Great Loop: Alton Illinois

Welcome to Alton Illinois.

This is where the Illinois River meets the mighty Mississippi River!

Alton Illinois

The Alton Marina is protected by a tall rock breakwater, over which the you can just see the tops of the boat sheds.  This is a good spot to stop, provision, top off fuel, do laundry and complete your preparations for travelling down the Mississippi to the Ohio River.

The entrance to the Alton Marina is on the downstream end of the breakwater.  That would be to the right in this picture.

We were so happy we were assigned a covered slip.  We were experiencing a hot spell and it was wonderful to be in the shade!  As soon as we connected to shore power, the air conditioner quickly brought the cabin temperature down to a comfortable level.

The "Walmart Grocery Delivery Caper"

Our friends on Currently used their online app to order their groceries from Walmart and have them delivered to the marina.  The drill is the driver calls from the parking lot, you met then, and then take your provisions back to your boat.

Well, someone changed that script today.  The mailing address of the marina turned out to be this empty lot a couple of blocks from the marina.  The driver, not thinking this might not be the right spot, texted our friend that they dropped off her groceries.  She was waiting in the marina parking lot.  At this point the scavenger hunt began!  She couldn't get in touch with the delivery driver, so she and Beth started their detective work.  They put the marina address into Google Maps and saw that it was this empty lot outside the marina boundaries.  So they grabbed a dock cart and headed off to locate the provisions.  Fortunately there were no frozen items in the order.  The provisions were located in the shade, carefully stacked next to a brick wall.

The groceries were waiting, just not at the marina.

Retrieved and loaded in the dock cart for the trip back to the marina.  Our detectives solved the case of the delivered, we know not where, groceries!

Skippers Meeting & Mel Price Lock

The night before we departed Alton, we held a skippers meeting to coordinate travels.  We did this as the final lock on the Illinois River, just upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi is located about a mile downstream from the marina.  It makes the lockmasters job a lot easier if Loopers form groups prior to arriving at the lock.  As it takes an hour to cycle the lock, and commercial traffic has priority, you do not want to cause un-necessary lock cycles by arriving individually.  

So we formed our groups and  called the lockmaster the night before to see when he could take our two groups.  We did an early group and a later one.  He said come on down at first light and I'll get your through.  So that is what we did.

We arrived at Mel Price lock at first light to find the gates open.  

We headed on in.

Once inside, each vessel tied up to a bollard which floats up and down in the vertical tracks you see in the lock wall.  Once through the lock, it was a short trip to the Mississippi River and we started our ride south through St. Louis to Hoppies Marina, then on to an overnight anchorage outside Cape Girardeau, to the confluence with the Ohio River.  

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Berthing Information

• We berthed at the Alton Marina
• Phone:  618-462-9860
• They have both gas and diesel, great showers and restrooms, a laundry, a swimming pool, and covered slips for all but the largest boats.
• There is an onsite ships store with ice cream and cold drinks
• Restaurants are located nearby

Trip Log