Total Awesomeness!

I know, that sounds kind of hokey, but wait till I tell you why!!

Two days ago...that would be Saturday (gosh, did this week go fast!)..Waz and I hopped in the rental car to go and find JoAnn's Fabric and Craft and hopefully to get into the city of St Louis. We also decided to go and see the massive Melvin Price Lock and Dam, which we will be going through tomorrow when we leave Grafton, after 10 days here.

On the way we went through Alton, and decided to stop for some lunch. Walking the main drag and looking at Menus we couldn't decide what to eat until we saw a sign that said. Luci-Anne's Patisserie. Of course we had to investigate!! The goodies looked worth eating, and the owner/baker was making fresh coffee:) Not being able to decide which of the goodies we should try, we decided to order four...well, to share, right!
The Pumpkin spice Whoopie Pie was to die for, as was the peanut butter cream cheesecake, the Cannoli and the Frangipane tart. WOW! This lady makes them all there, and they were honestly the BEST desserts we have eaten on the whole trip! We decided that THIS was lunch.


From top to bottom...The peanut butter cream cheesecake with Peanut Butter cups on the top!!, the Pumpkin spice Whoopie Pie, the Cannoli and the Frangipane Tart.

 

Having made ourselves sick, (not really!) we got back on the road and drove south to the Dam and took our time looking through the exhibits in the Visitor's Center there. A group of young, mixed age African American kids stormed the Center, pushing and pulling, running around madly, as kids tend to do these days in these places, and then they assembled ready for the 'tour' of the Lock and Dam. They were accompanied by four adult males, who appeared to have control of them and who spoke to them kindly and guided the group to the assembly point for the tour.

We asked if we could tag along with the group. We were welcomed and spend the next hour in various discussion with the kids, the escorting adults and the Park's Service  woman who guided the tour.

We ascended the Lock in an elevator with the group. A young an was afraid of heights, and he took my hand when it was offered. He various held my hand and one of the other adults, all the way up and then along the top of the Lock. The others all seemed to enjoy what they were looking at, though there wasn't initially anything to see....until a 12 x pack tow came into the lock's main chamber. This was fantastic to watch the process from above. We were able to take a good look at the auxiliary chamber which we are anticipating using tomorrow morning, when five of us Loopers go through. The Chamber was cluttered with rafts of debris, mostly logs and sticks.


You can see the scale of this place by looking at the tug boat in the middle bottom of the photo, against the concrete wall. Those blue/grey things are extra flood gates.

 We came out of the elevator where that black hole is on the left of the name.

 

 We are currently in Kampsville/Grafton, and will be leaving the Mississippi at Cairo, at the bottom of Illinois, to go UP the Ohio River for a bit, into the Kentucky Lakes

 This pond at the front of the Visitor's Center is a model of the Mississippi River at this point, or the confluence of the Rivers...Mississippi and Illinois.

 As the photo says...The Dam and Lock at time of flood. We don't know what year this is ('93?), however. You can see that it is a sizeable structure.

 The young man at the back was the one afraid of heights. He was a sweetie:) I also have a hunch he needed to hold someone's hand for the physical contact:)

 Looking back upstream, we saw where many of the logs that had floated downstream in front of the boat, ended up. With the waters receding, this is what happens.

The Visitor's Center. The United States Park Service do a great job of staffing these places and the exhibits were excellent.

Inside the center, the tank containing the Red Eared Turtles was fascinating...or I should say, the Turtles themselves were. We have seen lots of these critter, both in the water and squashed on the roads. The story goes...The big fella on the bottom likes to boss the two smaller turtles around. He literally pushed the other one off the shelf where the heat lamp is, to get to it. Soooo....the smaller turtles just climb on top of him to get to the greater heat! Sounds good...and smart!:)

 This Grafton/Alton area is known to be the Wintering place for Bald Eagles. This stuffed bird was part of a fauna exhibit.

 As was the Owl...I believe this is a Great Barn Owl...but could be wrong!

 Cant remember what this is...someone please tell me!

 Mastadon Teeth! The scale here is difficult. Think...ummm....each tooth is about the size of a large male fist...and bigger!

 The city of Saint Louis, Missouri. You can see the dates! The bridge in the middle photo is still there!

 These two photos show the Mississippi in Normal condition, on the left, and Flood on the right. A big difference.

 All along the river we saw flood marks on buildings. Most of them were the '93 high water mark.

Looking down into the Auxiliary chamber, on Saturday. The log jam was on both sides of the gates. We hope they clean it out before we get there on Tuesday!

The turbulence in the water is horrid but fascinating...watching the whirlpools in particular.

While we were up on top of the dam we were fortunate to see a 9 x pack tow come into the main lock.

He went in underneath where we stood, and out the other side, here. There was barely one foot of available space on either side of the barges, as you can see.

There was room enough in the chamber to have fitted another small tow in as well.

After we came down from the top of the Dam/Lock wall, we were asked by the adults leading this group, if we would talk to the boys about our journey in the boat. We were happy to oblige, and after thanking them for their attention, and their excellent questions, they came and gave us hugs:) Some of them came back for seconds. What a privilege! They were a happy bunch and I wanted to take them all home with me, after that. Hats off to the men who are role models and who take time out of their weekend to do these experiential visits with this group. As a mother of sons, I really enjoyed their energy and their affection. You can kind of tell we are enjoying ourselves...no?:)

 

 

Ahhh...but I missed the other awesomeness of the day...well, at the Beginning of the day, actually. Sorry to go backwards, but some things cant wait to be revealed!:)

 

Our first call of the day was to EckertsPick your own Apples. We had every intention of picking our own, but....when we turned up, so did everyone else! yes, this place was like visiting the local County Fair! Seriously! They had parking attendants even!

The field was FULL of cars...we think about 200!

 This is the children's 'play' area and petting zoo. Yes, really...at an apple picking place....wait...there is more....

 Folks were sitting out under the trees and enjoying the food that could be purchased at the APPLE picking place.

 Even the porta potties were decorative. Lots of pumpkins for sale. They arrived early, this year.

 You could buy Funnel Cake! if you don't know what that is...you don't want to know. Ok, I will tell you, since you insist.! Well, they make a mix like a waffle mix up and put it into a container that extrudes it into a deep fryer (being the funnel). The mix fries and then they cover it with sugar! Blech! It ends up looking like a mess that dropped into the fryer by accident. Some folks do it well and they look less of a mess.People everywhere love it! I wont let Waz try it! lol.

 Plenty of people lining up for funnel cake! This place is BIG BUSINESS!

 Decorative pumpkins everywhere. No, you don't eat these ones. They are for putting on the table with the rest of the Fall decorations.

 Th Country Store. We decided not to go and pick our own apples, and instead we filled a bag with some Red Delicious...and stood in line. Oh, and we also bought a SMALL apple pie. Two portions!

 EVERYTHING had their label o it. Sauce, butters, mustards and on and on.

 This is how you pick your own. They load you onto a farm trailer and take you to the pace to pick. They then take you back to the area where you offload and weight your produce (Apples) which cost $1.79 lb, whether you bother to pick them yourself or not.

 We were disappointed in the quality of the fruit that supposedly was just picked. They were pretty tasteless.

This statue of Johnny Appleseed was at the entry to the estate.

 The 'paring Lot'...and Waz looking like a typical American with his hat on.

 The road back down to Grafton . Very pretty with the trees just starting to turn. We couldn't imagine this road in the middle of winter...ice and snow??

 

The end of the day brought another delight....The Spirit of Peoria went down the Mississippi past the Marina at Grafton. She is a chain-drive water-wheel 'steamer'.

 

 Another lovely sunset.

 

And so the day comes to a close.