Marina Guard

The Alton marina, though located partially under a bridge, had plenty of birds.

Halloween a'coming

The week before Halloween we carved jack-o-lanterns.

First Dam, Pierce

Below Alton, we hit the first Miss. lock - definitely wider and longer than the Illinois waterway!

Wider Dams Too!

The Pierce Dam demonstrates the size of the Miss.

I never knew...

that parts of the Miss. wer still rapids, bypassed by a canal.

Maintenance time

In St Louis we had to negotiate around a half dozen dredges that were working on the waterway.

Bridges and Arch

Our first view coming out of the canal.

One big McD's

Here we are - home of the biggest golden arch.

1001 uses for a barge

We saw barge dock, breakwaters, rip-rap, offices, casinos - they use barges for everything.

Makes you wonder...

We saw all types of discharges for a variety of fluids??

Ledge caves

The shoreline continually changed. Wonder how these caves were formed.

A man's home

This castle-like home overlooked the river from a solitary bluff.

Tow garage

Floating drydocks can be found along the river, srvice stations for towboats.

River reject

There has to be a story behind this abandoned boat tossed on shore by higher waters.

Mining sand

We saw a number of dredges that were mining sand from the river bed.

Chart plotter

We plotted our progress on strip charts so we could plan our next stop and communicate our position with the tow captains.

Next!

While we waited to be lowered a tow moves up to the gate - next.

Waiting for monsters

We were fogged in, anchored about 50' off the channel marks, waiting for dark - and monsters.