Day #60 - Peoria, IL
September 29th, 2008Woke this morning to rain. After the Captain’s meeting it was decided to spend another day here as the river still hadn’t opened. Decided to do things that we had been putting off. Andy (MacGyver as the kids call him) made a dryer vent that he was having trouble finding in the stores. He made it out of cardboard and then resin over the entire thing. Works like a charm, but then anyone who knows Andy never would have doubted his ability. I spent the entire morning setting up Microsoft Outlook from my Palm exported addresses, phones, etc. Made it through the letter R and stopped as we were invited to lunch.
Ready for a diversion Andy, Charlotte, Bob and I walked up to the greasy spoon we ate at the other night and low and behold it was closed on Mondays. Disappointed, we each went back to our boats and ate leftovers, but decided to get together for a pot luck dinner on their boat tonight.
Everyone has things they worried about while planning for the trip. One of mine was coloring my hair and I am glad to report, I conquered that demon this afternoon. Quite a visual I am sure. Proved I could do it and am off the hook for another month. Hopefully by then, we will be back in an area where I can hire a professional to do the job.
A local boater offered to take a group of us into town to go shopping and pick up groceries. It was a tight squeeze and Andy was lucky enough to have me sit on his lap, yikes! On the way to town, we did the historic driving tour. It really was lovely and then our driver dropped us off. We walked around Peoria Heights and into a couple of stores.
The men patiently waited while the women went into a few stores and then we moved on to the grocery. Our driver graciosuly picked us up and we drove the other scenic route back to the boat. I am sure Andy was never so glad to get back to his destination.
The good news came this afternoon the the river has FINALLY opened and we will be off in the morning for parts unknown, thank goodness, as everyone is getting impatient to get moving.
