We were invited by one of the marina staff to stop in for cinnamon rolls in the morning. They were providing them for all the Loopers. I went over just before we left and he had fresh cinnamon rolls made and he put 2 in a Styrofoam and I took them with us. We had them after we got onto the river and the cinnamon rolls were really good.
While I was talking to the gentleman I asked If there was some sort of bass tournament on today. I had seen at least 6 trucks pull in and launch their bass boats. He said no there was nothing special. He did not understand how these guys were fishing on a regular work day. He said some of them really had issues on the water ignoring no wake zones, they never wave at passing boats and not showing any courtesy at all. He had a name for them, “Bassholes”. I learned a new word today.
The day was real warm in the cockpit because were going with the breeze most of the time and the result is no breeze at all in the boat. The temp today was about 85 and it was mostly sunny today.
The scenery was good with lots of rock walls. The river is a lot wider than the Illinois and almost as wide as the Mississippi but the scenery is much better than the Mississippi. The homes are really scattered along the shore with some clusters here and there. Lots of RV’s and mobile homes and some of them even have a canvas canopy over the whole unit to shade it from the sun.
We did have a pontoon follow us for about 8 miles. It was a family that was towing a inflatable tube platform with 2 kids on it. They kept criss crossing the wake to get a little air under the kids. I did speed up for a mile or more so the wake increased. They pulled into the marina before us and actually helped us dock in Clifton.
We used the courtesy car to go to dinner. We had been here last year and the car was an old Buick Century that has seen better days. I asked if they had the same courtesy car and the women said “Oh Yes, They will probably bury Gene in the car.” Gene is the Owner of the Marina.
We went to the same restaurant as last year because the woman thought it was the only one open on a Monday. When we got there was one table of 4 eating and another table of 6 that was drinking. It turned out that the Owner was by himself and accommodating the other people and he said we could stay and he would serve us. The menu indicated the restaurant was closed on Mondays. The food was good and the service was not all that slow. The Owner felt he might have been a little rude when we first came in so he charged us for the wine and gave us the food at no cost. What great southern hospitality. I left a tip that more than covered the food.