October 3, 2006

Hello Again, Well I am happy to report the captain took pity on the crew and allowed us to sleep in until 8 a.m. This guy is tough!!!! We had a great time at "Easy Eddies" last night with Dave and Mary Jane. They are a wonderfully, warm couple and a lot of fun. The meal and drinks were a little steep at Easy Eddies however. We had 50 peel and eat shrimp, three rounds of beer, two hamburgers, one beef on a stick, one pork on a stick, one brat, and french fries. Our bill for the five of us was $50. Can you believe it???? I felt like I have just robbed the place. The food was great, the service great and the evening was wonderful. Today Dave picked us up at 8:30 a.m. to go to the arch. It is quite an experience....one I chose to pass on. Emil and Craig mustered up the courage and went up. Dave and I walked through the museum and chatted. Went to lunch at Charlie Gitto's in town. It was delicious and huge portions. I think we all left food on our plates. From there we went to the Bud Brewery and took the tour of the plant. It is a beautiful place with lots of flowers and landscaping. Then of course we had a beer and headed for Dave and Mary Jane's house. They have a beautiful home in a nice neighborhood. Quiet and peaceful and very comfortable. When Mary Jane got home and finally found the crackers we had snacks and drinks before dinner. (private joke) Dinner was awesome and then we left poor Mary Jane with all the dishes and headed back to the boat. It is a 45 minute trip back and it was almost 9 p.m. Way past our bedtime!!!! It was a great day and lots of fun to get off the boat and move about. We got a call from one of our son's buddies tonight. Chris Alcott called to say hello. It was nice to talk to him and so sweet of him to think and call us. I tell you......no one ever bothers when we are home. Love this boating thing.....people care what your doing. We are now back to the boat and Craig is working on the next few days with charts etc. It has been great how he gets things ready and I just follow along on the charts as we travel. He is quite the organizer. Lost our second mate tonight. He is staying with his cousin for one more day and then flying back home on Thursday. It was fun having him on board and for a novice he did a great job. Craig and I will be leaving early tomorrow morning to head down the Mississippi to Hoppies, our next stop on the trip. We are trying to figure out a way to avoid anchoring out the next night (Thursday). It is not our first choice but it is also a long haul to the next decent dockage. Actually something like 200 miles. That makes for a very long day when you have locks to deal with. They sure slow you down. Don't know if we will have service to blog again soon, so just hang in there and we will get back to you all as soon as possible. Hugs, ML