A Profitable Day (or Time Spent in Reconnaissance is Seldom Wasted

As a graduate of the Neil Watson school of preparation (albeit not with honours but a conceded C pass) the day was spent on finding out the status of the river around St Louis for recreational boats. We drove down to Alton to visit the lock there for information. There we established that the locks were not shut to small crafts and that it was the coast guard that would close St Louis Harbour. We were advised that it wasn't going to close until Friday which made sense because the flood crest was scheduled to hit then and also with a holiday w/e there would be more boats out and about than normal. Having also checked out where Rotary meets in relation to the marina, and got permission to camp at the marina on Thursday night (it looked fabulous),my current thinking is that I will now skip Alton altogether. It is 17 miles from here, with a further 23 miles to the Arch in downtown St Louis. I could have my kayak collected there but I would have to find somewhere to sleep for the night. The alternative is to put in an extra effort and push on another 20 miles to the next town Kimswick. The famous Hoppies Marina is situated there it it may be possible to leave my boat there for the duration of Jane and Matthew's visit rather than have it picked up and stored as is the current plan. It wouldn't be too far for them to pick me up on Friday or I may even be able to make it back into town myself the next day. I shall discuss with Jane in my daily phone call tonight