Day 11 - A Day in St Louis

Being Sunday we decided to oblige ourselves of the tradition of resting. It was refreshing to spend a day off the river and this is important because tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM we will depart on the hardest part of our journey. Over the next two days we cover the 200 mile stretch from St Louis to Kentucky Lake and there are almost no services available along this route. No gas, no marinas, no motels, and few towns highlight this section.  Most towns have moved far back from the river front because of flooding and the levee system has put a wall in front of the towns that do remain.

I had recently been tempted to try and run the full 200 miles to Kentucky Lake in one day but after contemplating the problems that could occur decided against it. We'll instead stick with our original plan to stop in Cape Girardeau, MO overnight and as I mentioned in earlier posts, I have arranged for a marine service to bring a trailer to a boat ramp and take us and the Blue Fin out of the water and motor us off to a motel. On Tuesday morning we'll reverse this sequence to get back on the river and continue on to Kentucky Lake. This plan breaks the trip into two 100 miles segments and it's the plan we'll execute starting tomorrow.

Here's how we spent our day of rest:

Floating and cooling down in my brother Nick's swimming pool on a perfect afternoon.
Nick's Mary, niece Abby, my Mary, and Nick.

And in the evening live entertainment was provided by nephew Todd.

The next two days are going to be a challenge and for that reason I'm keeping this short.

On to Cape (as it's referred to by its citizens) tomorrow.