New Thing #73 - Pop, Lock & Dam It

A few weeks ago, my niece Charlee was in town for her annual birthday weekend with her *favorite aunt (*may or may not be true). As this is her 4th year doing this, I was starting to run out of ideas that a pre-teen would enjoy. I was hoping for at least another year or two before I had to start recycling adventures. Well, in between go-karting, shopping, laser tag, mini golf and froyo, we had time to visit the Melvin Price Lock and Dam in Alton, IL.

This has been on my bucket list for awhile, but I honestly kept forgetting about it. In talking with a few friends and my sister, it was decided that this could be a fun, and educational, way to spend a steamy Saturday afternoon. I've gotten in the habit of not telling my nieces what I have planned, because the surprise is part of the fun. She tried to guess, but seeing as how she's probably never heard of a lock and dam, she really wasn't going to be guessing any time soon. Plus, she wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes when I told her it would be educational. She didn't seem too thrilled at the prospect of "learning" something while she was on vacation.

I told her to blame her mother. :)

The dam gave tours 3 times a day, but I skipped the earliest one, thinking Charlee wouldn't enjoy getting up at the crack of dawn. We took our time leaving the house, and I set out for the 45 or so minute drive. I plugged the address into my phone, seeing as how the only place in Alton I've been is Fast Eddie's. (Look it up. It's a pretty fun place. But, not a place for a 12 year old!)

The closer we got, I had Charlee help me with the navigation, and I totally missed my turn. In my defense, it snuck up on us and was more like a little side road than an actual exit off the highway. I turned around and headed back and eventually found our way down this windy little road. Only to come out in a large parking lot overlooking the river.

"Is that the dam?" Charlee was pointing at a little raised overlook spot two stories off the ground.

Hmmm, this wasn't right. This was obviously not the dam, but I had followed the directions on my GPS. Well, clearly we weren't in the right spot, but I figured we could at least take advantage of the photo ops while we were here. I'd figure out the correct location after we were done.

View of the Clark Bridge across the Mississippi. The Lock & Dam is further south of that.

A view of Alton, IL.

Showing just how excited she is to be standing on this lookout point. (For as adventurous as this girl is, I was shockingly surprised at how scared of heights she was. And we weren't even that high off the ground.)

Charlee's inner thermometer kicked in and she started commenting on how bloody hot it was. (My word, not hers. Geez, she's only 12.) We took some photos up on the overlook and then we hopped back into the A/C to find better directions. I finally found them buried at the bottom of their web page. We weren't far, so it was just a quick drive down the river.

Once we figured out the correct address, it was much more obvious when we came up to the dam. Unfortunately, since I was driving, I didn't think to get a photo of the dam as we drove up to it.

Damn.

Heh heh. See what I did there.

We were quite a bit early for the next tour, but I knew there was an air conditioned museum inside that was free of charge. Charlee couldn't get in there fast enough. They had lots of interactive displays educating us about how a lock and dam works, how to conserve water, how to drive a barge, how and when this lock and dam were built, the effects of flooding (i.e. of the Flood of '93), the Mississippi River Valley influences from the past, and on and on. 

Since I was in aunt mode, I wasn't really thinking about taking photos for the blog. I was more interested in making sure Charlee was having a good time, and that she wasn't touching something she wasn't supposed to. The answers were yes and no, respectively. So, forgive me for the lack of visual content.

But hey, it's free, so check it out yourself! :)

Instruments inside the barge driving simulator.

Attempting to drive a simulated barge. I don't think she was prepared for how slow they go. (Since she had been go-karting less than 24 hours prior, I think she thought it might be more like that.)

More barge toys.

Eventually, she did get bored with the museum, but not after making sure she saw everything. Since it was lunch time, we headed down the road a bit to some picnic tables and enjoyed a nice lunch in the shade. We had a pretty good time watching the ducks swimming in the water, the geese honking their displeasure at any number of things and a few river otters frolicking in the shallow end. Despite the heat, it was relatively cool out of the sun's rays, so we were able to enjoy some quality aunt/niece time while Charlee chowed down on Sun Chips.

Where does that girl get her metabolism?!

We still had more time to kill, and since there was a spider who seemed to follow our every movements, we decided to leave and drive through downtown Alton until it was time for the tour. Unfortunately, that took all of 12 minutes. There's not really much to do in Alton.

We made it back in time for our tour, and the guide looked maybe 5 years older than Charlee and like this might only be his 3rd day on the job. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. There were only 5 of us on his tour. He may not really do this sort of thing all the time.

Since this was about 3-4 weeks ago, I honestly can't remember everything he said. Which bums me out because I'm usually so detail-oriented with my notes. But, I'll just let the pictures do the talking. 

The smaller lock.

The larger lock.

Charlee thought the water looked good enough to jump in to, until she saw this pic...

and this. At least most of that was tree debris, and not as much trash.

I do remember him saying that if a boat crashes into any part of the dam, it can sometimes take up to 9 months to repair the damage, causing a major back up of traffic along the river. Those circle things in the middle are supposed to help with accidental damage somehow.

When did this girl grow up? And when could she start wearing my tank tops?!

It was a bit hot up on the top area, but Charlee was a trooper and listened to what the guide had to say. I'm not 100% sure if she enjoyed it, but it was a nice deviation from some of the other things we've done. I enjoyed my day and the rest of my weekend with Charlee, and these weekends with my nieces are some of the best weekends I have.