Talisman 2020

 We left Alton Marina early - saying goodbye to a fun summer. We made our way thru two sets of locks - Mel Price and Chain of Rocks with no issues and headed to St. Louis. Interesting fact - St Louis has NO marinas or tie-ups for pleasure craft.  We passed thru the Arch area with no traffic. St. Louis has an Earth Cam that has a live feed.....we had it on our phone and when we floated into the feed, I did a screen shot - pretty cool....and puts the size of the arch into perspective. THAT'S TALISMAN!....RIGHT UNDERNEATH THE BEAUTIFUL ARCH! We are headed down the Mississippi to the Ohio - North on the Ohio - then the Cumberland River - past Paducah - to Lake Barkley - Kentucky Lake area. The issue on this stretch of the Loop is getting fuel. After Alton, the place available for fuel flooded last year or the year before ...so still not available. We can get to Paducah, but because of COVID, they were not selling fuel - docks are owned and run by the City. We had to make arrangeme...

 OUR SUMMER IN ALTON MARINA, ALTON, IL We took the 3 1/2 hour trip from home ( Morris, IL ) to the boat  every two weeks all summer. In Alton, we  did maintenance items, had fun and met some really great people on J-Dock. Mary and Dale on "The Marydale" and Blake and Julie on " It's a Wonderful Life"  provided cooking tips and great entertainment. Special thanks to Mary, Julie, Penny and Nancy for recipes and advice on cooking in my micro/convection oven. The ladies from J dock are going to make sure Doug does not starve! In Alton, we had a bimini made for the back seating area ( for those sunny Florida Days ) and we also participated in " the Blessing of The Fleet". Our Friends, Tony and Beth Aussem, from Lees Summitt, MO visited one weekend. Had fun exploring Grafton and riding the car ferry. Our friends, Darren and Heather Melvin graciously came with us to Alton the last time and took our car back to Morris. Somehow we didn't get a picture, but ...