Down Days in Peoria

Woke up this morning to a thunderstorm right overhead. First rain, then distant thunder, finally crack, boom--no time to count the seconds between lightning and thunder. So glad we planned to be here in Peoria another day.

So what do you do on a down day? Yesterday morning, Jackie cleaned the inside of the boat from top to bottom--two heads, the galley, the salon, the v-berth stateroom--and I did three loads of laundry. Turns out it takes a lot of quarters, not to mention time, to work through sheets, towels, and a dark load in a one washer, one dryer laundry room at a boat club. But, it gave me a chance to return emails, catch up on the news, and do some planning for our next few days.

After our domestic chores, we called an Uber to go into Peoria proper--after all, as the Admiral says, we're here not only for the boating but also to explore America. Turns out there's no LYFT in Peoria and, after waiting 45 minutes for an UBER which was never even assigned, we called Big Daddy Taxi. At their suggestion, for $10 extra, we jumped their queue and got a ride downtown to a cafe' the Admiral chose. What the cafe' was in its heyday I don't know but it was in an empty office building and had shrunk to not much--a reflection of a downtown that, post covid and post the departure of most of Caterpillar, seemed largely deserted. It was really quite sad. We decided to look elsewhere and, walking about, found an Irish pub and sat alone in their outside space on a noticeably quiet downtown street. Inside was empty too. Lunch was good, staff was great, service was excellent. Too bad everyone's working from home or has moved elsewhere.

After lunch, we walked to the Riverfront Museum and the Dome Planetarium

Though we expected the museum to focus on the history of the river, it turned out to have a varied and eclectic (I love using that word) collection. Perhaps most engaging was the Jim Hensen exhibit. We enjoyed the history of his life and the great displays of some of his puppets.

There was also a terrific American decoy exhibit:

And, though I don't have any pictures, I really enjoyed a large exhibit about Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone, America's first black woman millionaire. Born to former slaves in 1869 and with some of her incomplete schooling in Peoria, Annie recognized the awful problems confronted by black women trying to straighten their hair and otherwise treat it with products designed for white women--hair loss, chemical scalp burns, etc. She developed a line of of products and a black hair dressing college--both called Poro. She also pioneered the sales strategy later adopted by Tupperware (still remember my Mom hosting those parties and hoping for dessert leftovers). With the college, the quality and diversity of products, and her innovative sales techniques, she made a small fortune and built a net worth of approximately $525 million in today's dollars--quite a story.

We also enjoyed a planetarium presentation on the moons of Jupiter--quite informative and given by an excellent presenter. We shared the large auditorium with one other family who had young children who asked great questions. Before we were done, we traveled in our imaginary space ship not only to Jupiter and its mooms but to the nebula of Orion, to Pluto and elsewhere before returning to planet earth and the planetarium's docking pad.

After the museum, we ventured to Walmart--one that turned out to be in a disadvantaged part of town. Nonetheless, we found most of what we needed and toted it home in a great Cotopaxi bag Sam gave the Admiral. She's smiling because the Captain has to carry it.

After Walmart, back to the boat--this time in a pleasant though dirty UBER Tesla. While Jackie unpacked and stored supplies, I walked out to the point that protects the yacht club basin and snapped a couple of pics:

The next few days are going to be long ones--not by choice but because there just aren't a lot of places to tuck Katahdin in. We'll see how it goes but it may be a while before you hear from me again. Whatever will you do?