Day 53 up Lake Michigan to Racine, Wisconsin

     We left the dock at DuSable Harbor this morning at 5:40 am - ouch!!! Ouch indeed as this was after taking Lucky for her morning walk in the park. The route today is 62.3 miles, and we should be there by early to mid afternoon.  The alarm woke us all up this morning. The photo at the right shows a beautiful sunrise over Lake Michigan as we are pulling out of the marina. The skyline to the left of the Sun is one of the famous landmarks of the Chicago lake front, Navy Pier. There are thunderstorms forecast for early evening and for the next several days. Thus, we wanted to beat the storms to the Reef Point Marina in Racine, WI where Lucky and I will be staying while Terry travels back to Texas.  The Admiral will fly out of Milwaukee on Saturday, and she will return on the 7th of June.  The main reason for the trip is to attend her nephews wedding in Austin on June 4th, but she will also be able to attend Grandson Will's graduation from Kindergarten (oh, poor me for not being able to go along!). 

     The photo at the left shows the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse as we are going out the main channel through the break water. This classic view of the lighthouse is now seen mainly by pleasure boaters as the big lake freighters have not come to Chicago proper for many years. Most of the industry is now south and east of the city and is accessed through other harbors. 

     The photo at the right is looking back west and shows part of the spectacular Chicago skyline. The black skyscraper on the far right is the John Hancock Building, aka "Big John" with its distinctive twin broadcast towers. At the far left the Sun is reflecting off of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower).

      The photo at the left shows the end of Navy Pier looking back towards downtown Chicago. Seeing the end of Navy Pier brightly lit by the (very) early morning Sun is a rare view of it. At this point we are just beyond the breakwater that forms the outer harbor, and we have set the autopilot to follow the pre-programmed trip to Racine, WI.

     At this point Lucky is already asleep in her kennel on the flybridge, and we are ready to have breakfast, which was delayed so that we could have this very early departure. We did have a fly or two (thousand) hitch a ride which was a little bit of a nuisance but they also attracted some birds which made it worth while. We saw a green warbler or fly catcher as well as red winged blackbirds. Lucky spends a lot of time trying to catch flies with some success. However, when she was on her mat on the control console, she tried to catch fly on the screen of the chartplotter. The "fly" that she was trying to catch was the boat icon that shows the position of the boat on the screen. Yup, it was pretty funny to watch, but there were nose prints on the screen after she gave up...

     Our trip was pretty uneventful with no traffic on the lake. So we will jump ahead to our arrival in Racine. We arrived at the Reef Point Marina at 1 pm.  At Racine we entered the harbor and were in the Root River that flows through downtown Racine and were almost immediately at the entrance to our marina (photo above). There are several boat yards up the river that require that one or two bridges be raised to get to them. However, the City of Racine has built this wonderful marina and surrounding park on fill out into the lake. We stayed here on our first Loop, and we chose to come back here for out extended stay while the Admiral takes her trip back to Texas.  The brown building on the right is a condo, while the low building in the center and left is a hotel. Downtown Racine is in the background.

      As we were turning to enter the marina, we passed the rather classic looking tug Kristina J moored in the marina. Sorry folks, but I cannot pass up a good photo of a tug for Grandson Will.

      Out the other side of the boat we were passing this barge in the photo at the left. They are doing some work on the break wall for the outer harbor.  Yes, I was rushing back and forth taking pictures, but we were going at idle speed with the autopilot turned on so I could afford a "few" seconds away from the helm to take pictures.

     When we checked in at the office, we received the good news that the new pool with two hot tubs open tomorrow!  They have all been refurbished with new plaster and coping around the edges so I will be set for some pool time in between working on Lucky Us and walking Lucky. Good news indeed!

Day 52 onward to Chicago and Lake Michigan -Whoop!

      Today is the big day. We are departing Harborside Marina and heading to DuSable Marina on Lake Michigan in downtown Chicago. Ever since we left Mobile, Alabama we have been headed toward Lake Michigan, which is the highest point on our trip. Yes, we did go down a bit on the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers, but overall we ended up about 577 feet above sea level. Our trip today is 55.5 miles, and we have three locks and 68 bridges on the route.  We took a few minutes last night before going to dinner to lower the radar mast so we can clear most of the bridges tomorrow.  Fortunately, with the radar mast down our vertical clearance is less than 16.5 feet so only two railroad bridges will have to be opened for us if they are not already up. Otherwise this could so turn into a multiday trip.

     So, here we departed at 5:45 am with high hopes for a smooth transit of the locks and bridges. To be clear the Admiral and I had high hopes while Lucky in the photo at the right had her usual look that seems to say "are we there yet?" Well, we cannot all be excited... I should also point out that this look also signals that she is happily settled into her kennel, and you would risk getting snapped at if you tried to move her. After all, a girl has to have her beauty sleep, which in her case is likely to last all morning long.

      Most of the photos today will concentrate on the final 20 miles or so of the approach into Chicago, which is where the vast majority of the bridges are located. The Brandon Road Lock was probably the most spectacular show of any of the locks so far on this year's journey on the Great Loop. It all began with the lock being emptied for us to enter. The outflow was so strong that the turbulence resulted in jets of water shooting at least 12 feet up into the air. The outflow in any lock creates enough turbulence that I keep Lucky Us back further from the lock than is required. We are  at best going at idle speed to maintain our position, which is greatly complicated when the turbulence reaches our position further down stream. In this case Lucky Us actually began to move back at 1.4 mph in the turbulence due to the outflow as measured on the chartplotter.

     The show continued after we entered the lock and tied onto the wall, and then they began to fill the lock. It turns out that the gate valves on the fill pipes were not working. In order to fill the lock, they actually lowered the upstream gates vertically downward to allow water to enter. This created a waterfall over the top of the partially lowered gates (photo at right). A second, smaller waterfall was also created as the water went over the sill at the bottom of the upper channel.  All of the turbulence created a large amount of foam that also went over the lower waterfall in huge chunks. The water here is cleaner than it was in years past, but the young attendant standing on the lock wall next to us joked that if they accidentally fall into the water that they have to go to the hospital for at least 15 shots to prevent diseases. At least I hope that he was joking...

     About 20 miles south of the city the channel splits into the CalSag canal that heads more east to Calumet where it enters the lake, and the Chicago River (or Chicago Sanitary Canal) which heads through downtown Chicago where it enters Lake Michigan. They have a nicely landscaped park at this junction with these decorative waterfalls (photo at left). Of course, the effect would be nicer without the inevitable foam... However, the aeration does help to kill most of the bacteria in the water so the falls are more than just decorative.

     The actual channel is a man made cut that is lined with huge limestone blocks that were precision fit presumably by skilled stone masons. The channel is narrow as shown in the photo at the right. The tow boat Eileen C pushing a tow that is three barges wide (about 105 feet wide) as it passes two barges moored on the channel wall (about 70 feet wide). thus the channel cannot be much more than 200 feet wide. We had to follow the Eileen C until she reached an area with no barges moored on the opposite wall. Then she very kindly stopped to give us room to pass her. If traffic had been heavier, we could have been forced to follow her for many miles...

      Another interesting sight involving Eileen C was getting the opportunity to watch her pass under a low bridge. Tow boats here are limited by many fixed and bascule bridges. Even the ones that open are so numerous that waiting for each one would severely limit marine traffic. The pilot house/bridge on Eileen C moves up and down on a system of 4 hydraulic pistons. The photo at the left shows her passing under a low bridge. Where is the pilot house? It is in the down position that severely limits the pilots visibility if it is down for more than a very short period of time.

      The next photo (also at the left) shows the pilot house coming up as the tow boat has just barely passed under the bridge. At this point the pilot house has raised up by nearly 10 feet, and the pilot now has good but still somewhat limited visibility forward.

      The boat is now entirely clear of the bridge, and the pilot house continues to rise up (photo at left). The pilot house in the photo is more or less in the fully up position, and you can see that it definitely would have hit the bridge. The entire process of one cycle either up or down probably takes no more than 30 seconds (?). However, during part of that interval, the pilot is blind toward the direction of travel. Remember that the channel is very narrow, and the entire tow is "literally" scraping along its starboard side so they can hardly get "lost" during the interval where the pilot is blinded...

      By this point we are on the outer part of the city of Chicago proper. We have been seeing planes flying in and out of Midway Airport for some miles, but there has been almost no residential housing along the canal proper until now. The photo at the right shows an interesting, new condo complex, which is a sign of much more to come. We have just passed a huge Amtrak rail yard, which serves much of the commuter traffic to the suburbs. There was also a large FedEx terminal, so we are definitely getting "close". Close? I should say so since all we have to do is to start looking "up".

    However, we do have one more potential "road block" before reaching the downtown area. There is an Amtrak bridge for commuter trains that does not open during the morning or evening rush hours. Rather than ask for permission and risk a quick denial, the Admiral called the bridge to find out what hours they actually were totally closed. Several tows also called about the same time. I guess that if you ask nicely they can actually find a few minutes where the can lift the bridge. Anyway, we were told to hang out for 10 or 20 minutes and they would try to squeeze us in. The photo at the left is looking back after we had cleared, and I was able to relax just a bit. It turned out that we arrived at the same time as the 2 tows, and we did slow down but never stopped as we slipped through between the tows.

      Chicago is a leading center in the World for architecture on all scales (i.e. from skyscrapers to furniture), such as I.M. Pei and firms like Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.  They have designed several of the tallest buildings in the world, including the John Hancock Center (1969, second tallest in the world when built), Willis Tower (1973, tallest in the world for over twenty years, aka the Sears Tower), and Burj Khalifa (2010, current world's tallest building). The photo at the right shows a number of sky scrapers, including the Willis or Sears Tower. At this point we are in for a series of 25 bridges that connect up the downtown area across the river. These bridges all still open, and they are opened only at select times on weekends in the Spring and Fall. This allows boaters to get their boats off of Lake Michigan and down the river for Winter storage and vice versa. It is these same bridges that are seen in so many commercials, TV shows and movies as well as being an iconic part of Chicago.

      Another sure sign that we are in the downtown area is the abundance of tour boats and water taxis that are cruising (and sometimes racing) past us. This "tour boat" is actually a small barge that is pushed by a small tug, but the boats can get quite elegant as well. In addition to the standard tours with magnificent sights, there are a variety of specialized tours, especially architectural tours that are also very popular. You can probably tell by the heavy pedestrian traffic on the bridge that it is just after 5:00 pm, and the daily commute home is on full bore. It looks almost serene in the "still" photo, but it was a lot more chaotic with bikes, jogger and walkers of all speeds. By comparison, the traffic on the water was pretty light...

     ...and then suddenly we are through downtown, and the view ahead really opens up as we approach Lake Michigan. We are waiting for boats to exit the Chicago Lock so that we can go out into Lake Michigan and "officially" begin our summer adventure n the Great Lakes... By now I was getting really excited, and after some frantic waving from the skipper of another boat, I woke up and moved over to our port as per the rules to allow the boats to exit. Just to make my error worse, they do not talk to boats on the radio at this lock, but rather they make all announcements over a loud speaker for all the world to hear about my mistake. Oh well, I really did not care at this point!

   DuSable marina is only about 100 yards to the right (i.e. south) of this photo, and in between is this old US Coast Guard Station that now houses Chicago Fire and Police boats. This is one of 2 large fire boats that are stationed here. It is a rather low, squat looking boat, but remember that it has to go under all of the same bridges when going on a call. We have to go out into the harbor and way around to enter at the more protected southern end of the marina. However, the view remains superb when looking back at the Chicago skyline from the lake side.

     The photo at the right is one last look at Chicago for today, but stay tuned as we will get many more excellent views tomorrow...

     Since we spent so much time in Chicago the last time we came through and the weather window for traveling this week is small, we only plan a single night here before moving on up the west side of the lake to Racine, Wisconsin.  Lucky and I will be staying on Lucky Us while the Admiral goes to a nephew's wedding, and oh yes, I almost forgot (ha, ha) that she will get to see Bob (son), Jill (daughter-in-law) along with Sarah, Will and Katie (Grandkids). Yes, I am just a "little" jealous.

     I hope that you were listening carefully today so that you could have heard the loud WHOOP! as we entered Lake Michigan to begin our Summer on the Great Lakes.

Day 51 to Harborside Marina in Wilmington IL

     After replacing the freshwater pressure pump and enjoying both the Harborside Marina and Ottawa, Illinois, we are off again up the Illinois River. Today, after moving the boat to the fuel dock for a pump out, we will be traveling 31.3 miles to Wilmington, IL, specifically to the Harborside Marina. At the fuel dock we had to wait for the marina to open at 9:00 am, but fortunately the staff arrived on time to quickly accomplish the pump out. It should take less than five hours since the current seems to be less than 0.5 mph so we will still have a leisurely trip even given the late start. It has been a struggle lately with both pump out and fresh water pump problems, which are basic to life style on a boat. However, both of those problems now seem to be solved, and we are looking forward to smooth travelling in the future!

      We had gone less than 2 miles when we arrived at the Marseilles Lock and Dam, which is our first of two locks for today (photo at right). Fortunately, the water was in the down position so we were able to more or less enter right into the chamber. The lock has a lift of 24 feet. Most of the locks in this upper part of the river seem to have only one floating bollard in the whole lock except at the corners, but in all cases lately we have been the only pleasure craft so we could use it. Otherwise, the Lockmaster's assistant would throw down lines to hold onto for holding the boat in position. The ropes do not work well with a lift this large since they are tied almost straight above the side of the boat. This means that you have little leverage to hold the boat against the lock wall until the lock is virtually full of water.

     Just north of the town of Marseilles we passed this potash fertilizer plant. The potash is mined to be used to make various potassium compounds (e.g. Potassium nitrate) that are then used to make fertilizer. Pioneers made ashes from the burning of logs when they cleared fields for farming, and the ashes were placed in water in a pot to leach out lye to make soap. The name potash was derived from the water in a pot process. Today most potash is used in the production of fertilizer, which is important locally in the Midwest for farming.

      After nearly 30 miles, we came to the Dresden Lock and Dam with a lift of 21 feet. If you look closely, you can see a dirty water mark that extends about 8 feet up the outside of the lock gate (photo at the right). This dark area would represent the high water mark for relatively recent flooding in this area. Like virtually every lock and dam that we have passed through on our trip, this lock and dam is also undergoing maintenance with a crane visible above the lock.

      The heavy lift crane is fixed mounted on a barge, and the heavy lift capability would enable the crane to lift and replace an entire gate on the lock.

      The final railroad lift bridge for the day is the Elgin-Joliet Railroad Lift Bridge, and fortunately, the bridge was in the up position. I really enjoy seeing these lift bridges, but I definitely like them better when they are in the up position...

      We arrived at 3:00 pm this afternoon after continuing to have beautiful weather, and you can see the cloudless sky in the photo at the left.  Our headphones ran out of power during the last locking, and we did not have time to charge the batteries before our arrival at the marina so we were a little out of our normal element during our docking.  We originally planned on docking stern first, but that did not work out at all well so after two quick attempts, I gave up and chose (wisely?) to go in bow first which worked much better in spite of both a cross wind and a cross current. When we go in bow first, I can see the forward third of the boat from the fly bridge so the lack of voice communication with the Admiral was not a big factor. The photo above left shows a view of some of the marina and part of my view of the bow during the docking maneuver. The metal buildings across the entire background are part of the boat storage and service facilities at the marina. In the foreground you can see several floating houses that seem to be rapidly filling the river front portion of the marina. Out the stern of Lucky Us we had an unobstructed view of the Illinois river.  In the future if the floating houses fill this part of the marina, as seems likely, the remaining docks will be inland up a channel just out of view to the left. Those landlocked docks have no view, and thus, much of the of the appeal of this marina will unfortunately be lost in the future...
      We are about to head off to the marina restaurant (after walking Lucky around the grounds). Now that I have had an additional 2 miles of walking I am looking forward to a relaxing dinner... The marina grounds are nice enough, but other than the marina we are isolated from civilization, which has both pluses and minuses.

Day 50 a day off in Ottawa, IL

      "A day off" for us does not mean just lying around doing nothing as you have probably gathered by now. We are benefitting from the early (or even pre-) boating season since we seem to have unlimited access to the marina loaner car. We have tried to be good citizens and return it on time with additional gas in the tank, but we probably could have just kept the keys without bothering to turn the car back in to the marina. We are well and truly the only transients here, and indeed there are few local boaters out and about. We started the day with a quick trip to the marine store mentioned yesterday. While out we also went to a local super market to replenish some supplies for the galley. They had a suitable pump although the capacity in gallons per minute is a little less than the old one. The Admiral, with me acting as the "tool gopher,"  quickly installed the new pump when we returned. That was a huge check mark on our to do list as we were pretty much out of business for travelling without a fresh water supply on the boat. At the marina, of course, there are bathrooms, showers and a restaurant, but getting underway without fresh water would have been very inconvenient.

     With the pump replaced and feeling much more relaxed we decided to take the loaner car again and go into town to a movie. Ottawa has Interstate 80 just a couple of miles outside of town, but somehow the store fronts in downtown have remained pretty full. A real surprise is the old theater, which did not rebuild at the Interstate as most have done, but instead the theater has occupied one or two adjacent stores and added 3 additional, modern theaters in them with comfortable seating, etc. Thus, good popcorn and an okay movie made for a relaxed afternoon. We saw The Nice Guys and found most of the funny parts had been included in the previews. I hate it when a movie gets misrepresented like that. You go to see it expecting a lot of good laughs, and it turns out that you have already laughed about all that you are going to laugh... The historic downtown has been revitalized quite a bit, but this modern street art did seem a little out of place. While we were downtown we also checked out the local hardware store just in case, but once again we came away empty handed, which I guess is a good sign that we are indeed well equipped on board Lucky Us.

     The photo at the right shows one of the restored city government buildings in the town square. Since it was a Saturday, there had been a farmers market in the morning. We drove by it, but we were not tempted to stop since the displays were mainly art and handicrafts. Local produce is still a fairly long way off from being market ready.

     Spring has not been here for very long as was evidenced by the 4 inch high corn plants in the fields as we arrived yesterday, but everything is very green already as can be seen in this photo of a park at the downtown side of the "new" bridge across the Illinois River (photo at left). I just love this time of the year when all of a sudden the "brown grass" of the winter is suddenly replaced by the new growth as sort of a new beginning. I guess that it reminds me of growing up in northern Ohio where Spring meant baseball, bike riding, and anticipation of boating in the near future. Of course, that anticipation was tainted a bit by the prospect of sanding, painting, and varnishing before the boating fun could actually begin.

Lucky found a new occupation when we returned to the boat (and woke her up). She found a local dock party (photo at right) to be most interesting. She stationed herself quietly on the forward deck house watching the party. It really was not wild or loud, but I suppose that she has not seen this sort of gathering nearby on a dock before so she watch for a good long while. It probably did help that they had two dogs sitting around as well... Remember that I said that she was watching the party, but I still think that she is a long way off from becoming a true party animal. However, she has continued to be more comfortable around other people, but her past history as a rescue dog still is slowly changing as she becomes more socialized.
     The pool at the marina actually had several kids playing in the water. As for me, I was not even tempted to stick my hand in the water since the pool was not heated. No doubt that the little kids had a lot better circulation than I have...

     Spring has sprung in other ways as well. We have seen baby ducklings for some time now, but we are also starting to see goslings as well. The photo at the left shows two pairs of geese along with seven goslings in the marina merrily swimming around while the parents are cautiously watching Lucky and I walking along the seawall.

     The Admiral fell in love with this little town and especially the Marina staff and residents. Everyone was so very friendly, inclusive, and just all around accommodating.  She may try to talk me into moving - BUT it is way to cold in the winter for me!

Day 49 to Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa IL

      We left the city dock in Peoria this morning at 5:31 am.  The photo at right shows the sky just before sunrise while we are still at the dock. Wow, that is certainly early for the me, but my resistance is low at that hour!  We are moving on to Ottawa, IL which is 76.7 miles.  This will be around a 12 hour day +/- .  We plan on staying at the municipal dock in downtown Ottawa, but since it is the beginning of the weekend, we know we might have competition. So, the fall back plan will be staying at another marina like the Starved Rock Marina at Starved Rock State Park although that would involve some back tracking, and it is well outside of downtown with no possibility of a loaner car.

      The photo at the left is looking back at the Peoria city dock just after departure. The bright lights are security lighting in the waterfront area, and the downtown area is in the background. The stern wheeler Spirit of Peoria is docked just right of center in the photo at the left. The weather is clear with the promise of a great day on the water.

     We had to wait on the Starved Rock Lock. This was interesting because it is the first time we have  seen a barge sent through the lock without the tow (i.e. the barges). The tow was 3 barges or 600 feet long without the tow boat, which is the length of the lock.  The crew floated the barges out of the lock chamber and then tied them to the wall.  We then went past the barges and into the lock chamber to go up. In the photo at the right we are all the way up in the lock, and the picture is looking back at the barges tied to the wall below the lock. Thus, we locked threw before the tow could enter the lock after we exited to then lock down to pick up his barges. 

      We knew they often had to break down to lock through in stages, but we had never seen them send the barge by themselves.  The photo at the left was taken as we are exiting the lock as the towboat waits to enter. It was a complicated maneuver, but the experience of the Lockmaster and the crew was obvious.

      While we were in the lock I had some time to look around. When we are station keeping waiting for our turn to enter the lock as well as entering and leaving the lock, neither of us has much time to look around or take pictures. The photo at the right shows the rather long Starved Rock Dam with the adjustable gates on the right side.

      The picture at the left is also taken while we were coming up in the lock. The prominent rocky point is Starved Rock, and further to the right you can see a parking lot for visitors to Starved Rock State Park. The lodge and cabins are in the trees behind the parking lot. It really is quite a pretty area as seen from here.

      We arrived in Ottawa.  We stopped at the town dock just to read a sign saying they are closed due to renovations.  It was a little annoying that there were no evidence of any repair work actually being done... Instead of back tracking to Starved Rock State Park, we decided to go forward a few miles to a marina that we had tried to stay at last time we came through but they were full.  They had room for us now, so we went to Heritage Harbor Marina about 2 miles up river from downtown Ottawa where they also have a loaner car available for guests. 

      Heritage Harbor Marina is only 8 years old, and it is part of a multi-use development that includes condominiums, houses and what they call cottages. As we pulled into the channel leading into the large harbor, we passed some of the condos (photo at left). In a short distance the channel splits into two branches with one leading to the houses and the other leading to the marina (and cottages).

      The photo at the right shows the marina with the office, store and restaurant on the left. The photo was taken on one of the many long walks with Lucky. The complex has huge areas of nicely mowed grass with many little manmade hills so the walking with Lucky was easy and very pretty. There are some of the cottages on the far side of the harbor (one 2 story cottage shows up as bright white). The facilities, including a pool, are excellent, and we can see why it was full when we came past here on our last Loop. It is definitely worth a stop here.

      We also have had an eventful day in other ways.  We each had a nap this morning to catch up on our sleep.  While preparing lunch, the Admiral discovered we did not have water supply so she went into the engine room to switch to the front tank.  While there she noticed that we still had a half tank of water in the rear tank.  That means that the water pressure pump has probably gone out. These pumps run a lot keeping the water pressure at 50 psi. There is an expansion tank to keep the flow even, but anytime that water runs in any volume for a few seconds the pump will come on to build pressure back up.  When we got docked, we further diagnosed the situation, making sure it is the pump and not a power source problem or a filter issue. The marina believes we can get a pump from a service company just a mile down the road, and in the morning we can use the loaner car to go there. We finished off the day with an excellent dinner at the Red Dog Grill at the marina and a long 2+ mile walk with Lucky. I had a wonderful grilled Whitefish dinner, which I am hoping that will still be on the menu again tomorrow night! We will be staying here for 2 nights so that we can replace the pump and do some grocery shopping as well as... Stay tuned.

 

Day 48 off to Peoria, IL

      We left the dock at Tall Timbers Marina this morning at 7:10 am and headed up the Illinois River to Peoria, Illinois.
 Today should be a relatively short day involving 42.3 miles, 1 lock, and 2 lift bridges, which are supposed to be in the up position, except when trains are coming.  The weather is another beautifully sunny day with the high at Peoria forecast to be 73F with scattered clouds. We plan on staying at the free municipal dock, which is in downtown Peoria within walking distance of several restaurants.  The lift bridge (photo at right) is in Pekin, Illinois. It is so similar to several of the last railroad bridges that I had to check to make sure that it had not been misfiled here. Luckily, both of the lift bridges today were in the up position so we had no waits for trains to cross.

      Pekin is a bustling little town, and it is also ideally situated in corn growing country. Thus, it was not surprising to find an ethanol plant. There were also grain shipping terminals. Towns like Pekin are ideally situated with road, rail and river transportation and have obviously benefitted from that. There were many towns in this country in the 1850s that died when a railroad chose to go through an adjacent town, and these same railroad towns continue to see the benefits of the transportation infrastructure.

      Our one lock for today is the Peoria Lock and Dam. Once again the water was high enough that the wickets were down, and as before, there is a Corps of Engineers barge and tow boat in the empty lock chamber. They seem to leave all the gates of the lock open when the wickets are up, but they leave the barge and tow boat inside to keep boaters from accidentally (?) using the lock to transit. Similar to the dam yesterday, the water was about 11 feet deep and flowing smoothly over the dam. With the generally low current and favorable bridges and lock we have been making excellent time up river today.

      Also, as we approached Peoria, we passed our second ethanol plant for the day. I understand the reasons for putting ethanol in the unleaded gasoline, but I really do not like how it effects the performance of small outboard engines in particular. However, I can also appreciate how important it has been to portions of the Midwest economy. Increased employment and better prices for corn are bound to be popular, especially with the politicians who can claim to have helped secure these benefits for their constituents...

     Once again, a sure sign that we are getting close to a larger city is a power plant where most of the power lines go in a single direction (i.e. toward the city). In the foreground on the left is a coal unloading dock, and the big covered structure appears to be for coal storage.

      We arrived this afternoon around 1:30 pm, and we are right downtown in front of Joe's Crab Shack. It is a nice floating dock and is free, including electric. What a bargain! When the Admiral called for permission to dock, they did say that one of the reasons that it was free was in the hope that we would visit local restaurants...  We have no problem with that since we had already planned on doing just that anyway. In fact in the photo at the left the Admiral has that "hurry up I'm hungry" look in her eyes.

     We did walk around downtown a bit before heading to a very nice Texas style B-B-Q restaurant for dinner. On the way to the restaurant one of the most spectacular sights was the art museum, which has a delightful outdoor gallery as well. We both shared a salad, and we each had a baked potato with pulled pork on it. A little touch of home every now and then is a good thing...

     On the way back to Lucky Us we passed the Spirit of Peoria back at her dock on the waterfront.  The area along the waterfront has a nice walkway, parking garages, restaurants, etc. It definitely was a nice spot to stay and to visit. While I was listing amenities I forgot to add that they also have a nice ice cream shop not that I would ever have anything so unhealthy as a double scoop cup of vanilla ice cream... We had not stopped in Peoria on our last Loop, but we definitely would stop here again. Well, once again it is time to do the engine room check and hit the sack "early", which in reality means before Jimmy Fallon has been on for too long.