Tuesday, August 10, 2010

August 6, 2010: LeClaire, IA to Andalusia, IL. 26 miles.



This morning instead of doing stretching exercises with Mary Jo, Toni led us in a belly dancing routine! many of us participated, and it was fun. Then we loaded them up and hit the water for our longest day of the trip. Don K started the day in a kayak, which is a change from his usual can0e.

The trade canoe was on the water again today; of course there were countless waterfights--who can resist attacking such a large target?


We had 2 locks to pass through this day. As we approached lock 14, the lock tender told Rex to take us over to the auxiliary lock, so we traversed a long canal to get to the aux lock where we locked through with no trouble. Lock 15 was attached to a swing bridge with spans for cars and trains. As we approached the lock we could see a train on the span, and watched it back up to allow the bridge to open for our taller safety boat to pass through.

We paddled past the Rock Island Armory, which dates back to the Civil War. I thought it looked like a college with all the lovely old buildings. Shortly after the armory we stopped at a large park and ate lunches and talked to a group of people that tried to recruit us for the Floatzilla, an attempt to break the world's record for kayaks and canoes on August 21. The girls in the photo below made a huge batch of rice krispy treats just for us. Bill and I have other plans for that weekend, but I think a lot of people on the Rumble will be there. We are the exception having driven a whole day to get here--many of our paddlers are local.





We passed through this narrow channel today--we encountered some turbulence, but it was actually kind of fun...


Andalusia was our only overnight stop on the Illinois side, and we camped at a park next to a marina. There were no real showers, just a Rumble shower (cold water from the garden hose hooked up to a shower head out in the open). I took a Rumble shower because I smelled like the river, and Bill and I walked to a very nice restaurant called Moon River Cafe and had a lovely dinner at a real table with a table cloth. This was a luxury!

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