Our last night at anchor, at least for a while, was quiet and incident free. I didn't get much sleep though, having tangled with some kind of critter while walking around in Beardstown in Keens—critters that chewed my feet up pretty good. Not as bad as the fire ant encounter a while back, but bad enough. Still, I got some sleep.
We woke up this morning to nearly perfect weather except for a little fog. We debated waiting but it would take a lot worse weather than a little fog to delay starting the last leg of a 5 month journey to get home. We were on the move before the sun broached the horizon.
We have lived in the St. Louis area for a long time. When we cruised full time on Kintala, St. Louis was still where much of the family lived waiting for us to visit. I have flown over it, into it, and around it literally hundreds of times. We have driven cars and ridden motorcycles along all of its rivers. Still, until we joined the Mississippi river at Grafton and rode it under the Clark Super Bridge for the “U” turn into the Alton Marina and First Light's new home, I had no appreciation for just how big the Mississippi is. This is a serious piece of water. Making it our “home” water will take some time and, I expect, some serious respect. Getting caught out in a midwestern thunderstorm anywhere along this stretch of the river will likely have you crying for your Mama.
After filling the fuel tanks and emptying the holding tank, we settled into our assigned slip with little fanfare. It has all the amenities including a roof. A comforting addition when midwestern thunderstorms start dropping hail on everything under them. In fact, walking up to the office and back to get all signed in, I got the feeling that this was some pretty high class digs for a couple of boat bums.
So we are about to start a new kind of boat life. Rather than full time cruisers on a sailboat or Loopers on a trawler, we are just your average “pleasure boaters” now. Having grandkids and friends along for a day on the water or heading off to an Illinois River anchorage for a night or two will all be for pure fun. No need to get anywhere for any reason. When the boat isn't moving it will be another of my hobbies. First Light is travel weary, showing the miles and carrying a scar or two. She deserves some TLC. I happen to like working on the boat as long as there is no pressure to get it done or need to jury-rig something just to get out of a bind. We did the trip we planned to do. We handled the things we had to handle. We saw cool stuff, met good people, usually made the right decisions and did what we needed to when this or that decision went sour. It is time to turn the heat down a little. We are, after all, entering the winter season of our lives. There is nothing left to prove.
(Ed Note: OK I might have gone just a little crazy on the pictures today...)
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