Saturday

8/27/2016

Met up this morning with nephew Matt, wife Ginger and daughter Lily.  We had a wonderful home made breakfast at their home.  Their home is in a beautiful setting.  They live on campus at Principia College, in Elsah, Illinois.  Just down the road from Grafton Illinois.  The college architecture is so beautiful, we had to include a few photos of it.  Hope you enjoy.

The beams look like wood but all walls and ceiling are made of cement.

And of course family pictures are important.

Matt's family came out to see the boat.

Saying Goodbye

In the evening we and our friends spent time on the boats.  We grilled out with John and Joanna.

Sunday

8/28/2016

Elwood received a bath today, as did the boat.  Last night we had heavy rains, so Mike polished her up this morning.  Then we walked around town and tried to stay cool.  

8/25/2016

Below are a few pictures of the Big Blue Anchorage.  When we turned on our anchor lights for the evening, we didn't realize we would attract a thousand mayflies, but you have to have your light on.  

8/26/2016

We took off from the anchorage quite easily.  

Cows cooling along the rivers edge, on this hot day.

Army Corp of Engineers dredging the river.

Homes along the Illinois river.

In Grafton Illinois, we enjoyed a wonderful evening at the Marina Oyster Bar.  It was the best dinner on the trip so far.  Jambalaya, Snow Crab, Mussels, fish tacos etc.  Wonderful large menu. 

Grafton Harbor Marina

8/23/2016

This morning we took off from Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa.  Skies were blue and the river water levels were beginning to recede.  Two other looper boats left with us.  

Below is a group of Pelicans along the way.

We arrived late in the afternoon at the Illinois Valley Yacht (IVY) club Marina, in Peoria.  It was a very nice stop.  There were 3 other looper boats there with us.  We all had tacos at the bar that evening.  

8/24/2016

Today we took off from the IVY club.  It was very windy, but waves were much smaller than yesterday.  We passed through a wicket dam, where the dam sinks under water and you drive right over it.  Pretty cool.

Arrived at a wall in the small town of Havana, Illinois.  Very nice park in front of the wall.  It was humid and hot, so we sat under a picnic shelter and had drinks with lots of ice.  Later in the evening we met up with some other boaters, John and Joanne, for a nice glass of wine on their boat.  The air conditioning was great.

8/25/2016

This morning we left early and traveled 60 miles, to anchor south of Big Blue Island.  We are still in Illinois.  Hope to hit Grafton, after another 60 miles tomorrow.  Tonight we raced the dingy around, ate dinner and are going to watch a movie on John and Joanne's boat.  As you can guess, they travelled from Havana with us and are also anchored out.  There are no marinas or gas docks from Havana to Grafton.  We will be staying 4 nights in Grafton.   

8/21/2016

Left Joliet very early on 8/21.  We called into the lock and were told we needed to come now or wait for quite a long time.  There were a few barges coming down the river.  Barges have priority over pleasure craft.  We put down our coffee and casted off.  It wasn't easy casting off.  There was long grass accumulated beside our boat and we had to pull the boat back far enough to maneuver past the other boats, who weren't ready to leave.  Funny thing is they caught up to us later.

Below is a picture of how crowded the river got at times.  We had to squeeze our way through.  Later in the morning, due to high water and fast current, we had to keep a lookout for logs.  Decided to spend two nights at Heritage Marina in Ottawa, Illinois, to wait for a slower current and less debris.  

Heritage Marina is new and beautiful.  They have a Chevi Suburban, which we used to do laundry in town, lunch and Farm & Fleet.  We later went swimming in their new swimming pool.  There were quite a few loopers here.  Most of them came down the river with us.  George from Lydia E spent his life as a commercial fisherman.  He mostly fished for lobster in Maine.  One of the first investments we made for our trip was on 4 collapsible lobster traps.  George said they could use some improvement.

Below, Mike is on the pier with Elwood, at Heritage Marina

We took a walk to the Marina entrance to take a picture of the sign.  It welcomes loopers.

8/19/2016

A few more looper boats tied up at the dock today and we had our first dock party.  There were 12 of us in all.  It was a really good time.  There were also 4 dogs and two cats.  One of the dogs was named Jake and since we happened to be in Joliet, we got a picture of Jake and our dog Elwood together.

8/18/2016

Waited for the morning Chicago rains to end and under blue skies headed down the Illinois River.  Took a lot of city pictures and then proceeded down the high industrial path.  Stopped at Joliet Illinois for the night.  Joliet has free wall dockage and free electric.  The free WiFi is iffy at best.  We quickly turned on the air and cooled down.  At about 4:30 another looper boat tied up in front of us.  They are quite a ways around their route and within 15 minutes of docking, gave us great information.  We are now settled down to cocktails, Wisconsin cheese, beef sticks and crackers.  At the rate we are eating the cheese, we will have to send home for more.

Below is the first lock of our trip.  Right at the entrance to the Windy city from Lake Michigan.

Mike called the railroad lift bridge and it was lifted for us.  Very old and rugged.

Beside the river there was a lot of industry.  This is a picture of a large magnet picking up scrap steel in a steel yard.

A small part of the Chicago is without industry to the waterfront.

Admiral Joell drove past some very large barges.  They like to be called Tows.

This was our first hook up to a Bollard in one of the Locks.

The lock had a 32 foot lift

8/17/2016

Spent a wonderful evening on the Chicago Harbor with two great friends, Patrick and Jeanie.  We all ate supper on the boat and then went for cocktails at the Columbia Yacht Club and then the Chicago Yacht Club.  While at the Chicago Yacht Club, we saw the Navy Pier fireworks.  Nothing like good friends to spend an evening with.

The Windy City

We left Waukegan with a southwest wind.  The travel to Chicago was very nice.  Had a laugh trying to get on a mooring ball, at Monroe Harbor.  We used our headsets and all is now well.  We only ran over the stupid ball twice.  It was the balls fault.