We left the Logsdon Tug Barge this morning in dramatic fashion. Owen untied the lines, as usual, and I collected them, as usual. Except that as soon as he, um, threw the bowline, the boat tilted away from the barge…with Owen still on the barge. Thankfully, we were able to reconnect so that we didn’t leave Owen to work on the barge and me to do the Loop alone. Unfortunately, there are no pictures, unless our buddy boat decided to take them.

With that drama under our belts, the rest of the day went great. Some people say the inland rivers are the most boring part of the Loop, but there’s always something to look at or do. We’ve driven through Illinois roughly 1,436,654,026 times, and I would MUCH rather go this way than on another Illinois highway.

We had one lock to go through today, and it went as quickly as it could have. The lock was ready when we arrived with our two buddy boats, and we went right in and hooked up. A few minutes later, we were on our way.

There were lots of logs and hunks of wood in the river today, so we were pretty cautious as we putted along. Our buddy boat thought they may have hit something, and that made us watch extra carefully.

When we went through Valley City, we were at the westernmost point on the Loop. We’re looking forward to the southern-, eastern-, and northernmost points, too. Pretty much all the points.

Since we left Beardstown at Mile 88 and Grafton Harbor is at Mile 0 of the Illinois River, we had a built-in countdown for our day’s journey. When we eventually pulled into Grafton Harbor, they were ready for us. We were placed at the end of a T-dock. We were glad to be hooked up to 50 amp power and have access to water for the first time in awhile. The marina is pretty shallow with just two feet under us, and we are one of the the larger boats here. Our dock appears to be the only one not secured with a gate at the end, which is uncomfortable for us.

The amenities at Grafton Harbor are nice. They have decent showers, laundry facilities ($1.50 each to wash and dry), a well-appointed gift shop, a pool, and the Grafton Oyster Bar. They call themselves the Key West of the Midwest. The general idea is there. One thing this marina does not have, though, is fuel. Alton is the next stop with fuel, and Hoppie’s after that.

There are things to do within walking distance. I feel like I’m back in my Wisconsin home with so many bars in a small area. We went for a walk in the evening and found a “sky tour,” a chairlift/gondola ride to the top of a large hill. We didn’t know what was at the top when we bought a $10pp round trip ticket. It turns out there’s a winery and restaurant at the top. The ride up was just “whatever,” but the ride down was worth the price of admission–an overhead view of the confluence of the rivers. Just plain beautiful. Everything is lush and green here now, but I would imagine the fall provides an absolutely breathtaking view. But those who travel through in the fall will not get this cool shot of our boat.

On our walk, we also saw an antique store, three ice cream places, a couple churches, and some restaurants and bars. There’s a small store .6 miles away that has some grocery items. It will do in a pinch, but it’s not a full grocery store. There’s a 20-mile bike trail between Grafton and Alton that Owen was happy to use.

We’ll be staying put here for a while, as Owen’s vacation is over and he will be working from the boat. I’ll be exploring Grafton.

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