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