Day 345-350
We spent a total of five nights at the Spring Brook Marina in Seneca, IL waiting for the river to go down and for the Coast Guard to stop warning boaters away from the Marseilles lock just 4 miles below us. On Friday a Looper boat we had met several times, Jim and Christine on "Crash", pulled into our marina having engine trouble. They said they had been traveling with another boat that had continued on to the lock and they would call with a report after completing the lock. The report was that they navigated the lock with no difficulty, so we threw off our lines and left. Since it was late in the day we decided to stop just 12 miles down the river at a free municipal dock at Ottawa, IL. We negotiated the lock with little difficulty, although I was very tense above the dam and then again at the bottom of the lock where the fast water from the dam joined the canal. We handled it OK and at least were finally below the problem dam and lock. Once on the move again we began to see a number of tows that were as large as the Illinois Waterway could handle, three barges wide by five barges long. We also began to see white pelicans again. We had last seen these in Florida on Lake Okeechobee.
From Ottawa, we went down the river to the Illinois Valley Yacht Club in Peoria Heights, IL., IVY for short. While there we saw a bride and groom arriving at their wedding reception on the bow of a boat.
We met the person on the boat next to us, Jack, who asked if he could take us anywhere since he lived nearby and had a car. We asked if he would drop us off at church for Mass the next morning and he agreed since his church was nearby the one we wanted to attend. Sunday morning he picked us up and dropped us at Mass, then after Mass, he picked us up and drove us around Peoria Heights where we saw some of the mansions there and stopped at a couple of scenic overlooks for pictures.
After the tour of Peoria Heights, we went back to the boat and set out for our next stop, Tall Timbers Marina in Havana, IL. Since the river was so high the Peoria Lock and Dam had lowered the wicket dam so the river traffic could pass right over it without locking through. This saved us at least a half hour or more. We encountered a lot more 15 barge tows along our way. At one point I saw something moving in the water in a way that suggested that it was not just more river debris, of which we had seen a lot. It turned out to be a family of five raccoons making their way across the river. I tried to get a picture but the only one I was able to get wasn't very good, but here it is anyway.
When we pulled into Tall Trees Marina in Havana, IL it was HOT!
How hot was it you say?
It was so hot that when I took Jake for a walk a fire hydrant chased HIM down!
It was so hot I was sweating like a politician on election day!
It was so hot all the bread in the store was toast!
It was so hot the cows were giving evaporated milk!
It was so hot the birds were using potholders to pull worms out of the ground!
It was so hot the catfish were already fried when I caught them!
It was so hot that one of our air conditioners went on strike!
Oh, and that last one was not a joke.
There were two other looper boats at this interesting small marina, so we had docktails with them and later walked to the nearby Dollar General for a few provisions. Back at the marina bar, a group of local patrons was quite interested in the Great Loop and what was involved it getting started on the adventure. Before we knew it about a dozen people from the bar had reconvened on our boat for a tour, a glass of wine, and a Q&A session. It was a lot of fun!
There were two other looper boats at this interesting small marina, so we had docktails with them and later walked to the nearby Dollar General for a few provisions. Back at the marina bar, a group of local patrons was quite interested in the Great Loop and what was involved it getting started on the adventure. Before we knew it about a dozen people from the bar had reconvened on our boat for a tour, a glass of wine, and a Q&A session. It was a lot of fun!
The next day we were planning to anchor out for the night because the next marina was 120 miles away in Grafton, IL. We selected an anchorage about half way on the charts and set out. In spite of being held up at a railroad bridge and a couple of car ferries, we arrived at our anchorage in just four hours. We were making very good time since the flooding river was giving us a speed boost and we were often traveling at 20 miles per hour. We decided then to continue on to Grafton Harbor in Grafton, IL. right at the junction of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Along the way, we began to see a number of what I called "stilt homes" built at least twenty feet off of the ground. Apparently the river floods here so high often enough that there were whole neighborhoods built on stilts. Finally, at the end of a long day, we arrived at Grafton Harbor, and after dodging one last fifteen barge tow we were at the dock.
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