Lots of floating today in rain that was on and off. More hanging out, napping, and playing cards to pass the time.
Our barge count increased and became max loads of 15, 3 wide x 5 deep. We met the Mississippi River near Grafton and the width of the river really opened up!
Alton, Illinois is a bigger city on the Mississippi River and has a marina with a pool. Our friends lived there during their Army Recruiting Duty, so we figured we would stop and check it out. We hadn't been on land in 72 hours.
We got tied up and changed into swimsuits right away. The swimming pool and marina office were floating, due to the amount of flooding they get. The boat slips, not on the t-head, were all covered. We had never stayed at a marina like this before, so it was a change. We got to the swimming pool and it was colder than the Great Lakes, but the kids and my dad all got in and didn't let it bother them. My mom and I watched them float in tubes, have water fights, and play from the side after dipping our feet in quickly. A lady in the marina office came out to tell us that if we see lightning, to get out immediately because it is an aluminum pool. We thought we heard thunder a few minutes prior, so we told everyone to get out. She insisted that she wasn't kicking us out, we told her we understood, but we wanted them out just to be safe.
Upon our return to the boat, there was a siren in the area. My mom asked if it was a tornado siren. I told her no because we would've had an alert on our phones.
Ben and Moose took the trash and recycle out and were roped inside by the lady at the marina who said they shouldn't be outside because there was a tornado siren. When she let them go after the siren was off, they came back and told us. So, we pulled up MyRadar and it looked like we were in a tornado AND flash flood warning. A boat on a floating dock is a good place to be during a flash flood warning, but not a tornado warning!
We wanted to go check out the Old Bakery Beer Company, which was right across the highway, and the torrential downpour we were experiencing made it difficult (but we were thankful for the new-to-us covered slips and docks at this point), so we called 2 Lyfts to take us there. We waited under a covered gazebo while my dad was eyeing places to go if we spotted the tornado before our cars came.
As soon as we walked into the brick-walled and cement-roofed building, our phones alerted us of a tornado warning. We were happy to be in a safer place to chill, eat, and have a few beers.
My mom, Bear, Ben, and I all got a pulled pork and brisket sandwich which was delicious. My dad got a burger. Moose got some soft pretzels with beer cheese, and Roo got a PB&J with a Caesar Salad. When we finished, we got 3 desserts to share. They were vegan chocolate ice cream sandwiches with cookie dough as the outer sandwich. We all enjoyed them, despite them being vegan.
Old Bakery has a stash of games for people to play, so we tried a few out. They had us giggling like crazy!
It cleared up quite a bit while we ate and played, so Ben, Roo, Moose, and I walked back and arrived at the same time as Bear, my Mom, and my dad in their Uber.
When we got back to the boat, we hooked up to my dad's TNT account to watch game 1 of the Stanley Cup, while playing Five Crowns before going to bed.
No locks today!
❤️
ReplyDelete