August 10 and 11, 2011; Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday, Tall Timbers Marina, Havana, IL to Riverdock Restaurant, Hardin, IL:  We got an early  start and traveled with "Married With Her"-Jim and Cathy.  We were up at 05:00 and left by 05:45.  There was a little chill in the air compared to recent days and I had 2 sweatshirts on but it felt good for a change.  We saw thousands of pelicans flying in formation early this morning; at first I thought they were geese but Keith said they were pelicans.  It was just a beautiful morning and the river was smooth as glass.  We had our last lock of our Loop experience today; LaGrange Lock, LDB, with a drop of 10 feet.  We didn't have to wait and we were through in about 20 minutes.  This afternoon it clouded up and there were storms all around us but they all missed us.  All along the Illinois Waterway we have seen at least 8 abandon/derelict old tour boats just sitting along side the rivers edge.  I had our itinerary all planned for today and before the day was over we changed it 3 times finally ended up tied up at the Riverdock Restaurant in Hardin, IL.  It was a free tie up as long as we ate dinner there.  It was a long day with a total of 96.6 miles and we will both sleep good tonight.

N39.15375
W90.61637

CO's comments:  Now that we are done we decided no more long days; it is just too hard on us.

Following "Married With Her"
down the Illinois River

Old abandon/derelict tour boat

Kim Jo III at Riverdock tie up
on 8-10-2011

Sign at Riverdock Restaurant

Thursday, Riverdock Restaurant to Port Charles Harbor, St. Charles, MO:  Jim and Cathy got up early again and headed for Grafton but Keith and I slept in until 07:00 and were on our way by 08:00.  We had a little fog again but by the time we left it was sunny and blue skies.  We saw 3 barges first thing this morning all within the first mile-we were glad we were done with locks.  It was a pleasant drive the last 20 miles to Grafton.  All year long it seems like the end of our journey was so far away and now here we are a few miles away.  We crossed our wake at 10:36 at Mile 0 on the Illinois River and Mile 217.9 on the Mississippi.  It was a good feeling. 

We traveled 361 days, 6,365.3 miles, went through 101 Locks, and did all 5 of the Great Lakes. We met countless Loopers, other boaters, AGLCA Sponsors, and just people on the street and want to thank them all for making this journey very memorable.  We would especially like to thank our family, friends, and all our boater friends in Red Wing, MN, for following us faithfully on our journey.  God bless you all.

N38.93413
W90.47522

CO's comments:  Now it is time to re-group and plan our next adventure.

Leaving the Riverdock Restaurant

The Illinois River on 8-11-2011

Chart Plotter crossing our wake

Meter reading on 8-11-2011

Time of crossing

Putting up the Gold Burgee

August 8 and 9,2011; Monday and Tuesday

Monday, Ottawa, IL, to Henry Harbor Marina, Henry, IL:  Another hot and humid day.  We had some fog early this morning.  We only had one lock to go through today and we planned it just right.  We called the Lock Master and he said he would get it ready for us to lock down.  About 5 minutes later a north bound tow called and the Lock Master had already started filling so he had to wait for us-that's a change.  Shortly after that, another tow called going south bound and we were already in the lock.  This doesn't happen that often either.  But when we got in the lock the lock had problems; 1st the lock door was stuck in the open position; 2nd when we got into the lock the floating bollards didn't work; and then when we were going out of the lock one of the door's wouldn't open completely.  I think it is time to call maintenance.  We got to our marina about 13:00 and we had to tie up on the "Old Lock Wall" as the slips were too shallow.   Then right after we got settled we had a huge rain, thunder and lightning storm and this continued the rest of the afternoon and evening, including tornado warnings.  Luckily none of the tornado's touched down by us.  While Keith was out putting extra lines on he saw "Asian Carp" jumping for the first time on the Illinois River.

N41 06.594
W89 21.046

How about this for a covered slip?

8-8-2011 Henry Harbor, IL

Tie up at Henry Harbor Marina

Old Lock Wall at Henry Harbor

Tuesday, Henry, IL, to Tall Timbers Marina, Havana, IL:  We had fog again this morning but it cleared within 1/2 hour and it was hot and muggy again as usual.  But today we had a nice breeze for most of the day.  We saw something on the river today that we had never seen before; bow and arrow fisherman.  They had a high platform built on the boat so they could be higher up and see the fish better; cool.  We also ran into a dredging operation at Mile 136 which took up almost the whole width of the river; passage in a narrow opening was done with caution.  We had a 9 hour day and got to our marina by 16:00.  There were 2 other Loopers (Married With Her and The Cats Meow) here and we all got together for docktails this evening.  It was fun and something we had not done in a while.

N40 18.364
W90 03.954

CO's comments:  If you look close at the RR bridge near Peoria, IL, you can see a coal train coming towards it.  We waited for 15 minutes for the train to come and then it got on the bridge and stopped.  At about that time I said a few words under my breath; that seemed to work because the train moved and then the bridge opened.  I hate doing circles in the middle of the river waiting on bridges, locks, etc.

RR Bridge near Peoria, IL-
One of the many RR bridges
we had to have opened

Tall Timbers Marina on 8-9-2011

August 6 and 7, 2011, Saturday and Sunday

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.

N41.34079
W88.78696


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.

Sun set at Hertiage Harbor Marina on 8-6-2011

You don't fly in and around these
clouds and you don't boat below them

Hertiage Harbor Marina

Restaurant at the marina

August 4 & 5, 2011; Thursday and Friday

Thursday, Kenosha, WI to Hammond, IN:  After sitting for 5 days in Kenosha we finally left early this morning at 06:00.  Lake Michigan was pretty rough with 4 foot large rollers hitting us on our port side and we were prepared for a long day.  Luckily about 09:00 the lake calmed down to 2 to 3 foot rollers but  we were still glad to get to our marina.  That evening we went out to the casino for dinner and had a very good buffet.  We had a good day; good food, reasonable fuel price, and less than 1/2 the price of dockage of marina's in the Chicago area.

N41 41.783
W87 30.362

CO's comments:  If you have never been to Chicago and you would like to see it by all means stop there but you are going to pay the State of Illinois and Chicago's City taxes.  The taxes and the price of fuel and dockage are higher in Chicago than they were in New York City.  As we were going by Miegs Field; which use to be an excellent airport but Mayor Daley destroyed it in the middle of the night, a tear came to my eye.  I really liked to fly in and out of there.

Hammond, IN, marina on 8-4-2011

Hazy Chicago from the bay on 8-4-2011

Friday, Hammond, IN, to Joliet, IL:  We started our last phase of our journey today; Illinois Waterway.  It was a very hot and humid day; by 07:00 it was 84 degrees and by 09:00 it was up to 94 degrees all ready.  We had tons of bridges to go under today and early on there was a bridge every block.  We had a total of 52 bridges but only had to have 8 of them opened.  One bridge had a 18' clearance and we needed about 20' so the bridge tender only lifted it about 2 feet and told us to go through; that was weird, the first time that ever happened.  Later this afternoon we went through the area where the fish barrier was and we had to call the Coast Guard and answer a bunch of questions before we could go through.  We entered the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal there was a lot of barges on both sides of the channel and left a very narrow and interesting path for us to travel.  We also went through 2 locks today.  About mile 312 the water was very smooth and there was nothing in sight and we heard a loud thump and immediately stopped.  We don't know what we hit but whatever it was it was completely under water.  No vibrations so far; we are keeping our fingers crossed.

N41 51.429
W88 05.237

CO's comments: From Mile Markers 300 to 290 it is very slow going.  If you happen to meet a north bound barge/tow you either have to find a spot between parked barges to get out of his way or make 180 degree turn until you can find room to let him by.  There is no room for a north bound and a south bound boat to pass.  We were lucky and only met one north bound and found plenty of room between parked barges to get out of his way.  We are now in dirty water and our air conditioner strainers are plugging up while we are sitting here.  On the big lakes we had to deal with winds and 4 foot waves and now on the rivers we are dealing with crap in the water but no high waves.  We can't win.

One of the many man-made waterfalls
on the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal

Many bridges and very close together
on the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal

Tight squeeze; narrow passage
on the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal

Fixed 19.1 bridge at Mile 300.5; you
call and they give you a formula to figure
actual clearance; today it was 20 feet
(we had about 3" to spare)

Warning Sign informing you
of the electrical fish barriers ahead

Danger Sign informing you of
the electrical fish barriers

Free tie up at Joliet, IL
Bicentennial Park on 8-5-2011

Bicentennial Park in Joliet, IL