October 2, 2006 First Mate

Hello, We have successfully arrived at our second undercover dockage at Alton, Illinois. We left port about 12:30 today and arrived in less than an hour at our new home for a few days. I love spending more than one night in the same place. Gives me a little time to chill and do some laundry. The washer takes half a day to do one load, but I am not complaining. Just wondering why I brought so many clothes. I think we have washed and worn the same six tee shirts over and over again. We had an extremely hot day today. The great Mississippi greeted us with barges and boaters all over the place. Beautiful area however. We really enjoyed the ride here today. Emil's cousin is in St. Louis and is going to come over to the boat tonight and we are going to have drinks here and then go out to dinner at "Fast Eddie's". They have invited us over for dinner tomorrow night and I look forward to that. I think we are going to make a trip to the arch tomorrow afternoon. Not this girl however. Boating is dangerous enough for me. I don't have any desire to go up in the arch. I'll go along for the ride however. Emil has agreed to a few games of Euchre so we have played the last two days. Only a few games, but at least we played some. Had to watch a movie last night on DVD since we had no TV service. Jodi you will be happy to know we had a condo breakfast this morning. The only one so far. We will miss Emil when he leaves. It has been fun talking about the "OLD DAYS". Tom, the guy that was going to meet up with us here, has had to back out. We will be on our own until Andy joins us. Would love to see a female if anyone finds they can get away. Andy is trying to catch up with us October 15th. Sure hope it works out Andy!!!! We haven't met up with many loopers. Thought we would have met some along the way, but they are either going slower or way ahead of us. We have been told we are about two to three weeks later than most. Believe me.....Craig is doing his best to catch up. He hasn't exactly dragged his butt along the way. We have been reminded about our speed many times. He is getting better however. Well folks, have to clean up a bit for our "company". What a treat!!! I miss having people on board. We love to entertain and we love company. Till next time........I will leave the rest up to the captain. I gave up on the picture thing. That is his job. After all......I do all the work while he drives the boat. Only fair eh?? Hugs, ML