Saturday; Joliet, IL, Bicentennial Park to Ottawa, IL, Hertiage Harbor Marina: We slept in a little this morning and got going about 07:30 only to have a 30 minute wait at our first lock; Brandon Road Lock at Mile 286.0 where you use the port side and it had (floaters) floating bollards. So far all the Lock Masters have been very helpful and friendly. It is a very hot and muggy day again with the temperature by 09:00 already 94 degrees. By the time we got to our 2nd lock; Dresden Island Lock, where we also used the port side and floating bollards. This time we waited an hour to enter. By 15:30 we had one lock to go; Marseilles Lock, and we were told it would be an hour and a half. It got to 99 degrees this afternoon and by this time we were wishing we had started earlier and maybe we would not have had to wait so long on the locks. Hind sight is the best sight of all. We pulled out of the channel and set anchor while we waited and sure enough, exactly 1 1/2 hour later we were on our way into the lock. Our marina was only a few miles from the lock and we were glad to get there. The Hertiage Harbor Marina is very nice and fairly new. The people are looper friendly and helpful and go out of their way to make you comfortable. I would recommend it to anyone traveling this way. We got here about 18:30 and had 4 attendants at the dock to help us into our slip. By the time we got settled in and taken a much need shower it was past 20:00 so we went up to the restaurant on the premises for a burger. Didn't do much the rest of the night.
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Sunday; Hertiage Harbor Marina, Ottawa, IL: We had a terrible thunder and lightning storm last night about 03:30. Keith and I were both up on the bridge putting up our isinglass in the wind and the rain. What a mess; water every where. We finally got it up and went back to bed. This morning we decided to stay a 2nd day for 3 reasons; one, the weather doesn't look good; two, we are both dead tired and three, there is a SuperWalmart in town and the marina has a courtesy car.
CO's comments: I must be getting old. This 90+ degree heat and 8 to 10 hours on the water really beats me up. Traveling on the weekend in these waters is a mess because you have hundreds of boaters on the water, dropping water skiiers in front of our boat not realizing that I can't stop on a dime. We had a close call yesterday because of stupidity of weekend boaters.
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| Sun set at Hertiage Harbor Marina on 8-6-2011 |
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You don't fly in and around these
clouds and you don't boat below them |
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| Hertiage Harbor Marina |
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| Restaurant at the marina |
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