Day 1 of week 2

This trip is truly a learning experience. For some reason I had no idea that we would see so many different kinds of "vessels" traveling the river. We have met people traveling by kayak, canoe, small fishing boats, cruisers and barges. Those traveling by canoe and small fishing boats are young men on an adventure. Sleeping in tents or on hammocks. And all traveling to New Orleans for there next adventure. Oh to be young again! We have met up with another couple going to Florida and it sounds like our travels will now be together. He is from England, she from Scotland and they have decided to take a year and do yacht traveling. Fun to have new friends to share this with. We are now in Grafton, Illinois. We have Illinois on one side of the river and Missouri on the other, so everyday we are a little confused as to where we are...or should I say I am. Grafton is a really cool river town. Unfortunately for them the economy has hit them hard and it is obvious by how many small businesses are closed. They have the Nina and Pinta sailing boats on their shoreline. Today we hope to see and maybe spear the flying carp! Of course the only spear we have is our lock and dam poke stick so they are in no real danger. After we arrived here we found out that we had missed out on seeing a nude photo shoot on the beach. The boys wanted to go back but we put our foot down and said NO....JK!...about saying no not the photo shoot. Today will be our last chance for gas and then we will be anchoring on the river for 2 nights so we might not have access to the Internet but we will be back so stay tuned! Oh by the way tonight we are having a Pirate party with a jostling dinghy fight against the Europeans...should be interesting!