Alton Tourism Sites

Alton, Illinois is the birth and death place of the world’s Tallest Man, Robert Wadlow, 1918-1940, known as the Alton Giant or the Giant of Illinois. He was 8’11” and suffered from hypertrophy of his pituitary gland. Fred read about him as a child and had always wanted to come to Alton. So we rented a car and drove to see his grave. 



There is also a statue of Robert Wadlow at the college he attended. So since we had the car, off we went!  



Fred is standing next to a life-size replica of Wadlow and is sitting on a life-size statue of Wadlow’s chair.  

Next to the Mississippi River in Alton, there is a plaque that talks about a duel between Abraham Lincoln and James Shields.  Mr. Shields was upset about an article he thought Lincoln had written. 


Once Mr. Lincoln demonstrated his advantage in height, the dual did not take place. 

You already knew this would happen: we found a brewery!  


And at night, there were fireworks. Not sure why they did fireworks on a random Thursday during the month of September, but they set them off not far from the marina. So we had a front row seat.

Fireworks in Alton







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Taurus Great Loop Statistics

Image
Days on the Great Loop ~ 335 Days at Marinas ~ 329 Numbers of Marinas ~ 101 Lock Walls ~ 3 Barge tie-up ~ 1 Convention Center Wall ~ 1 At Anchor ~ 1 Diesel Fuel Used ~ 6,597.6 Gallons Nautical Miles ~ 4,875 Statute Miles ~ 5,610
Read more

Melbourne, Florida - Our Winter Home

Image
We made it to Melbourne, FL, Taurus’s home for the next three and a half months!  Melbourne is also where our son lives, so we are going to get some good time in seeing him this winter. So great!!  We saw him after work and for dinner today.  It’s been too long. We need Covid-19 to be done please! We left Fort Pierce this morning and had an uneventful cruise.  We saw an old favorite - a tug pushing a barge! We saw some more electric wires crossing the bay for those in the barrier islands. Once we were settled in our new marina, Fred and I took a walk to the Eau Gallie Art District (EGAD). We walked through an older residential neighborhood. There were Aloe Vera plants that are humongous! Aloe Vera plants in the neighborhood near our marina Plus there were cactus There were a couple of historic signs And at the end of the night - Christmas lights!
Read more

Georgetown, SC and Rice!

Image
We spent today in Georgetown, because for the next few days there won’t be much to go see.  We went to the Rice Museum where the  Brown’s Ferry Vessel remnants are located.  It sank in the 18th century in Black River carrying 25 tons of bricks made on a plantation. Artifacts, including green glass English wine bottles, oars, millstones, iron pots, a straight razor and smoking pipes made of gourds.  The items enabled historians to date the time of its sinking to between 1730 and 1740. This period is about 50 years earlier than previous American shipbuilding discoveries. Model of Brown’s Ferry Vessel  The ribs are made from cypress trees  by the water  that were plentiful here in South Carolina.  The planks on the sides were hewn by ax and are all the same thickness.  I’m not sure how you do that with an ax.  Remnants of Brown's Ferry Vessel We also learned about rice growing in South Carolina.  The planters bought 40,000 acres of lan...
Read more