Beardstown, Illinois

We checked out an anchorage or two on our way down from Peoria but opted to end our day at Beardstown. We stopped at Logston Tow Service; tying to their work barge, right beside a crane. The trip to shore was across two barges, ducking the crane, across a gang plank, up 20 open grate stairs, across the levee wall and down ten open grate stairs. A good way to stretch the legs after a day’s cruise and good metal exercise for those of us with vertigo. The dogs weren’t impressed with being carried that far but even fearless Maggie shook her head at the open grate gangplank.

Once the dogs were walked, they breathed a sigh of relief. They had consented to use the astro-turf on the bow of the boat for liquid deposits during the day but held on to the solids until they were on land.

John and I hiked over the wall again and down the street to the River Port Restaurant and Lounge who turned out a very acceptable cheeseburger and fried chicken. Then back to the boat for an early night happy to be tied to shore.

Fun fact about Beardstown:

Thirty years ago, 16 little old ladies took the investment world by storm. Aged 41 to 87, the women were retirees, teachers, homemakers, and hog farmers. Many of them had never picked up a copy of The Wall Street Journal. Yet, during the bull market of the 1980s, they reportedly turned a few hundred dollars into six figures, outperforming even veteran bankers. Dubbed the “Beardstown Ladies,” they pumped out best-selling investment books, embarked on multi-state speaking tours, and made the rounds on primetime TV.

It all came crashing down in 1998 when Shane Tritsch published an article titled “Bull Marketing: Debunking the myth of the Beardstown Ladies: and their spectacular stock market gains. The article noted that the club included a disclaimer in its books that the published returns included fees that were charged to members. After an audit by Price, Waterhouse, Coopers, the club noted that it had made a computer formula error in calculating its returns and its actual annual returns were 9.1%, which were below those of the S&P 500 Index during the same time period.

I wondered if the management team at Nortel read the ladies’ books.