C-Brats "Meet in the Middle" Mississippi River Gathering

My pesky brother-in-law guilted me out of my laziness to begin blogging again... and so, weeks later, here I am posting from Alton Illinois.

We made our way through Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.. and found "damn Isaac". I apologized to him and told him I would try to call him "dear Isaac" in the future... if he sent some clues my way.  And he did.  I think he had a brother or cousin named Jacob and his father was Samuel.  His uncle may have been John.  And we learned a funny story about Samuel who was there back in the early days of Ft Lexington fighting off Indians....getting captured with his buckskins down... But that's not the purpose of this blog, so.. back to boats.

We are now in Alton Illinois, a small town on the Mississippi and we have 13 C-Brats gathered here to chat, eat, swim, tour each other's boats, and eat some more.

The flags are authentic WWII signal flags...very fun and festive

The event is technically Thursday to Sunday morning, but some, like us, got here early.  And we took a little cruise upriver to see the bluffs along the Mississippi that we had heard so much about.  We saw manycaves carved in the bluffs and I couldn't help thinking of Tom and Becky, Huck and Big Jim.

There were a few buildings along the river road but most, like these, built way up on the bluffs.  The marina where we are staying is all floating docks, even the office, restrooms and , yes, The Swimming Pool... are on floating barges... and the pilings are at least two stories high.  From what we've read, the river has flooded routinely up into the parking lot... and the very worst floods have gone up the road, onto the main street.

We C-Brats love to take pictures of each other!

We were just puttering along when all of the sudden there was a crash along the side of my window.  We wondered what we'd hit... but it was more like... what hit us!  Flying Fish?!!  I later learned they were silver carp.  Boats engines scare them and once one started jumping; they all jumped... there must have been over a hundred of them... jumping 4 ft off the water.  Some were quite large... maybe two or three ft.  Apparently they can get to be 40 lbs.  I took these pictures off the internet as we were so flabbergasted and surprised, we didn't grab the cameras!

These are invasive species which have become a big problem in recent years.  There are bow and arrow "tournaments" as well as a Red Neck Tournament with nets.  You can't catch them with a line, but its no problem catching them if you want to, as they will jump into your boat.  We had a big one jump into our motor well.  As we stared at it, wondering how to get it out.. it flopped its way to the other side and escaped.  Man, was it ever slimy and stinky!  We had never heard of these flying fish and our adrenaline was pumping for an hour afterwards.  It still seems unreal.  Personally, I thought it was as fun as seeing the dolphins in Charleston Bay.

Today many are going on a tour of the locks and to a river museum.  And tonight is a big barbeque where some of the C-Brats have brought specialty sausages from their homes in Amish country, upper state NY,or from up in Wisconsin or down in Texas.  Seriously, folks have traveled over 1,000 miles to get here.  They are a dedicated bunch and we are fledglings.  One couple has put on over 14,000 miles BOATING on their C-Dory.  Hard to comprehend.  At this point, we have boated about 1,000 miles and put about 8,000 on the SUV.

Tomorrow the group is cruising down to St Louis, through 2 locks and next to the big arch.  Maybe we'll see more attack fish?  (I hope so, it was pretty neat!)

 Then, on Sunday, we are headed home.  Others are boating from here to Little Rock AK.  C-Brats are always going somewhere.

Resting

We left the falls and went back to the boat to hang out... and just have a day to do nothin.  All this go go going does get to you after awhile.  Then we pulled the boat for our roadtrip "leg".  This is where we head south, then west, towards home.  First we are going back to Virginia to visit family, then following what I call "The McClain trail" west, through Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas (Kansas is another state I need to check off... and also where Rob's great grandfather Bovia was born).  I will visit some historical societies along the way to find more clues to where "Damn Isaac" originated.  Damn Isaac, as I affectionately refer to him, is Rob's 4th great grandfather and the "brick wall" in my geneological research.

You probably wonder why we aren't cruising the Great Lakes section of the Loop... and its simply that I have been to almost all the interesting towns and sites around the great lakes.  I grew up there and have camped and sailed much of it.  I would love to show Rob, but, I'd also like to put Damn Isaac to rest (so to speak).

We have several family and friends to visit along the way as well.  None of this roadtrip leg is relavant to the purpose of this blog, so I'll be taking a break here.

 Once we hit St Louis, and the Mighty Missisip, we will do a bit more cruising.  So I'll write more then.

Day trip: Niagara Falls

As nice as Pirates Cove Marina is; we were ready to do something more exciting than boating green waterways and living in a damp boat due to all the rain. We rented a car and drove to Niagara Falls, NY.  Sadly we left our passports at home and weren't able to go to the Canadian side.  But we spent a day and a half enjoying the state park and a nice boutique hotel with spa tub and fireplace. AHH! We could see the fireworks from the lounge at the top of the building. The town (at least the town nearest the park) leaves much to be desired.

Today, of course, it decided to rain during the daytime instead of just at night  But we figured we'd be wet anyway from the falls and the mist.. so we set forth.  We weren't the only brave souls and it was still fairly crowded.  But not too crowded.. mostly foreign families and tours.  Every language imaginable!

The park is nice but many walkways, and the visitors center had construction going on.  But facilities aside, the park is lovely and, from the boat ride, you get a fantastic view of both the American and Canadian falls.

Everyone's seen pictures of Niagara Falls... and our photos aren't great because the day was gray and rainy.  If the day had been sunny, we might have gotten some rainbow shots.  Hopefully, though, you will see that this is scenery well worth the trip.

On "The Maid of the Mist Boat Ride... better than Disneyland by a long shot!

Maid of the Mist

American Falls with Horseshoe Falls in the distance

Bridal Veil Falls on the Cave of the Falls Walk... the falls come rushing right through your feet... which is why you get "free" sandals to take home

Sylvan Beach to Clay NY

Days along the Erie have been basically the same. Rob took lots of pictures of cool working boats, which I liked too (despite the fact that the colors are Blue and Gold (UofM colors)/

 We started seeing houses and boat traffic as we got closer to Oneida Lake.  It's so much more interesting when you can view backyards, lawns, porches, decks... and boats.  Lots more pontoon boats in this section... including many with little enclosed cabins for sleeping... some also have canvas enclosures.  I've not seen this brand of pontoon before and it seems like a perfect Erie canal boat to me.  You could do a lot of exploring AND have quite a bit of space on a boat like that.

We spent a night at Sylvan Beach on Oneida Lake.

Unusual pontoon boat

Sylvan Beach has miles of lovely sandy beach... It's an old beach/resort town with a permanent (but small) amusement park at one end.  We had a fun dinner at a very large 50's style diner (and I don't mean it was 50's decor, but that it was probably built in the 50's).  The place was packed and the food was good.

Nice beach at Sylvan Beach... Those are boats anchored close to the beach; people swimming off them

The next morning we cross Oneida Lake which is a large lake but very shallow.  Everything I've read says for boaters to pick their conditions.  It was a calm trip for us.  About halfway across the lake, though, the water got greener and greener.  Right now there is a huge algae bloom problem on Lake Erie (Toledo residents can't drink the water)... so, even though we're not close to Lake Erie, I'm thinking we will see these conditions for the rest of our time on the Erie Canal.

We stopped for the day at Pirates Cove Marina which is in Clay NY.  Its a really friendly place, with a pool and restaurant.  I took advantage of the pool while it was still sunny and hot.  That night there was a live band playing at the restaurant...but we had a big storm and didn't venture out.  

It has rained nearly every night on this leg of the trip (since NYC) and we're getting really sick of it.  At least it has only been at night!  Rob purchased an umbrella somewhere along the Hudson, and I was sure that once we started carrying an umbrella, we wouldn't need it anymore.  That talisman didn't work!