At 6:00 am we stretched and rose and took an early morning swim just at sunrise in a clear spring fed lake formed by the Moline Consumers Company's gravel dreading operations. 

We made breakfast of instant oats, pop-tarts, tang and hot chocolate.  With our gear packed up and ready to continue our weekend adventure on the mighty Mississippi river.  We attempted to leave the campsite at 8:00 am only to discover that the gate had not been opened for us.  We had to hike to a farm supply depot where Mr. Drake made a telephone call to the Moline Consumers Company and arranged for an executive to come and unlock the gate.  This done in good fashion we boarded in Mr. Drake's station wagon and were headed north on highway 84 to see the upper Mississippi river wildlife and fish refuse.  At 11:30 am we connected with David "Smoky" Hardy who Mr. Jay Bellinger had arranged to be our host while on this refuse of the Department of the Interior.  He made a splendid suggestion to have lunch at a clean place in Savanna, Illinois called Grime's Café. 

By 12:30 pm we were driving over a toll bridge and crossing a long causeway into Sabula, Iowa and north of town to the boat landing, where we slipped into our life jackets, boarded two fine motorboats for an adventurers trip up stream about 3 miles to an island rookery of the Great Blue Heron.  It was the largest nesting area of our state of Illinois.  While we thought it was some job to get around the many snags on the sloughs, on that score the worst was yet to come.  To get to see the nests we had to pick our way through the poison ivy which grew everywhere, head high bull nettles and tangled mats of logs left by the spring floods.  There we could see large piles of sticks wedged in the tops of the trees.  When the adult birds would fly over the nests with food you could see with the help of a high powered spotting scope the young birds in the nests screaming and flapping their wings furiously to direct the welcome traffic.  There must have been more than 200 nests high up in this island forest of Silver Maples, Cottonwoods, and Willows. 

Because of our exposure to poison ivy we returned to the Savanna Post Office where we scrubbed thoroughly with plenty of soap and water.  Dr. Cloninger examined all his patients and found all in first class shape.

Then Smoky took us to see some dikes designed to hold spring water so abundant in much of the refuse.  In it we saw a variety of bird life among them there were Canadian Geese, American Egret, Lerons, Mallard Ducks and the Great Blue Heron spearing minnows and frogs to take back to their young up in the rookery nests.   

At the end of our wildlife & fish refuse tour Mr. Beringer and Mr. Drake rounded up a couple of watermelons which we devoured in a matter of minutes at the boat landing site built by U.S. Engineers. 

Then after a thank you, and hearty handshakes to bid Smoky and Mr. Beringer good bye, and for giving us the opportunity to visit