August 12, 2012

Girls, we saw a chicken like the ones in the "chicken town" except it was much larger and was white.

We are staying in Quincy, Illinois. Ask Aaron where it is. He found it on the map. Our motel is one block from the Mississippi River which is the largest river in the United States. We sat and watched the barges go down the river, watched the water go by and listened to the wind rustling the leaves in the cottonwood tree. The Decorah eagles live in a cottonwood tree so I looked for eagles here too but didn't find any.

This picture is of the bridge that we will go over tomorrow morning when we go to Missouri.

This is a small tugboat pushing 15 barges down the river. The barges are very, very large but the small boat is able to push all of them. I think these barges are carrying corn or soybeans. The tug pushed the barges under the bridge. The pilot has to be very careful to not hit the bridge.

This is an elevator that puts grain from trucks or trains on the left into barges that will be in the river on the right side of the picture. The grain will go downriver to maybe New Orleans where it will be loaded onto an ocean liner and go any place in the world.








Pop has decided to call the lead horses that are pulling our covered wagon, Henry and Edsel. We are waiting to feed the horses tomorrow when the cost of oats will be less in Missouri.