Fifty Five years and still counting!

    Anniversary dinner at The Pier in Quincy, Illinois


The front of the restaurant



The Pier is a restaurant that has been built on an old railroad trestle on the east side of the Mississippi river.  There is an island on the right and a busy harbor on the left where tugs and barges are active in moving freight up and down the river.



On the left is a tug backing into the channel with its tow.  In the middle is a tow of empty barges coming up the river.




Tug boat pushing a group of 15  empty barges that have been lashed together


June 12th was our 55th wedding anniversary.  I find it amazing that we are still alive to celebrate this anniversary.  I find it even more amazing that we are doing so while serving a mission in the Nauvoo Illinois Temple.  But here we are as much in love as we ever were if not even more.  Our life has been good together and we enjoy living with our best friend.  It has been interesting to learn to live with each other in a small apartment sharing one bathroom but that is normal for all missionary companions and is a part of our mission experience!

Our neighbor told us about this restaurant in Quincy and we thought it would be the perfect place to pause and celebrate our anniversary.  It was charming.  You have to climb many stairs to get up to the dining room but that was worth it because it put us up high enough to have a good view to enjoy the sunset and the traffic on the river.  They feature seafood and we had salmon which was very good but had a Midwest twist and thus not like what we are used to eating at home. 

Ever since we have been here in Nauvoo we have been fascinated with the way they move goods up and down the Mississippi with barges and tugs.  Each barge is 200 feet long and 35 feet wide and holds about 1,500 tons of grain, coal or other bulk goods.  On the upper Mississippi River, shippers lash 3 barges together and then put 5 of these in a long line making a tow of 15 barges.  This is the maximum size that will fit in the locks on the river at Keokuk.  These are pushed by tug or push boats.  Since these tows are about 1,000 feet long and 105 feet wide, it takes some skill to successfully navigate them up or down the river. One barge tow is equivalent to a three mile long train.  We enjoyed watching these big craft while we were eating our dinner. They are fun to watch at the end of Parley Street as well. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Isaac Morley Home

Image
About one mile north of the center of Kirtland, lies the Morley Farm.  Brother Isaac Morley and his wife had developed a very good productive farm. He was a long-time resident of Kirkland and was converted to the church when the missionaries came through in 1830 along with many of his friends from the Campbellite church.  He was a strong believer and never wavered in his testimony. He had built a 14 x 14 log schoolhouse for his children and others up on a small hill above his farm.  When Joseph Smith came to Kirtland the schoolhouse was used for many of the meetings held for the community and the church.  The fourth conference of the church was held in this schoolhouse. Isaac Morley was a great  support to the growing church. Whatever was asked of him, he obeyed the Lord.  When Joseph asked him to sell his farm and give the proceeds to the church, he did so. He was called to be first counselor to Bishop Edward Partridge.  He was ordained a patria...
Read more

Winter Quarters

Image
When we visited this area in 2008, we were there when the temple was closed so we missed going inside.  Our goal this year was to arrange our trip home so that we could be there for a session.  Even though the session was small, it was wonderful to see this beautiful temple that blesses the lives of the people that live in Omaha, Nebraska and the surrounding area.  One feature that was especially beautiful was the abundance of stained glass windows which contain images significant  from early church history. The Winter Quarters Temple Will we ever master the Selfie? The next morning we went to the Visitor's Center to learn more about what happened here when the pioneers had to stop and camp for the winter.  Amie called my attention to one of our ancestors who was here as well as in Nauvoo.  The father died before they arrived in Nauvoo and Sarah and her daughter and sons were left in a rather desperate situation.  She remarried in order...
Read more

The Rest of our Trip Home

Image
We stayed one night in Waterloo, Iowa so that we could go to the John Deere factory to watch how they manufacture large tractors.  We went to the tractor cab assembly plant because we couldn't see the large harvesters as their plant was closed that week.  It was a great tour.  We rode on a tram pulled by a little John Deere tractor as we traveled around the assembly floor of this 48-acre plant to watch the tractors being assembled. It was amazing to watch how well coordinated the whole process was, even though there were many different things going on at the same time.  Many parts of the process are completely automated to be done by "robots" with little human supervision.  For instance, in the section where the green or yellow paint is applied it is done by an automatic sprayer tube that was able to twist and turn to reach all surfaces of the part being painted.  And when it gets done, it knows to go back down and suck up all the excess paint so it won...
Read more