and Diane. We are sorry to see them go, but no doubt we will find them again somewhere downstream, before we all hit Mobile Bay, Alabama.
There they go!
We had spent the evening with them...shared our Portuguese Bean Soup with pumpernickel bread and the Apple Crumble I made out of the various apples we had rotting in a bag. I stewed those few that I could rescue, and topped it with a yummy brown sugar and oat topping...with Whipped cream, of course:)
Morning has broken...:( another overcast and cold, damp day. This is looking down the Mississippi River from the Marina.
Our days 'waiting' are variously spent cleaning, doing maintenance, walking for pleasure and for exercise and eating the odd (not always odd) ice-cream. We have tried three different stores now, and have ascertained that the one least likely (looks a bit funky) is the one to go back to. Isn't it interesting how we judge those books by their covers! They have the best value for money and the lady behind the counter is the owner. Makes a world of difference, doesn't it?
Yes, we also spend time on the computer...I am STILL trying to get back to NZ some time in the new year, but it is proving troublesome to get flights using mileage plus miles!!! and also get to Maui to visit with my son and his partner there. They are expecting a child in the middle of February, and it would be lovely to visit soon after, or some time thereabouts. Trying to tie the two (NZ and Maui) together is proving more than my head can handle, right now.
Our priorities are so far apart, geographically. Waz's Dad is 92, and it is important that we spend some time with him...he is now legally blind, so we cant talk to him on Skype anymore. My mom is 86 in a few days, and fortunately we get to see and hear her on Skype. My youngest son, who lives in NZ is also a skyper, which is fortunate, but they all need lots of hugs right now. It is the end of winter in NZ, and they will be hanging out for sunny days. We know the feeling well.
Today, Thursday, dawned cool but not cold, and then the sun came out. We went walking...me all rugged up, including the scarf...but half way through the walk I was peeling the clothing off.
Today we walked up the road to some newly built condos. Of course I got talking to someone who suggested we go and find the builder and take a look through the newly built homes. Nice, but the price HE quoted us was different to the one quoted by the wife of the Developer, when we met her, a little while later. She was out dead-heading the roses. She did take us into a furnished home, and let us look through, which was nice, but the build quality wasn't there, for our money.
As we walked down the road with her, one of the women came out of her condo and gave us a bottle of locally grown wine! It was her husband who told us to go look, in the first place. She learnt we were from NZ and wanted to show some Illinois Hospitality. WOW! How generous is that!
Each condo is a different plan as is obvious, and the design showed quite a lot of thought, for a change. We found out that the wife has a lot to do with that!:)
They built it 15 yrs ago of local stone. Lovely! She has some good ideas and the furnished condo showed good taste in the furnishings.
We left them and went down to the Winery, just below, and found some lunch. I ordered Crab Cakes..what else?? :) and a side salad. The crab cakes were pretty good, but deep fried, which was unfortunate, and the side salad smelled funny. I flipped some of the pieces of lettuce over and found really dead lettuce underneath...DEAD! as in BLACK dead. bah! How hard can it be??
I sent it back, and they came out with another one. This one smelled funny...like it was old. I told them the lettuce was old, and they took that one away also. The third one came back, and the manager who brought it, said they had opened a 'fresher' bag of lettuce. HUH?? I said "No wonder this doesn't taste good!!" It comes from a bag. His reply was that they cut it themselves. I also noted to him that the lettuce hadn't been washed...it was dry and slightly floppy. I told him then, that I am a Chef, and I know how to make a salad and this isn't how. He brought the chef out! Good job!
I told the young man that I was a Chef, and to smell one of the pieces of lettuce. He did and agreed that it smelled old. I asked how they prepared their salads. He said they didn't keep the lettuce cut up in a plastic bag for more than three days....THREE DAYS FOR CUT LETTUCE?? Holy COW!
My reply was to tell him how he can wash the whole lettuce and keep it covered until needed to be cut each time, or cut in small batches but should be done EACH DAY, many times. WOW....what do they teach them these days??? When I have to tell a young chef that people eat with their eyes first, I truly wonder what kind of training he got. I suggested that he make a salad in a bowl and toss it. If the menu says TOSSED SALAD, then that is what it should be, not stuff piled onto a handful of lettuce. sheesh! My salad looked horrid. I asked him if that is how he would like to eat his salad. He said No! Well, what other option did he have, but to agree with me, lol. I left him with the idea that he should send food out that he would eat himself. If he wasn't prepared to eat it, then it certainly isn't fit for customers.
I should send them a bill.
Oh, you want to know about the Bumper Boats??
It isn't what you think...well, it's worse than you think.
Four boats came into the Marina yesterday in the early afternoon. We greeted some of them on the walk at the top of our finger dock. The story went something like this: (please bear in mind I am telling this 2nd had so I wont have ALL the details)
Three boats anchored out on the river, the night before, in what, in retrospect, was not an ideal place to anchor. It was behind an Island. Two of them were almost side by side, but with a gap between. One other boat was anchored ahead of them.
At around midnight, one of the boats occupants was woken by hooting of a horn and bright lights arcing all over the place. They thought, in their sleepy state that it was a Tow, as they have very bright lights and might use their horns. It was, however, their next door neighbor.
Before this happened, apparently, the boat anchored ahead of them had dragged it's anchor with the help of a 40ft tree trunk wrapped around the anchor chain (Lots of huge tree trunks floating very fast down the swollen river). They must have floated between the two boats anchored behind them, incredibly.
If it hadn't happened that way, the other two boats might not be floating still, or have severe damage to their hulls.
The occupants of that boat were still fast asleep and none the wiser until they woke in the morning to discover their anchor had retaken about a mile downstream.
The noise and light was coming from one of the two parallel boats
One of the parallel boats had their anchor lifted by a large tree trunk stuck in the chain, and they too dragged downstream, but onto the bank of a nearby island. The tree trunk was the only thing separating them from land. They were stuck. The occupants of the one boat that was still ok, were now awake and in panic mode, as were the ones on the island.
Boat one (the ok boat) now up-anchored and went to the aid of boat two (the island boat) and managed to pull them off the island and help them disentangle the tree trunk...all in the dark with flashlights! aieeeee!
The other boat (#3) woke in the morning to find they were no longer near the others, who couldn't see them downstream because of the morning fog. They got their dinghy out to try and dislodge the tree trunk that was still tangled in their anchor line. Meanwhile, the other two boats up-anchored to come down the river to the Marina. They passed boat #3, thinking they had decided to go somewhere in their dinghy:), so they just passed on by, not realizing that help was necessary.
Boat #1 found that boat #3 was not anchored ahead of them, in the middle of the night and thought that they had decided to carry on down river to be safer.
Boat #1 tried calling #3 in the morning, to find out what they were up to, but got no reply on radio or cell phone. As it transpired, boat #3 didn't take either radio or cell phone into the dinghy with them while they tried to dislodge the tree from their anchor, so they missed all the calls!
All of them were exhausted when they arrived and more than a little shook up, I might add.
In NZ there is a TV advertisement for the NZ Police that says something like "Get better work stories, Join the Police". I have modified that to say "Get better boat stories, do the Loop"!
You should be a fly on the wall when all of the Loopers get together. Boat stories abound, as you might imagine. We all have our own, and nobody will understand quite like another Looper.
We did all get together. One of our kind crossed their wake here in Grafton Marina on Tuesday, and they generously invited all the other Loopers to join them at the bar to celebrate them completing the loop. They shouted the Pizza! It was great to celebrate their accomplishment with the and enjoy the other Loopers and hear their 'stories' which were plentiful.
We have done the normal things such as borrow the Marina Van, a 15 seater with 'issues', to go to the dentist and get some groceries. We also did all the laundry and a myriad of small chores.
Tomorrow at noon we will have a car for the weekend, until Monday noon. We plan to do some sight seeing and it looks like the weather is going to cooperate. Today has been glorious, after a slightly shifty start, and it was fabulous to sit on the fly deck, out back, with a book, put my feet up and enjoy the sunshine. It got quite hot up there, but Im not complaining. I had my shorts on for the first time in about 10 days. Much too long!
The water really has receded about 5 ft. You can see that by the dark rocks vs the white rocks...cant you?
Some pretty cute Historic buildings in this town and along the main road too!
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On one of our walks we found this funghi growing on a stump, and the Gerberer (?)it just happened to be right there.
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