Fisherman’s Corner Army Core of Engineers, East Moline, Illinois
The servant asked him (Abraham), “What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?” “Make sure that you do not take my son back there. The LORD, the God of heaven…promised me on oath saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ He will send His angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. Do not take my son back there.” So the servant…swore an oath to him concerning this matter. ~ Genesis 24:5-9 Once again we see the faith Abraham has grown into. He believes God’s promise, therefore, he is unwilling to do anything to jeopardize it. If Isaac were to be taken back to where Abraham came from, he would miss out on doing his part to fulfill the promise. But know this, once God has made the promise, it would be fulfilled one way or another. His plan will never be thwarted – then or now.
Our day began with waiting on a train.
I think I mentioned the other day that there’s a track here. You can’t leave the campground without going over them. This morning, we had to wait for it. It was soooo close to us! Fun!
and it always carries a small load – only 3-4 cars.
We did a lot today, but not a lot to write about. Today was mostly about completing domestic chores. We located a really nice laundry in town, and while I washed, dried and folded (and read my book 😊), Blaine went shopping for groceries and other things he needed.
And everything was clean and tidy!
This afternoon, we went for a short bike ride to check out the lock.
Did you know the Mississippi River had locks and dams? We didn’t! There are actually 29 of them in the upper portion of the river reaching from St Paul, Minnesota to St. Louis Missouri – a distance of 530 miles. They’re needed because the altitude of the river drops 420’ in that space. The manmade structures aren’t needed below St Louis because other major rivers (The Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Ohio) as well as other smaller rivers, flow into the Mississippi, so it’s naturally wider and deeper.
but every map I looked at only numbers 25.
I have no idea why.
And then there’s the barges that need to travel north and south. They need room to move. A typical barge with a full tow includes the tow boat and 15 barges, arranged three wide and five deep. All together they stretch to 1,200 feet!
They carry cotton, grain, soybeans, wheat, corn, lumber and wood products,
as well as fertilizer, coal, construction materials, metals, sand and gravel.
We’ve seen these barges go by our campsite on the other side of the river, and marvel that they can steer such a long and heavy load.
Another odd phenomenon in this area (maybe others, but we don’t know), are the white pelicans! It was such a surprise to spot them on fresh water! Apparently it truly is an oddity, because I spoke with our Campground Host who said so. She also said they’re bringing in an expert next year to study them.
Besides seeing them living in a strange place, there’s watching the way these birds fish. They don’t dive. They congregate at the lock and wait for the fish to come through, snagging them while they sit. Once a bird has caught his fish, he floats from the front of the pack to the back while he eats, allowing other birds to come to the front. It’s crazy to see!
This evening, as we were finishing up our dinner at our picnic table, where we’d been entertained by the various things we could see, there came a parade of another sort! Canada Geese! There seemed to be one larger one in the lead, and 61 (Blaine counted – – twice!) smaller ones swimming in an almost continuous straight line behind it. We considered that it was a school of young ones on a field trip with their teacher. 😊 It was pretty amazing! Too bad the lighting wasn’t better. ☹
He also took a new picture of our house on wheels. We’ll be changing our header picture. 😊
Tomorrow promises to be a much more informative day, although today was pretty fantastic!