Hoppes

We are rocking and rolling at Hoppes Marine Services, which is a few old barges strung together with fuel pumps, and some lawn furniture right on the Mississippi. No breakwater, and when a tow or big boat goes by, we feel it big time.

Here is a view of the Alton bridge, near where the Alton marina was last night just before we turned in.

Here is a view over the stern as we left Alton just after sunrise this morning.

We called Lock 27 and were told we could lock through in 15 minutes. As a tow boat left the lock, he warned us about a 70 ft. log in the lock chamber! He was right. It was crosswise in the entrance to the lock. There was a small space on each side of it. Gail said ''go left,'' John, in his wisdom chose right -- wrong. Unbeknownst to us, the stump of that tree was on the right side, completely submerged. We approached very slowly, and gently RAN AGR0UND! -- in the lock, on a tree.

We immediately reversed and backed off the tree, dragging it for a while. Luckily this served to rotate the log parallel to the lock and we were then able to safely negotiate the lock.

Miss Gail was significantly displeased about the entire affair.

This is a view back at the infamous Lock 27.

This is the mouth of the Missouri River. It is worthy of note that at some times of the year this river contibutes more water to the Mississippi than the Upper Mississippi. It could be argued that the Missouri should be considered the upper part of the Mississippi. If it were, it would be the longest river in the world

There is a twofold significance to this picture. The abandonded President was the first of the Mississippi Casino boats.

The boat lays at the mouth of the Wood River at Wood River, IL. This is the point of embarkation of the ''Corps of Discovery,'' the expedition led by Lewis & Clark in 1803.

As we passed St. Louis, we saw two important structures. In my view this is the more interesting. This bridge was designed by a man named Eads. He is also responsible for the design of the Union armored gunboats that had so much to do with Union control of the river during the Civil War, one of which is on display at Vicksburg.

The bridge was the first major bridge built across the Mississippi. Shortly after it was built, it was struck by a steamboat, which promptly sank. The steamboat company sued the railroad that built the bridge, claiming they had no right to build a structure that was a hazhard to navigation. The case was won for the railroad by a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln.

This is the other architectural feature of note in St. Louis.