8/25 Deer on the way to Peoria Heights, Illinois

We got an early start this morning as we would be doing 74 miles today.  The Asian Carp were jumping as we left the marina.  They are huge and make a loud splash when they hit the water.  As we headed south on the Illinois River, we saw deer on the bank of the river drinking water.

We passed an area known as Starved Rock.  The rock was much higher than the area around it. 

 The trees are starting to have a yellow tinge of fall.

Then we went through our only lock today,  the Starved Rock Lock, with another looper boat, Nantucket Sleighride.  The town of Lacon had interesting sculptures made of girders.

Then a huge flock of birds flew overhead. 

At the town of Chillicothe, the town was marked by lighted small lighthouse looking structures.

Sometimes you can feel as if you have the river to yourselves. Sometimes, it feels like you are walking on a crowded sidewalk.  When it does, the tows are coming and going, parking barges to the left and the right.  All of the tow captains seem very nice.  John contacted one that was pushing 15 barges to ask when to pass him.  He was so nice, asking us to just wait until he passed a certain marker then he would give us space to pass on his left.  There is a whole lingo associated with the rivers.  Because rivers are running downstream, the banks are either the Right Descending Bank or the Left Descending Bank.  That is true even if you are going upstream.  The tow captains also use the expressions, one whistle or two whistles to describe how one passes another vessel.  If a tow coming at you says, "I will see you on the one.", you will pass each other port to port.  This is a whole new nomenclature for me.

Tomorrow, will be not so long as we will go less than 50 miles.  Right now we are 167 miles from the Mississippi River and we are almost as far west as we will be going.  These ducks welcomed us to the Illinois Valley Yacht Club tonight.

Lat 40 degrees 44.94 North
Long 89 degrees 33.40 West

8/24 Joliet, Illinois to Ottawa, Illinois in the rain

We left the free dock wall at Joliet bright and early hoping we would get through at least the first lock before the rains came.  We didn't.  The rain started just as we were cutting the lines.  Because of the tow and barge traffic, the locks on the rivers are enormous.  They can accommodate barges that are three across and 4-5 long.  They are run by the Army Corps of Engineers.  We entered our first lock today and the rain really started to come down.  In these locks, you loop a line over a floating bollard.  As the water goes down, the bollard goes down.  By looping a line from the midship cleat on the Hydrophilic, one can hold the boat in place through the lock through.  Here is a picture John took from inside the Hydrophilic of me next to the bollard. 

It is required that you where a lifejacket if you are on deck during a lock through.  In this next picture, you can see that it is a one hand job to keep the boat next to the side of the lock. 

In an earlier lock, it rained pretty hard and John got a good picture of us in the lock going down.

This one is from outside under the awning of our boat. 

Today, we passed our longest tow, the Margaret Ann.  We first saw her sticking out around the bend.  And she kept coming, and coming, and coming.  She was huge.  We passed each other safely.

The Margaret Ann was more than 2 football fields long.  I had to wait until I could get the whole vessel in the frame of my cell phone camera.

One must be alert for all the barge traffic, but there is a lot to see.  The barges are being loaded and unloaded at chemical plants, silos, and nuclear power plant.  However, there is so much in nature to see.  John and I saw an eagle.  John saw a dead Asian Carp in the water too.  We passed this area filled with flowering water plants close to shore. 

Where the river is wider and has shallow sides, there are duck blinds.  One of the cruising guides laughingly suggested that one should wear blaze orange in duck season.

We passed a marina that was filled with houseboats.

  I was reminded that we were in the Midwest when we passed some areas where one could see corn all the way to the horizon.

Tonight, we pulled off the river into Heritage Harbor Marina for the night.  The rain stopped and the sun began to shine just as we arrived.   They welcome loopers here.  We are at Mile Marker 242 on the Illinois River.

This is a beautiful resort marina with homes and cottages as well as a huge marina.  We took a swim in the pool before dinner.  It was so refreshing.  We had a really nice dinner in the restaurant overlooking the marina.  What a nice view at sunset!!

Tomorrow, we will head further south and west down the river.

Lat 41 degrees 20.43 North
Long 88 degrees 47.26 West

8/23 Goodbye Chicago into the Rivers

It was time to say goodbye to Chicago.  We had such a great time in the Windy City.  We knew we had some new experiences ahead of us as we headed into the rivers of the U.S. 

We got an early start and went through the Chicago Lock that separates Lake Michigan from the Chicago River before 7 a.m.  The Chicago River was not dyed green today.  The challenge is that one must navigate your boat under some VERY low bridges that do not open.  We made it under the shortest of them with just 2 feet to spare. 

The city views were terrific in the sunshine.

 At this Chinese Pagoda, many Chinese people were out in groups and individually performing their exercises. 

Soon, we could only look back on the city and wave Goodbye.

The Chicago River quickly turned very commercial.  The trains that made Chicago famous were everywhere.

  I liked this picture that showed the silos, the trains and the tow barges.

This vertical railroad bridge had to open for us. 

We waited for a few different types of trains to cross and then it went up for us. 

Look at the concrete that counterbalances the bridge to open.

Soon we were in the Illinois River.  The tows are everywhere.  In many places, they can seem to take up the whole river.

  In fact, at one point we saw a barge that had broken loose and was wedged across the river between a docked barge and the shore.  We could not see anyone around it and no one answered our calls on the radio.  So I called the Coast Guard.  They took the information and said they would call the company right away.  Then we heard the Securite warning being issued on the radio by the Coast Guard.  Well, it wasn't long until the company sent a tow to move it.  Once, they moved it back into position we cruised on past. 

Asian Carp Fish infected the rivers.  These non-native fish have no natural predators and eat all the fish and food of the area, severely affecting the fishing industry.  To keep the Asian Carp from swimming into Lake Michigan, they have created an electric fence on the river.  It is a couple of thousand feet long and electrocutes the fish if they try to swim up to the lake.

These carp are huge and aggressive and known to jump right on to boats.  John and I are not sure who will take the carp off the boat if one gets on the Hydrophilic.

The tows are moving huge amounts of goods.  We saw tows with scrap metal, coal, sand and gravel. 

John suspects this mound of blue is copper sulfate. 

Tonight, we are docked at the wall of the river in Joliet, Illinois.  The wall is free with free Wi-Fi and electricity.  There is a Harrah's Casino on the other side of the river, but I have had enough excitement for today.

Lat 41 degrees 31.25 North
Long 88 degrees 5.23 West.

8/22 Tilting over Chicago, ready for the rivers, looping friends

Today was so beautiful in Chicago.  It was in the 70's warm, not a cloud in the sky, and not humid at all.  We started the day by readying the boat for our trip down the rivers tomorrow.  This will be a new type of boating for us, so I am a little apprehensive. 

Penney and Larry, who are loopers that came into the Columbia Yacht Club yesterday, stopped by.  We haven't met them on the loop yet, but we had so much in common, including some of our favorite stops.  Not long after that. Jill and Richard from the Jill Kristy called.  They had arrived at the next marina over and had seen our boat on entering the harbor.  We had met them in New Jersey and had last seen them on the Hudson.  They are in sailboat.  They had removed their mast to do the loop.  It was interesting to hear their travels.  They went down the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan.

The best part of looping is meeting so many wonderful people.
drink
John and I went to do our last tourist item on our City Pass.  360 Chicago is on the 94th floor of the John Hancock Tower.  Granted it is not as tall as the Willis Tower but it has a really unique twist, or should I say tilt. There is some interesting history presented on the lower floor with a short film on the history of Chicago.  Then it was up to the 94th floor.  There we went on the TILT.  You line up in a special area.  Each person gets there own floor to ceiling window and handles to hold onto.  Then, the entire area is tilted 30 degrees out over the street below.  They don't allow pictures or I would have had them.  This was just a little scary.  I knew I wasn't going anywhere but I held on very tightly.  What a rush!  In one corner, they have a bar.  Both John and I opted for the TILT cocktail.  What fun!  Here are some of the neat views.
Navy Pier

The Willis Tower

The straight street heading south is Michigan Avenue, the Magnificent Mile.  I didn't get to shop there at all.

It was so clear today that you could see all the way to Indiana.  That is the Adler Planetarium in the foreground.

The North Beaches were shaded by the buildings to their west.

Tomorrow, we head into the rivers.

8/20-8/21 Hanging out in Chicago

  We are having fun touring Chicago.  Uber has been great to get around this town and walking works too.  It was pretty rainy in the morning on Saturday so we had a quiet day.  We headed to he Willis Tower after church and the weather had improved.  Sitting in a Starbucks, I got this picture of the EL

The Willis Tower finally came into view among the skyscrapers.

  At the top of the Willis, we first looked south.  One could see the rail yards that were such a big part of Chicago's history. 

The museum peninsula was easy to pick out too.

We could see the Columbia Yacht Club boat in the harbor and could tell which boat was ours.

  Looking out we could see the Prudential building, which is the second highest. 

John caught the reflection of one building on another. 

We also got great views of the Chicago and River.

  John and I had our picture taken on the Ledge, a place where you stand on Plexiglas out over the building. 

We also got this picture looking down on Chicago through our shoes. 

We had this picture taken with northern Chicago in the background. 

There is an iconic scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off looking out from the Willis Tower.  It was the Sears Tower then.  It is the 30th anniversary and they are celebrating it.  You can stand in the same spot with model characters and take your picture.  I did.

After our tour, we headed for a typical Chicago dinner, deep dish Chicago style pizza.  We had plenty to take back to the boat.

Sunday August 21 we headed early to the Shedd Aquarium.  It is a very good aquarium with areas focusing on the Amazon, the Caribbean, a Polar experience, the Asian Rivers, etc.  We started at the touch the stingray exhibit before it got busy.

The beluga whales were amazing.  They were making all sorts of click and whining sounds. 

We saw colorful birds from the Amazon. 

I enjoyed the penguins. 

These seahorses were really kind of cute.

They had an exhibit of Asian Carp that are in the rivers.  If one jumps in our boat, I am not sure if John or I will pick it up.  They are HUGE!  We took in a 4-D movie on Coastal Predators.  The sardines are sought after by the dolphin, the sharks, the birds and the whales.  They all work together to get the dinner.  The 4-D sprayed us with water, shook our seats and hit the back of our seats. 

We returned to the boat in time for the Chicago Air and Water Show.  The early part with small planes and parachuters was too far away, but the Thunderbirds flew right over head.  They flew right overhead.  They were so fast it was hard to get pictures.  In the pictures below, you can see the Columbia Yacht Club boat, Navy Pier, and the city, all taken from the flybridge of the Hydrophilic.  What a great show!!

Tomorrow, we tour Chicago for the last day.  Tuesday, we head into the river system.