[Judy Patsch]

On February 22, 2008, Capt. Clarke C. Doc Hawley will be the speaker at the annual Henry Farnam dinner in Rock Island. This dinner started with the Grand Excursion year and has been held annually since. Doc will be the first riverman to be featured. It will be held on a Friday, unfortunately for out of towners, but here's enough advance warning to make your travel plans. The event will be held in the Holiday Inn in downtown Rock Island. Cocktails will be at 5:30 PM, dinner at 6:30 and Doc's talk at 7:30. For those of you who have heard Doc before, this talk will be a bit different as he's going to highlight some of his steamboating experiences here in the Quad Cities and vicinity, in addition to his usual educational and entertaining anecdotes. I am planning to have an open house here at the Middle Upper Mississippi River Museum (my house) on Friday afternoon, so those of you who may make the out of town trek will have a couple of events to make the trip worth the effort. So, mark that date on your calendar: Friday, Feb. 22, 2008.