Tuesday, July 24 . . . Coming Out of the "Twilight Zone"!

As you looked at the VERY interesting place we tied up to last night, if you looked closely, you might have noticed there were no hookups to electricity.  We're giving this generator a work out as it's been running since 2:00 yesterday afternoon, and it is now 5:00 p.m.!!!  It's doing a super job of keeping us cool in this not-so-dry 105 degree heat!!!  Hooked a hose from the aft deck to the upper deck where we all took turns spraying each other to keep us cool :)

We came to our only lock, after an hour into our cruise this morning, and we saw our good 'ol neighborhood tow from the Mississippi River, Cooperative Mariner, push out.  We were able to float through this minor 10' drop.

A little further down stream we began to see large hills . . . could it be the bluffs of the Mississippi River?

Twice we saw car ferries . . .

and many houses on stilts!

As we were getting excited about getting closer to the mighty Mississippi, John went down to the salon to get a snack, when he noticed this on our aft deck!!!

It turns out one of those Asian carp had jumped into our aft deck and worked hard to get back out . . . unfortunately he didn't make it as you can tell :(

Kelli and I watched carefully to everything around us as we were only a few miles from the Mississippi.  What gave it away?  Those big, beautiful Mississippi homes snuggled in the bluffs.

We finally made it . . . the confluence of the Illinois River and the MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI!!! :)