Month: September 2019

We have higher respect and appreciation for the beauty and all that the Illinois River has to offer as we sit in Grafton, IL….mile marker 0. From waterway industrial plants to riverside living; from the awesome bridges (or car ferries for the smaller budget) to the whimsical cemeteries & buildings that all make the Great American Loop the quintessential way to explore and appreciate all that small-town America stands for.  Sadly, the historical part of most of these towns is more amazing and wonderful than the current conditions in which we find these towns.  Being a small town girl myself, I love seeing the American flag flying over sights where our elders once stood to make history – to create the America we love. Fun side note, our Beardstown City Hall/Museum docent was a fellow IWU graduate…1963, before I was born – but she knew her stuff I tell ya.

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A tug worker kindly warned us that tugs have been know to lose control coming around the bend and bounce off the barge where our boat was docked in Beardstown. We decided to eliminate the chance of being squashed like a bug and instead just stayed for the afternoon while we visited town and then anchored out behind Bar Island which was a beautifully sheltered spot. Pam took the kayak for the first paddle of our trip around the little island.

Since it is our goal to find more quaint, off-the-beaten path overnight settings AND minimize marina costs, we have found our skills at anchoring increasing (“Hey! Is the boat moving?!”…thank God for that ‘anchor app’!). We are still learning how long to leave the generator on for the frig, water, phone charge and cooking vs how much gas is consumed. Learning our water usage and fresh water tank capacity is part of the process.  We have also discovered the joy of a ‘free wall’ here and there. The Havana Nature Center is by far my favorite!  Right in town, nice nature trail walk (7 x’s around = 1 mile), a healthy walk to the golden nectar (iced tea) at McD’s, AND, most importantly, a fine restroom that was open all night.

After tying up to the Logsdon Tug Service barge (the typical docking wall was occupied by construction cranes) we visited Beardstown.   Seems like many small river towns get to lay claim to some piece of Abe Lincoln’s fame (wait, I thought Ottawa had the corner on that?!). (Hey, didn’t Abe come to Michael’s bday party?!).

Our stay at Mel’s restaurant in Harden IL was perfectly uneventful and a nice rest after a long day of travel fraught with an intermittent high-pitched electronic chirping coming from the control box – for six hours. Harden has, quite possibly, my favorite cemetery – I kind of have a thing for cool cemeteries!  Oh, and my new obsession: cool bridges!

And sunrise/sunsets….what can I say, it might become my theme for the whole trip since, on every family vacation, my entire family is programmed to know we ARE RACING to find every perfect sunset and we WILL rise to view the wakening of a day over a canyon or waterfront.

Began our experience in Peoria at the IVY club – we were thankful to get an overnight spot at this favored marina in time to cool off in the pool before the storms rolled in. (Not many other options due to low water level and damaged places from previous floodings.)  The next morning we moved 4 miles downriver since our slip was to be vacated by noon for another reservation. We found Peoria Boat Club to be much more to our liking as it was closer to town and right on the bike path. Entering their marina was unnerving (we’re a little sensitive now) due to the depth sounder inaccuracies caused by “river muck’!

We rode our bikes to town in search of an anchor shackle. Rode through Bradley University (had some fun watching the goings on of parent’s weekend!) for an ACE Hardware.  They didn’t have one so we rode across the river bridge to Bass Pro and WalMart – super productive ride – thank goodness for the bikes!  Bummer part of the trip: eating at Jimmy Johns then riding around the corner to see an Avanti’s!?!? (Pam’s favorite college binge food spot.) Best part of day: CAT museum (our first customer visit) and huge amount of exercise to air the brain AND getting back to boat just before the rains came. LOVE the Peoria Boat Club and would highly recommend if you are about location to town – very friendly staff, free laundry and ice, clean clubhouse with shower.

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Forecast called for heavy rain but its been wrong a lot lately. Decided to get out early and scooted 46 miles down to Havana, yep Havana IL pop 3200, before the 1st drops began. Although, we are sitting here at a free docking wall with 40 mph pelting us from the SW. Just Rockin and Rollin!

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We’ve had this date, 9/19/19, on our calendar for years, mostly because it was easy to remember and about the right time to begin the loop from the Midwest. Much talk, planning and learning has led to this point. Our original plan was to keep the boat in Ottawa (@ Heritage Harbor) for the summer since it is Pam’s childhood hometown and we spend many weekends at the family farm her late father purchased more than thirty years ago. Ottawa has become a coveted getaway over the years

A couple months before our departure we decided to sell the Ottawa family farm and found a local buyer right away. Needless to say, our last few weeks have been crazy trying to finalize many things to exit suburbia: mail, frig/freezers, and all that goes into organizing leaving a home for extended time all while provisioning a live-aboard for a year long journey. We then got to add emptying the farm of heirlooms, memorabilia, and accumulated STUFF into a UHaul and into our ‘once upon a time’ organized home to our list of things to do.

Super crazy times BUT fast forward to a new (& earlier) departure date due to Illinois River lock closures and the fact that mom was able to come down to Ottawa to say goodbye AND sign the contract – this is truly the quintessential final-final goodbye for Pam. It’s very difficult to let go of the farm but the family that is taking it over is making this easier and it will be perfect for them, so I know dad would be smiling.

After a final dinner Tuesday at Bianchi’s & another final dinner at Lone Buffalo on Wednesday we took a dinghy ride across the river from Heritage Harbor to say the final good bye to Papas Farm….(enough with the final goodbyes already)!  On Thursday we loaded Sea C, turned south and made it to Starved Rock locks as they were loading the last pleasure crafts – ZERO wait,  But the COOLEST part, with all that has culminated over the past few months, is that we entered the locks on 9/19/19 at 9:19:19 am – and there is NO away you could plan that. That cool timing, our traveling through several large clusters of monarch butterflies flying south, and seeing a dozen or so bald eagles was the best way to start our journey. God is good and all is well!……oh,yeah, and then we ran the boat aground 😉

So the reason we ran aground is because Pam didn’t want to anchor out in a flowing back channel of the Illinois when there was a cute little ‘gravel pit’ (abandoned hole) that was sheltered on all sides with no current. Figuring our first night on the hook would be less eventful and this might be the better option. Sadly she missed the entrance by about a foot and buried the starboard engine in the mud bank-stalling the engine. We tried to back out, considered kedging, and ended up calling Towboat US. Poor Jeremy from Ottawa hightailed his way downstream for several hours to yank us off our silt pile and kindly escorted us to the Lower Henry channel (which was part of his ‘river talk’ of the night before) after sun set. After five hours of waiting (safely and peacefully I might add) we tucked ourselves in for a long night of learning. Winds picked up, rain fell, and lightening rolled in – letting out the rode – checking the bank to see if we moved – turning the generator on-and-off was how we spent our first rookie night at anchor.

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The US Army Corps of Engineers has announced various Illinois River closures over the next year for long overdue maintenance . One of the closures is scheduled for Sept 20th at Lockport, Marseilles and Starved Rock. We need to get through the last one, Starved Rock, by the 20th in order to make the Oct AGLCA Rendezvous event in Alabama. If we don’t make it through by the 20th we will be idle in Ottawa until Oct 6th. So we started Down the River….

A perfect day greeted us as we began our long awaited journey out of Chicago.  The cruise through the Playpen, past Navy Pier, and through the city was spectacular.  We took the South Branch to the Chicago Shipping Channel, where a variety of wonderful industrial aromas seemed to change around every corner.  Thankfully we were traveling on a Sunday, which meant a lot less commercial traffic, BUT we did end up being the ‘bun in the oven’ behind a double wide tug maneuvering into a fleet in a 10 ft channel.  After 2 hours behind this organized chaos we were freed up and picked up speed, racing off to Lockport Lock.  We were the only PC (pleasure craft – aka as plastic boats to the tugs), waited an hour and were happily loaded into the lock with a full barge and tug.  We traveled the last leg into Joliet Wall in the dark on spot light.  Pam had messaged a boat that was on the wall & arranged for us to join their fleet –

Joliet has a free wall that has been our destination goal.  The night before an electrical storm took out Marseilles Lock, leaving 26 boats stranded on that wall for 24 hours – waiting.  The wall is designed to accommodate only 14 boats. We rafted on the outside in the last spot available – no electric but slept fine with orders to be up by 6am for the meeting on VHF channel 68.  Since we were last in – we needed to be the first out.  After we cleared the logs and debris from our bow and stern we peeled off and waited for the remaining 26 boats as we proceeded to the next two locks before HHO.

Brandon Lock allowed all 26 boats in, resulting in a record setting flotilla to lock thru.   Great group of boaters and a few key leaders helped make this experience positive and memorable.   The group got split up at Dresdon Lock, both groups lock through with ease but…….. the dreaded Marseilles was next.

Marseilles has a tough reputation for making PCs wait hrs to lock through.  Fortunately, our experience was fantastic.  The people working the lock could not have been more pleasant and accommodating and we were through without issue, just in time to meet Mom for dinner at Heritage Harbor in Ottawa.  Long day but a great day!

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Thanks to Tom and JP for packing their car with a year or so worth of our belongings and chauffeuring us to Kenosha. Our first official Loop day on the water could not have been any better. After some memorable well wishes from our dock neighbors at Southport Marina, we set the chart-plotter for Belmont Harbor in Chicago and headed out. The beautiful sunny skies and smooth blue-water quickly put any game-time anxieties to rest.

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We chose Belmont Harbor as our first destination because both our children live in this “Wrigleyville” area AND Sam’s first apartment is right across Lake Shore Drive from us! This is so cool ‘cuz I can’t tell you how many times I stood up in 7N looking down on this exact spot thinking about this very moment! Tyler could not join us but we spent a great day with Sam. After an uneventful docking we hung out in Belmont Harbor for a while admiring the incredible skyline and watching the hustle and bustle of boats flowing in and out of the Harbor on what Tom Skilling has gotta rank as a top 5 weather day for 2019.

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The Cubs whooped up on the Pirates earlier in the day, 14 to 1, so we decided to head over to the Wrigley Field area for some dinner and to soak in the post victory celebration. We dined at Joe Maddon’s new restaurant called “Maddon’s Post”. The place has a nice atmosphere and the food was good, but the real payoff was that Anothony Rizzo (2 hit, 2 RBI, 1 run day) and some friends were seated at the table next to us. Samantha and Pam, big Cubs fans, were super excited since he is their favorite player. None of us had the gumption to go up and greet or take a pic of Rizz (we can call him that now). We all decided it was best to respect his privacy. As an added attraction, Tom Ricketts, owner of the Cubs, was also there and came to Anthony’s table to greet and congratulate him on the game. Mike gave Tom a brief “don’t I know you” wave and he nodded back with a confused look. Good times.