PALISADES, PARTY AND MORE!

The weather has been fantastic!  The forecast is looking great, sunny and 80 every day for foreseeable future.  We decided to sign up for another couple of days here.  Looks like there are many loopers and nice amenities.  It's time to both clean Free Bird up, do some maintenence and get off the boat and enjoy some down time.  Got up at 6:30 as I had to head out at 7:30 for Jerseyville. Karen and John (Sundowner) had reserved the courtesy van from 7:30 until 11:00 and I HAD to do laundry.  They dropped me at Plaza laundromat and they were off to Walmart and in search of boat motor oil.  We all accomplished our objectives and were back to the marina at 11:00 on the dot.  John spent the morning changing the oil and was very ready to do something else.  Got our bicycles out finally and went for a spin.  

The bluffs to the south that line the river are called pallisades which are very pretty.  

There is a bike path that parallels the Great River Road and we went a way on it and then doubled back through town.  There is a nice little lighthouse and park near the river's edge.

Then back to ready for a Looper Docktail Party.  Mark and Pauline of Last Dance invited the whole crew out to their boat.  (They have 2 CATS on board, suddenly we have more cats than dogs!)  Once all the Loopers started showing up, it became evident we needed to move the festivities to the big building, there were just too many of us!  Saw a lot of folks we have seen before and connected with new ones.  The network and fellowship we have found in this group is amazing!  

Afterwards went to the local hotel for a bite.  On the way back we found the Stanley Steamer cars.  We had seen a few of them during the day but didn't understand what was going on.  They were all retired for the night but I took a few pictures and we'll come back tomorrow to talk to the owners and check them out more.  

We'll learn more about them and report in the next edition.  

Our wildlife photo of the day is this bird that when we first saw it, we didn't think it was real.  But it was definitely real.  It's a pretty common bird but thought it was cool the way it was drying it's wings.  Does the class know this one?

Back with more from Grafton tomorrow.  We are finally caught up on the blog - YAY!  Will try to keep it up to date.  Peace to you all!