Catching Up 2

Peoria was a major city stop for us. We anchored out in the harbor for the weekend and dinghied in for the ribfest. Peoria is home of Caterpillar and we reminded ourselves that son-in-law Chris had spent time here training in the mysteries of diesel mechanics. The last day we discovered that we could go to the other bank of the river and climb up the rocks to the backside of a Wal Mart and reprovision the boat.


Our intrepid photographer, Annette, proved once again to have the eye and the timing for the unusual and the beautiful. Who would have thought that sunset over Peoria looked like this? We have never seen such an unusual separation of the sun’s rays as if search lights had been aimed to emphasize the blue spaces in between. Now all Peoria needs is a few palm trees and …

Here is a portrait of the happy travelers as we are nearing the finish of our trip down the Illinois River. We had just survived a night on anchor behind Bar Island where we had a strong current in one direction and a 30 mph wind in the other. Ask us about the story of that anchorage when you see us. We now know why this is called an adventure. One more night on the hook after this and we were at the confluence of the Illinois and the Mississippi-Grafton, IL where we stayed at a brand new marina for our trip by car to St. Louis. Grafton advertises itself as the home of wintering bald eagles. We have seen many of these magnificent birds along the river and, indeed, flying around us as we moved downstream.

We did the tourist thing in St. Louis by car as the city has no place for pleasure craft to dock. Gary, Dick, Sheila and Jack went to the top of the Gateway Arch which is the tallest national monument in the U.S. and the second tallest after the Eiffel Tower in the world. It is an engineering marvel and the tram system to the top certainly beats the stairs. We rode up with one of the park rangers who told us the service requires them to walk down once a year. The view was spectacular, of course, and the monument is a great metaphor for the opening of the West that started with the Lewis and Clark expedition. They had a tough time with their boats going up the Missouri River, at times hauling them across sand bars by sheer guts and determination. The boats weren’t canoes and rowboats but fairly large bateaux with sweep oars and a mounted gun. A museum at the base of the Arch chronicles this history. We also visited the courthouse where the Dred Scott Case began its way to the Supreme Court.

The Mississippi River is not friendly to the pleasure craft cruiser. There are few places to stop. This is one of the two stops we made on the Mississippi-Hoppies. Basically, it consists of a few barges connected to the river bank. Fern is the female side of the management. She gathers the cruisers for a “seminar” on going the rest of the way down the Mississippi and up the Ohio. About half the information was accurate. But we were certainly glad that Hoppies was there. There was a little village with two excellent restaurants and several boutique type shops within walking distance. We ate at a circa 1780’s building and the food was very good.

At Cairo on September 25th, we made the turn off the Mississippi to the swollen Ohio. While we were making 9 to 11 miles an hour on the Mississippi going downstream, the current on the Ohio slowed us to less than 5 miles an hour. A twelve-inch-in-twenty-four hours rain had hit the Louisville area upstream and we were reaping the result. It was a real slog uphill on the Ohio. It was also a bit dangerous as every branch and tree that had been lying along the banks was now hurtling down at us. Annette had to spend some of her time on the bow giving frantic hand signals to the driver. We managed to get to the Olmstead Dam area and anchor behind a little bump along the bank. Big trees floated by all night just missing our boats. We were glad to survive the night and get going the next morning to face the next challenge of the Ohio.

Catching Up

At Crowley’s Boatyard in Chicago, we had the mast taken down for the trip through Chicago and down the inland rivers. Our mast stands over 56 feet and the controlling fixed bridge height south of Chicago is 19+ feet. We are carrying the mast with us, making us a 50 foot motor vessel. After we took the mast down, we went to Burnham Harbor in Chicago and enjoyed the city as the previous pictures demonstrate. While we were at Crowley’s, we toured a Nordhaven trawler belonging to a Rochester man who we later met. He was wearing a Brantling t-shirt when we met him in Grafton, IL at the other end of the Illinois River. Small world.

Here’s why we had to get shorter. There are many bridges as one goes south through the heart of Chicago. Along this stretch of the Chicago River are tour boat docks and upscale apartment buildings. As one goes south, the city thins and the river is heavily industrialized with all the smells associated with the outflow from a major city and its chemical and industrial activities.

Our first stop south of Chicago was Joliet on September 9th. It was in Joliet that we learned an important lesson: always point the boat upstream when docking. We got a full stern of grass, limbs, and things foul to the extent that we had to untie and go out in the river to get rid of it. Joliet was also where we met the Adamowski’s of Bay City, MI who joined us and Ladyhawke for the next several weeks. Joliet is famous for its prison and it has seen better times as a city. Harrah’s casino was across the river.

One of our favorite stops on the Illinois was Ottawa, IL. Here Lincoln and Douglas had one of their famous debates. We also biked about eight miles along an old canal path. It reminded us that such an opportunity now exists at home along the Erie Canal. Ottawa has historical murals painted on many buildings around the downtown area. We had many offers from the locals for rides to get groceries and go to Wal Mart.

We began to see Monarch butterflies by the score flying across the rivers. While most of them didn’t land on the boat, this one decided to get up close and personal. The Monarchs’ annual migration south was obvious as we literally saw hundreds of them crossing our path. I was struck by the similarities in our quest to go south. We both travel at about the same speed subject to the currents of wind and water. The tow operators call us the butterflies. It is even more appropriate in our case because with our mast stored with the spreaders up we appear to have wings.