First Houseboat Guests!

We began our day in LeClaire at one of the local attractions - American Archeology.  As you can see, Rick is enjoying himself.  It was fun seeing all the items we have seen pictured on the American Pickers.  They were telling us that it takes 12 hours of filming to get 20 minutes of the show.  Not everything is funny!

We put in a little time at the shops and waited for the new distillery to open.  This is a small one started by two brothers not very long ago.  They had a very nice tour, one room, and it was followed by a tasting room.  The company is Mississippi River Distilling Company and it is made by using all local products.





We have travelled only 25.5 miles in the past two days.  We spent Thursday night at the Isle of Capri Marina just below the Casino.  It was very inexpensive and we had water, electricity, showers, bathrooms, etc.  It is amazing how we look forward to REAL SHOWERS.  The kind we don't have to worry about how much water we are using.
While in Moline we took in the John Deere Pavilion and saw a huge dinner cruise boat.  Rick asked if I'd like to go on one of the excursions and I politely declined the offer!

Our goal Friday was to find Ducky's Lagoon on the Andalusia Slough without getting hung up on a wingdam.  We could see on the Nav charts that there was one but it appeared that boats travelled the area.  Our depth at one point was only 2 1/2 feet but after that it was smooth sailing.  We were on our way to meet with one of my former students, Eric and his two children, Lexie and Ryan.

Though many people have mentioned meeting us along the way, these 3 were our first houseboat guests.  This was also the first boat ride for Lexie and Ryan.  They loved checking out everything on the boat and we did give them a short ride in the slough.  Needless to say this event made us a little more homesick for Tyler and Travis, but when we returned from eating at Ducky's we had a phone message from the grandkids.  It must have been one of those mental telepathy moments.


We are currently travelling in the slough and it is just beautiful.  The water is very smooth, the sun is shining and it is just one of those "it doesn't get much better than this" moments. We don't have much on our agenda for the weekend.  The weather should be nice so there should be plenty of boaters on the water.  We have a few locks to pass through and are heading towards Burlington, IA. 
Have a great weekend everyone.