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...