We have been touring around the quad cities on the Mississippi. (Moline, Rock Island, Bettendorft and Davenport - 2 in Iowa and 2 in Illinois)
Saw a really interesting passage through a 600 foot locks. 9 barges full of coal - 3 abreast filled the whole space. The push tug does not fit in so they wench the barges out the other end and fill the locks again for the tug. He then hooks up and is on his way. It took about 1 1/2 hours and also required several turnings of a draw bridge that has 2 tiers with train tracks on 1 level and cars on the other.
Visited the town of Quincy, Illinois. It has the most diverse and interesting architecture of any smaller city (about 40,000) we have visited. It was a historic city on the river, a county seat and had the first railroad bridge to cross the river. That made it an early trade center. At that time there must have been many talented architects designing homes in the area. Big and smaller homes are of varied styles, periods and have interesting and unusual features. It all seems to be done in good taste! It just amazed us that block after block had one fabulous unusual home after another. The windows, verandas, woodwork, details, wrote iron work, roof detail, stairways, fences, stone and brick work, etc. were unusual without being bizarre.
We have gone south into Missouri and passed through Hannibal of Mark Twain fame.
Weather has been nice (a bit unusual we are told). The only trouble we have had was last evening and 3 nights ago when there were thunderstorms with tornado warnings. It is a bit hard for us as the info on TV is by county and we don't always know what our county is or what its shape is. We get out the maps and fire up the dopler on the computer. Those pesky arrows indicating tornadoes always seem to be near us. Since we live in a "tornado magnet" we pay attention. We are thankful for the "alert radio" the Piners gave us as we can go to sleep knowing that we will buzzed if necessary. A neighbor told us that the tornadoes never get down by the river. We hope that is true. Glad there are no such problems in Redmond!
Saw a really interesting passage through a 600 foot locks. 9 barges full of coal - 3 abreast filled the whole space. The push tug does not fit in so they wench the barges out the other end and fill the locks again for the tug. He then hooks up and is on his way. It took about 1 1/2 hours and also required several turnings of a draw bridge that has 2 tiers with train tracks on 1 level and cars on the other.
Visited the town of Quincy, Illinois. It has the most diverse and interesting architecture of any smaller city (about 40,000) we have visited. It was a historic city on the river, a county seat and had the first railroad bridge to cross the river. That made it an early trade center. At that time there must have been many talented architects designing homes in the area. Big and smaller homes are of varied styles, periods and have interesting and unusual features. It all seems to be done in good taste! It just amazed us that block after block had one fabulous unusual home after another. The windows, verandas, woodwork, details, wrote iron work, roof detail, stairways, fences, stone and brick work, etc. were unusual without being bizarre.
We have gone south into Missouri and passed through Hannibal of Mark Twain fame.
Weather has been nice (a bit unusual we are told). The only trouble we have had was last evening and 3 nights ago when there were thunderstorms with tornado warnings. It is a bit hard for us as the info on TV is by county and we don't always know what our county is or what its shape is. We get out the maps and fire up the dopler on the computer. Those pesky arrows indicating tornadoes always seem to be near us. Since we live in a "tornado magnet" we pay attention. We are thankful for the "alert radio" the Piners gave us as we can go to sleep knowing that we will buzzed if necessary. A neighbor told us that the tornadoes never get down by the river. We hope that is true. Glad there are no such problems in Redmond!
posted by Bob and Linda at
5:40 PM
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