Bothwell Lodge

 Mr Bothwell was a prominate citizen of Sedalia, Missouri. His wealth and largess for the City of Sedalia is legendary.

He built a lodge North of Sedalia that was his home and is now open for tours. We stopped by to check it out. Due to Covid the interior was not open but we were able to view the outside and hiking trails in the area.

Looking towards Sedalia, MO

Nice views from the bluff

There is a hiking trail through the woods

Antique road grader is on display

The hiking trail thru the woods takes you to this interesting structure

This building is the gift shop now, possibly a former garage.

Quad Cities #15 Lock and Dam

 There is a wonderful visitor center at Lock and Dam #15. Even though this is a public viewing area for the lock and swing bridge it is on the active Rock Island Arsenal Military base. 

This requires that you first visit the base security facility and be approved for access and issued a pass. This takes a half hour or so, but once complete allows you to drive across the base to the visitors center.

                 

This model shows how dredging keeps the channel at a depth suitable for navigation

This shows the swing bridge in position to allow a tow boat to pass into lock #15

Interesting to note the barges are already through the lock. The barges are put in the lock first, the tow boat backs out, the barges are raised in the lock and then winched out (when going upstream) and the tow boat goes thru next and attaches to the barges once it has been raised and the locks gate opened. This allows tows longer than the lock to fit through.

Conversations with the tow boat crew are enjoyed while the barges and tow boat lock thru.

Quad Cities Bike Ride

 We enjoy getting together with various family members at locations where we can explore the area by bicycle on bike trails.

This trip was to the Quad Cities along the Mississippi River. We RV camped at the Fisherman's Corner campground which was a very nice location along the river bike trail in Hampton, Illinois.

Paved roads, shade, a view of the river and a nice bathhouse made this a great place to camp

Betsy and family once again rented an RV with a slide out for the trip and had it delivered and set up at the campground

Phillip and Wendy purchased a pop top camper and enjoyed it on their first outing in the unit

Our Airstream continues to provide good service. Not bad for a 27 year old RV.

                                     

The bike trail takes you to the dam for Lock #14 on the Mississippi. You can ride out to the water control gates and see the action 

We enjoyed watching the barges and tow boats lock thru

Playgrounds are found all along the bike trail

Much of the bike trail travels across the top of a levee offering great views

Shade can be found along the way

There is a water taxi that will take you on tours of the river and various sites of interest

 

One of the especially memorable parts of the ride is to travel onto the Rock Island Arsenal Island

The bike trail leads to a bridge over the river. This is quite the bridge and includes a swing portion to allow barges and tow boats to clear when locking thru Lock and Dam #15

The bike trail in Moline, Illinois takes you past the John Deere Pavilion with machines on display

The Pavilion  area looks like a full scale model railroad

Quite the mural

                                     

The upper part of the Mississippi is too shallow to support navigation without the use of locks to keep the navigation channel at a minimum depth of nine feet