Beardstown, Illinois

Our next stop after Peoria was Beardstown, IL.  It looks like we will be here for a couple days.  The weather is off and on again rain.  Rain by it self isn't bad, but when mixed with a narrow channel in the river, poor visibility, and dodging barges that are sometimes up to 1000 feet long, it's better to stay put.  In Beardstown there are no marinas, and very few places to tie up to.  So we got permission to tie up to this old barge, which is about 90 years old.
This weekend is Beardstown's fall festival, so we went to a parade this morning, I think it was the longest parade I ever attended, it went on for what seemed like two hours.  It was raining pretty hard, but since this is an old town with old buildings, most had awnings with benches in front. We had a dry spot under the awning and a comfortable place to sit.  As soon as the parade was over, the rain stopped and the sun came out. There was food stands, rides and games, the fall festival is a big deal.  Carny food, elephant ears, corn dogs, and  funnel cakes! Oh Yeah!

We will try to leave tomorrow, it will be a long day on the river, next stop is Grafton IL, 88 miles south and the last stop on the Illinois river, (mile marker "0") Then we will be on the Mississippi for awhile, where the barge traffic is pretty heavy.

This is where we were for the weekend of the 25th.  We have had issues with the Internet and especially down loading pictures to this blog.  I will be posting later today our current location and a few snags we are encountering.