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!