Ottawa to Henry to Havana to Hardin to Alton, IL

Day #716; Loop Miles to Date = 8,953

Whew...what a long week! We had some seriously long days, made excellent progress, and as we pen this, we are in Alton, IL weathering through some unbelievable heat for this time of year. Since our last post, we traveled 258 miles in 4 days, through 2 locks and past dozens of barges. The story of the week is the drastically low water levels on the Illinois River. We lingered in Ottawa, waiting for word on whether the river was going to open for transit below the LaGrange Lock. We learned on Tuesday that the Corps of Engineers was bringing in a dredge operation to deepen the channel where the river had become too shallow for the barges to clear...but that pleasure craft were still being allowed through.

Here's the scenario...all of the commercial tows and barges were stuck either below this choke point or above it waiting for the river to re-open for commercial traffic. And with each passing day, more barges clogged the banks of the river for miles getting in line to get through this area, which included the LaGrange lock. We had planned to make the transit through this area 3 days after leaving Ottawa, but decided we needed to find a way to make it in 2. And boy were we glad we did! The dredge was working on the problem as we passed, and the waterway opened about 12-15 hours after we passed. Loopers behind us who didn't make it this far face delays that could be a week to 10 days waiting for the commercial traffic to clear. Some lucky ones might get squeezed through, but many will simply be stuck for awhile.

From Ottawa we headed to Henry, where our "dock" for the night was an old decrepit lock wall. It was rather raggedy, but it had power, and it was a safe spot to stop on the river. It was 93 degrees out, so using the power for our A/C was certainly welcomed!

Not much grass around for the pups either...but they found a way to make do.

We've seen these replica ships a couple of times now...actual size replicas of the Nina and the Pinta. Much smaller than most would imagine.

To show how low the water is in these parts...these floating docks are on dry land.

We knew we were headed to an anchorage on Wednesday night, and seeing this jeep on the river bank gave us hope that it wouldn't be too seriously muddy to get the pups to shore...

Hey...what d'ya know?

Some creative decoration on a work barge we passed.

So Wednesday night when we pulled in behind Quiver Island, we ventured to shore to walk the pups...Sandy bit the bullet and jumped to shore first...and was ankle deep in muck. She took one for the team and was able to reach some dry land with her next step, and "we" got the job done. Then, when we got back to the boat, we learned that our much smarter friends on ACT III had found a boat ramp about a mile dinghy ride away...doh! So, the next few times, we used that facility instead...much less aggravating.

One of the unexpected learning's on this segment of the trip is that Illinois is second only to Alaska in it's population of Eagles...who knew!? We lost count of how many we saw...probably between 75 and 100...maybe more. Pictures of them are elusive as they are often just a bit too far away, or we're moving past them before we can get a shot. But, here is a good one that Sandy snagged of an immature:

The other thing we learned was that it takes them 4-5 years to lose this coloration and for their heads and tail feathers to turn white.

Much more of the riverbank is exposed than what is considered normal.

Some of the tows are huge...you can see that this one has plenty of crew quarters. These guys are on these things for weeks at a time or longer.

We've passed many who are pushing 15 barges...3x5 is the configuration. We know that when we get to the Mississippi, these will seem small!

From our anchorage at Quiver Island, we motored 100 miles to reach the Riverdock Restaurant in Hardin, IL. It was a very long day, but got us past the trouble spot. We were able to stop at the LaGrange lock to walk the pups. This was roughly half way, but still made for a longer day than we really enjoy. The restaurant docks were small...6 looper boats were there, and we had to raft 2 deep to be able to accommodate everyone. It really didn't matter...we were so tired, we were just glad to have a spot to tie up where we didn't have to dingy the dogs to shore.

Here is where we started to see the barges parked on the side of the river...we saw at least 15 of these above the LaGrange Lock.

And below the lock, we found the dredge operation...this is just the crew quarters barge/operations center.

Here is the actual dredge...it was enormous.

It had 2 tows on its beam helping to move it around the channel.

That's a LOT of water being discharged as we go by. They moved this out of our way to let us pass, and then it would swing back across the channel. When it is actually dredging, this water is mostly mud.

We encountered a couple of flocks of migrating white pelicans. We didn't expect to see them this far north.

And on Saturday we finally hit the Mississippi! It is wide and expansive...pictures don't really reveal the scale of this river. We only transited about 12 miles of it to get to Alton...many more to go when we leave here.

 

And now for the category this week of unexpected sights...we went out to dinner on Saturday in Alton and randomly selected a piano bar called the Ragin' Cajun. Well...at about 8 pm, the entertainment started with dueling piano players. And we can say with certainty that we did not expect to see these 2 guys as the star talent...

 

In particular, a 60-year old guy in reading glasses wearing a John Deere hat? This was seriously entertaining! They were pretty good, and kept us entertained for an hour or so until we decided that we were just too tired to stay any longer.

And now, just a couple of leftover pics from our stay in Chicago that didn't make the last post...

Right in the middle of downtown Chicago, we found this rest bench decorated with soda cans...interesting to say the least.

And again in downtown Chicago, the official beginning of the infamous Route 66.

During our transit on Thursday, we were passing a tow in the vicinity of Turkey Island and...thunk - thunk - bang! We hit a deadhead...some log most likely hiding under the surface of the water and churned up by the tow. It hit our hull twice, and then we think it bounced off of our prop. Fortunately, we are quite certain that no real damage has been done. We've spent a bunch of angst figuring out whether we needed to get the boat hauled out of the water now...or wait until the haul-out that we already have scheduled down the way. We notice only a very minor vibration, and expect that the prop simply has a ding in it, or one of the blades is slightly bent. Nothing catastrophic, and we've decided that we're fine for the time being and we can address any needed repair in a few weeks. The vibration is so minor, that if you weren't familiar with our "ride" you probably wouldn't even know that it was there.

So for now we are tucked away in Alton (just north of St Louis) for a few days. We're resting up and staying out of the record heat. Early next week we will begin our adventure down the Mighty Mississippi...more tales to tell after that!

Chicago to Joliet, IL to Ottawa, IL

Day #710; Loop Miles to Date = 8,695

We had a terrific time in Chicago! We were able to hook up with our friends Mary and Jim, enjoying a night on the town...thanks guys, it was great to catch up! Additionally, we took the architectural boat tour through downtown, and spent another afternoon walking the city and seeing the sights (and of course trying some Giordano's Pizza, which was wonderful!). We also had to try something new to us...the Chicago Blend...fresh cheese and caramel popcorn mixed together...if you ever get the chance...try it! It was a busy couple of days, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Our first view of Chicago...a tad bit hazy...

Some pics from our architectural tour...this is really worth doing. Even though this was the same route that we would take a few days later, it was educational and interesting to take the tour.

 

Parking garage for the condo building above...took up the first 10 floors or so.



The area around the Navy Pier.

And also a few shots of our own trip through downtown. It was very peaceful as we traversed it early on a Saturday morning. Almost zero traffic on the Chicago River.

The beginning of the Chicago River, exiting the Chicago Lock heading for downtown.

This day of travel we had 62 bridges to go under. Thankfully...the Amtrak Bridge just past downtown was the only one that we needed to have opened for us.

And then just south of downtown, Sandy spotted this eagle...really cool.

The trip to Joliet was a mish-mash of scenery. Once we left the maze of sky scrapers in downtown, it almost magically turned into rural scenery...not much of anything to see other than the banks of the river. Then as the waterway joined the Cal-Sag canal, the change was dramatic and immediate. We joined all of the commercial traffic, and the rest of the day we were in and amongst numerous tows and barges. And we had a lock to go through...and as always, the commercial ships have priority. So, as luck would have it, we had to wait about 3 1/2 hours at the Lockport Lock for commercial traffic to clear. And even at that, we still rode down the lock tied to a barge. The tow captain offered to let us and 4 or 5 other pleasure boats join him in the lock. Otherwise, we could have waited another couple of hours for the next opportunity. This will be our "life on the rivers" for the next couple of weeks. The uncertainty of the lock timing will be ever present.

We drove through the Electric Fish Barrier...this is where they have electrified the channel in an attempt to keep the invasive species of Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes. It was really a non-event...other than we felt a minor tingling sensation......just kidding.

Tied to the barge in the Lockport Lock.

In the category of unexpected sights along a commercial river...10 cows wading in the river posing for a picture. Go figure.

After a long 9-10 hour day, we arrived at the free wall in Joliet. We joined about 6 other looper boats here...a great deal because it is free and it had power. We had a lazy evening, with no idea if we were leaving in the morning or not...better to decide after some sleep.

The next day, we did indeed decide to press on to Ottawa, but got a latish start. As it turned out, some loopers who left 1 1/2 hours before us were waiting at the first of 3 locks when we got there. This first lock opened just as we arrived, so at least this was working in our favor. However, we ran into about an hour delay at the next lock (Dresden Island) and when we arrived at the 3rd lock of the day (Marsailles) we stopped dead...and waited for 3 1/2 hours. Fortunately, we had found a small marina before this lock to get the puppies a walk, so our stress level was reduced. Even so, by the time we got into the lock, it was well past dark. Fortunately, our marina stop was only 2 miles or so downriver, so we had only a short bit of night navigation to deal with. We finally got tied up at about 9 pm, and proceeded to crash for the night.

The reason for our delay at Dresden...we rode down the lock with this tow...who had 4 barges that he had locked down earlier waiting for him.

Needless to say, we waited a bit longer for him to get them ready to move on down the river. It was a bit sporty passing him and his prop wash, but we were glad to get in front of him.

The waiting game at the Marsailles Lock.

About the last picture we could take s it got dark.

We found the marina at Ottawa (Heritage Harbor) to be spectacular. A wonderful facility, great service, courtesy cars...a great stop. Thankfully so, because we ended up staying here for 3 nights. The water levels south of here are drastically low, and one spot has gotten to the point that they have closed it to commercial traffic. The river had been closed to ALL traffic, so we decided to wait here to find out if we were going to be able to proceed once we got down there. The current word is that it is open for pleasure craft (us) but not the commercial guys. This is almost a perfect situation as we will be able to proceed, while all of the barges sit on the sidelines and wait. The trouble spot is 3 days travel south of us, so we will be leaving on Tuesday...fingers crossed that we can zip through this spot and a few more locks while the commercial traffic is at a stand still.

Stay tuned...