 |
| American Queen made an appearance today |
Well…our timing to complete the long stretch without fuel stops up the Mighty Mississippi turned out to be good. Just not sure now when we will be able to depart to continue north. We had a good bit of rain and storms here at Hoppies Marina last night and this morning but nothing like the record breaking 8+ inches that they received just 20 miles north of us in St Louis. From what we heard many roads were closed and the torrential rain was all over the national news. Although we didn’t experience that much rain the effects downriver where we are were certainly seen. The river level rose over 8’ in the past 16 hours! Along with that steep rise comes much swifter currents and lots and lots of logs and debris traveling downstream.
 |
| River level spike |
So, cruising plans change as they often do. In this case the plan was NOT to cruise but rather to hold tight and layover at least another night here at Hoppies. We will be playing things by ear over the next couple of days and watching the river and weather conditions closely to determine when we depart. Unfortunately, they are calling for additional rains over the next two days. We’ve always been lemonade kind of people so we squeezed the lemons and had a wonderful day (for the most part….more on that later) here in Kimmswick.
Since the entire morning consisted of rain the best idea we had was to make blueberry pancakes and sausage for breakfast. A few hours of lounging around in our recliners was followed by some boat chores. The boat had amassed too many ‘junk drawers’ and this required some organizing purging. The fuel bladder and associated components needed cleaned up, folded up and stowed away which brings us to the ‘for the most part’ section. Erik had cleaned up the bladder system which had sat on the dirty dock in the rain all night. He had boxed up the components (20’ fuel hose, ball valve with special fittings and riser pipe for filling the bladder) and was carrying the box and bladder up to the bow of the boat to be stored in a large dock box. As he was stepping down a couple steps on the side of the aft deck down to the gunwale along the side of the boat he got his foot caught on something and fell off the boat onto the dock (the dock in this case is actually a barge). On the way down the bladder and box fell into the water between the boat and barge along with one of his favorite sandals. He twisted as he came down tweaking his lower back. We were able to recover the bladder, the hose and his sandal but unfortunately the valve and fitting contraption along with the stand pipe and cap for filling the tank quickly sank and/or were taken away in the swift current. No profanity will be used in the telling of this story but we assure you a few choice words were uttered. At some point in the future we will have to find the necessary parts to make the system complete and usable since we are going to attempt to sell it. At some point in the even nearer future we may have to re stock on Aleve, ice packs and Salonpas since we are NOT planning to sell Erik’s back…Lol.
By early afternoon the rain stopped allowing for the opportunity to walk into town, just about a quarter mile walk, to check out the history, shops and grub. The town is loaded with shops with varying wares that we stopped into a few of and made a couple small purchases; local honey, pineapple habanero marinade and specialty ground coffee. It was then time to stop into ‘The Blue Owl’ which is a renowned restaurant and bakery in the area. Their claim to to fame which has been featured on many shows and publications around the country is the ‘Levee High Apple Pie’. Each pie consists of 15 apples! We indulged and split a piece of pie with ice cream….it was yummy! We didn’t get any of the ‘real food’ being served but could tell as the waitresses were walking by with trays full that it would all be delish.
 |
| We forgot to mention we chose the caramel and pecan covered apple pie option |
 |
| Blue Owl |
After our afternoon treat we moseyed through town stopping in at several of the many historic early 1800’s log homes that have been saved, moved and rebuilt from around the county to Kimmswick. Each had its own story and the stories were told by resident members of the local historical society. We determined that a requirement for being a Kimmswick resident was to be able to talk for a minimum of 1 hour about the history of the town. Seriously though, the folks were incredibly nice and talkative showing obvious pride in their community. Nice to see!
 |
| Several of the log homes we were able to tour |
 |
| The town had a nicely done museum , also manned with residents who knew how to talk A LOT. This quilt made in 1900 out of silk ties was pretty |
 |
| Model of the ‘Delta Queen’ paddle wheeler which is currently down in the Big Easy receiving a multi million dollar renovation and when completed will be calling Kimmswick it’s home port |
We tired our legs so we headed back toward the boat, but not before making another stop in at The Blue Owl to purchase a couple more varieties of pie! We would certainly need some yummy dessert later this evening. We were greeted at the door by the owner, Mary Hostetler, who appeared to possibly be auditioning for us to become a member of the historical society given her ability to converse…lol. She informed us that this was her last week of work before retiring from the business that she started from scratch in 1983. The reigns are being handed over to her daughter. Seemed like an incredible woman who had a true passion for her business. Their baked good are now shipped all over the country. A future Lambert holiday function will likely include a tasting!
 |
| Enjoy your well deserved retirement Mary! |
Back at the boat and after resting for a couple hours we made up a couple delicious items with the aforementioned pineapple habanero sauce. It was a very mice compliment to our planned chicken and veggie kabobs. Also, while talking on the phone to Renee’s mom about our day and purchase she had told us that she uses a similar sauce in a cheese dip. It just happened to be so that we had aboard the necessary ingredients of cream cheese, red onions, sharp shredded cheddar and now the yummy pineapple habanero sauce. It came out yummy and made for a nice evening hors d’oeuvre before grilling the kabobs.
Shortly after dinner we took Riva for a walk down the road to the Anheuser estate property which had a walking path around it in order to ensure we had room for the pie awaiting us in the fridge!
 |
| The gates were locked to the estate grounds by the time we arrived for our sunset walk but we’ve never been known to let something like a silly gate stop us from exploring! |
 |
| Oh the difficult choices we had to make! Erik chose butterscotch pecan Renee chose chocolate strawberry Both were superb! Half of each remains in the fridge for a later dessert, or breakfast! |
No comments:
Post a Comment