Illinois: Grafton

Day: 86
No Travel

We walked around the town of Grafton today with finding ice cream as our objective.  We knew about "The Whole Scoop" but as we walked around town, we discovered a couple of more choices. Ultimately, we ended up getting cones from the Grafton Fudge Country Store down the street.  On the walk we noticed some interesting sights in town.

Port of Grafton Illinois Lighthouse

Grafton Ferry to Missouri
(note here the Illinois and the Mississippi Rivers join)

We found several second-hand / flea market type establishments.  The Fudge & more store where we purchased ice cream sold a very interesting assortment of products from moccasins to fudge and candy to antiques and jewelry.  

Antique Coke for $187 anyone?

Antique milkshake machine
and other interesting articles from the past
including table and chairs from the 1950s

Just down the street from the Fudge shop we found the old Grafton Bank building which has been converted into a gift shop.  I could not believe how small the building was for a bank building. The picture below does not do justice to the small size of this bank.

Grafton Bank - now Gift Shop

 The Grafton Harbor marina was interesting in and of itself and must be a hot party spot in the summer.  Many boats are decorated in very interesting ways indicating a general party theme.  Below is a picture of one example.  Note the woman on board is a mannequin.

Wayne's World Party-er's boat

At 5:30 the loopers at the marina got together for Docktails (Cocktails on the dock).  We had a large crowd and many new-to-us faces.  We came away with a stack of new boat cards (like business cards but with boat name and contact details).  We met Gold Loopers at the get together (meaning they have completed the loop already) from the boat Bucket List who gave us some tips on the next phase of our trip including Tennessee and Florida.  By 7:30 I had to leave to get back to the boat to cook dinner.  Clark stayed for a while longer soaking up as much information for our trip as possible.

NOTE: I do not plan to post a blog tomorrow night as we are taking a small road trip tomorrow from Alton, IL, and I do not expect to have time to work on my blog.

Illinois River: Bar Island Anchorage to Grafton Harbor Marina

Day: 86
NM Today: 74
NM Total: 1782
Locks Today: 1
Locks Total: 78

I was up before the alarm this morning.  The alarm was set for 6:00 and I woke up at 5:55.  The combination of the sleep the day before and going to bed early left me ready to start the day earlier than usual which was a very good thing since we had a long day planned.  Before even eating breakfast I checked the website for the queue at LaGrange lock to see what tow traffic awaited us there.

Sunrise at Bar Island Anchorage
(Fryedaze boat in anchorage)

Bad news!  A single and a double tow arrived at the lock in the wee hours of the morning and had yet to lock through.  A single is a barge / tow that fits through the lock in one go.  A double is a barge / tow that is so large that it has to be split and put through the lock in two parts.  Thus, even though two tugs needed to push their loads downstream, three lock fills were required to get them all through.

Dave from Fryedaze called the lock from the anchorage to get a time estimate.  The lockmaster told him to get there at 8:30 and he would get us through.  So another day of hurry up and wait.  We decided collectively to leave the anchorage at 7:30 and mosey on down the 5 miles to the lock to get there well ahead of the stated 8:30 time.   Before we pulled up our anchors, however, we saw Always Home and Elizabear go by down the river.  They had stayed upstream where they could tie off to a barge for the night.

As we pulled out of the anchorage behind Elizabear he came on the VHF radio and told us to slow down because we had a long wait at the lock when we got there.  Clark did slow down, but the boat is not happy to go a very slow speed for a long time.  We felt it rude to pass him, so first Clark turned off one engine and ran only on one, so he could increase the RPM on that engine.  That still was not doing the trick, so a couple of times Clark turned around and went upstream for a short distance and then turned and came back downstream just, so he was not coming up so close on the stern of Elizabear as we traveled along.

I joked that he was doing a dosey-do and an Allemand left.  I thought that Dave on Fryedaze must wonder what the heck we thought we were doing.  Although he was not driving in circles, Dave had switched down one engine to increase the RPM on the other as we had done, so he seemed to be dealing with the same issues with his engine preferences.  When we got to within 2 miles of the lock, Elizabear stopped midstream to drift and wait for the lock to be ready.  We felt that we wanted to be closer to the lock when the doors opened, so we did pass him at that point and went to within a mile of the lock to drift while we waited our turn.

True to his word, at 8:30, the lockmaster told us he was preparing the lock for us.  The double load had just completed locking through.  The single load still sat at one side of the river upstream with us.  I am not sure why the single load did not lock through before the pleasure craft, but I was glad we could jump on the opportunity and be on our way.  We exited the lock at 9:15 and were truly on our way.

We had a long day's travel to our next stop.  Again the scenery repeated itself.  The area along the river appears to be wetlands, and I know that the river floods on occasion.  I became excited when I saw some campers in a park as that meant some form of civilization existed besides the wildlife. What I did not expect to see was those flocks of pelicans from a couple of days ago all flying in formation down the river over our heads.  I guess all the flocks got the word at the same time that it was time to head south.  The picture below captures 3 of the many V formations of pelicans that flew along the river with us for a very short distance.

Lots and lots of Pelicans flying in V formation
(Click and zoom to see pelicans)

As we traveled, we talked to Fryedaze who told us they had changed their travel plans to go directly to Grafton for the night.  We had originally talked about staying at the Hardin burned-out-restaurant dock.  The weather forecast of thunder / lightening storms convinced us to rethink that plan especially after we saw the dock arrangement.  Traveling to Grafton added another 20 miles to the trip but got us out of the path of the bad weather and to a more populated location.  We pushed on!

We arrived at Grafton just before 5:00.  When we walked up to register, we saw that the pool was still open with people taking advantage to cool off from the 90 degree heat.  Clark immediately started to drool as he wanted to go for a dip to cool off.  We decided to go to the boat, put on our suits, go for a dip, take a shower, and then grab dinner.  Well, that would normally work, except that in Grafton after Labor Day on a weekday like today, the town shuts down at 7:00.

We talked to Melinda and Bob from Melinda B who told us they planned to dine at the Aries restaurant purported to have the "best view in the midwest".  I wanted to join them, but Clark still wanted his swim and shower, so somewhat begrudgingly I agreed to his plan.  By the time we got into the pool it was already after 6:00.  We talked to a local sitting by the pool who confirmed that if we wanted to eat dinner in town tonight, we better get ourselves going because no one served food after 7:00.

We jumped into the showers and out again as quick as possible.  Then we called the restaurant to see if they would come get us with their shuttle service.  They pointed out that their kitchen closed in 10 minutes, so I asked them, since they seemed to be readily agreeable to coming to get us, if they came and got us would they feed us; otherwise, it seemed rather pointless for them to come get us.  The person on the phone checked with the kitchen who agreed to cook for us.

The shuttle bus driver was off duty, so our driver (the boyfriend of the owner's niece) showed up in an open jeep.  The climb up to the restaurant was very steep, and the jeep was a good vehicle to get us up there.  I found the ride thrilling in more ways than one.  First I'm not used to riding in a vehicle without doors.  Second I'm not used to the driver turning around and talking to the passengers in the back seat while he speeds up hills.  Third, I am not used to drivers ignoring the "one way, do not enter" signs on streets even if they are the fastest way to get somewhere.  It rather got the blood flowing to say the least!  What fun!

When we entered the restaurant, we found the folks from Melinda B, Island Office, and Tika seated at one of the tables.  They shifted around seats so that we could join them.  We had never met Tika before but we had met Island Office in Charlevoix, MI as Denise pointed out to us.  We had a lovely dinner with the six of them.  The "best view in the midwest" was a view of the join of the two rivers - Illinois and Mississippi as well as the night lights of St. Louis, MO on the far side of the river.

View from the Aries Restaurant in Grafton
Looking out over the Mississippi River

When it was time to leave to go back to the marina, the jeep driver took four of our party of eight as that was all he could fit.  His girlfriend (the owner's niece) convinced the other four of us to go back with her, so we did not get the thrilling jeep ride back down the hill.  She claimed that the ride down was more exciting than the ride up, but I guess we will never know if we agree with that assessment or not.

Clark and Bob from Melinda B decided we should walk the three blocks to the ice cream shop since Google said it was open until 9:00.  It lied.  The ice cream shop closed at 7:00 (big surprise).  Perhaps we will get back there tomorrow if weather permits.

Illinois River: Havana, IL to Bar Island Anchorage

Day: 85
NM Today: 31
NM Total: 1708
Locks Today: 0
Locks Total: 77

Today was an easy trip with no locks to deal with.  We left at 8:30 and arrived at our anchorage destination four hours later.  We once again traveled with Fryedaze.  At one point Dave called us on the VHF radio and told us to look over on the starboard side to see parent eagles and their three young eaglets.

Eagle Parent on left and 3 young on right
(click and zoom in for better view)

 Other than the excitement of the eagles, the scenery is rather repetitive with an occasional industrial site.  In other words, I found little to look at along the way.  I read my book on Kindle and I played my Alphabetty on my phone and looked up if Clark needed something.

Typical scenery along the river
(water, trees, and buoys)

We arrived at Bar Island just after noon.  I had made sandwiches just before arriving at the anchorage so as soon as we had dropped anchor, we enjoyed our picnic lunch on the fly bridge.

Bar Island on left - our anchorage for the night

I do not know if it was the sugar cookies I ate for dessert or the heat or the ennui of the boring ride, but I laid down on the bench seats on the fly bridge after lunch and fell asleep.  About an hour or two later I dragged myself to a sitting position.  I decided I needed to get out of the sun to avoid a sunburn, so I got up and went down below to get some orange juice to try to revive myself.

As I was drinking my OJ, I sat staring at the big comfy bed in the next room.  That did it.  After my juice I climbed into the bed and passed out yet again.  I woke up just about every hour, looked at my watch, said, "oh, it's an hour later", and then went back to sleep.  Clark finally told me at 5:30 that he was hungry, so I dragged myself out of the bed to make dinner.

I was so groggy that I felt like I had been drugged.  I was so tired even after sleeping more than four hours.  To cook dinner I had to get something out of the kitchen cupboard, so I sat on the floor to reach in there.  I swear it took me 5 minutes to get up the energy to stand up again.

I made the simplest dinner I could think of - steak, canned potatoes fried over, and leftover vegetables.  After the meal I finally started feeling like myself again, but still all I could think about was how long I needed to stay up before I could go to bed.  Clark was afraid I would be awake all night.  Hah!

Sunset at the Bar Island Anchorage

Since we knew we had a long day the next day with a wake up time of 6:00 a.m., we both went to bed early.  Yay!

Illinois: Peoria to Havana

Day: 83
NM today: 37
NM Total: 1677
Locks Today: 1
Locks Total: 77

Today was the classic example of "hurry up and wait" on the river.  We talked to our friends on Fryedaze who were at IVY (Illinois Valley Yacht Club) and got the word that the consensus from there meant a very early start to the day.  Contrary to our preferred mode of operation, we were up at sunrise today, and I took the picture below to prove it!

Sunrise in Peoria, IL

We had everything ready for a departure by 7:00 if needed.  When we talked to Dave on Fryedaze, he told us that the wait at the Peoria Lock was a full 8 hours due to the heavy barge traffic.  He said that Plane to Sea had left IVY at the crack of dawn to go sit at the lock and take his chances on getting locked through potentially along with a smaller barge load.

As we were considering what to do - resign ourselves to a second night at the Peoria dock or follow Plane to Sea's example, we saw them go by us on their way downstream.  Clark gave him about a half hour to get down to the lock itself and then he called him on his cell phone to get the scoop. Plane to Sea told Clark that they were led to believe that the lockmaster would find a way to get them through in between barges.  With that input, we decided to head down to the lock.  Worst case, we float around there for long enough to realize it is hopeless and come back upstream to Peoria for another night.  That choice was better than sitting and wondering all day long.

We finally left Peoria at 9:00 and arrived at the lock about 30 minutes later.  We sat just upstream of the lock waiting for our turn.  As we waited, Elizabear and Always Home joined Plane to Sea and us in the wait for the lock.  After drifting there for an hour and a half, we got the word that the lockmaster planned on doing a pleasure boater lock through to push us on our way.  Clark called Fryedaze to find out their location on the river and let them know that the pleasure boat turn was coming up shortly.

As Clark was talking to Fryedaze, the gates opened and we received the signal to start loading the lock.  We could see Fryedaze coming round the bend, so we figured they would make it in as well. The lockmaster told us not to bother tying up in the lock and just float there as the water dropped us the 10 feet down.  The four of us that had been waiting pulled into the lock and then along came Fryedaze and tucked themselves in as well.  Yay!  We all made it!

Coming out of Peoria, IL Lock
Plane to Sea first (not in picture), Sea Moss 2nd (our kayak in picture),
Elizabear 3rd, Always Home 4th, and Fryedaze 5th

 Besides continuously weaving around tows for the trip downstream today, we came across a complete "road" block as we came to a dredging site.  At first the site manager told us to wait until he pulled his boat over to the extreme right, and then we could go around.  Before he got his boat to the side, however, he discovered that a huge barge followed along behind the pleasure boat flotilla.

With that knowledge he had the crew break apart the dredging pipe and move the sections to either side of the river.  We went right down the middle!  As we moved on we heard yet another barge call the dredging manager, who told him, "Come on down and we'll make it a triple header!"

"Road" Block on the river with dredging activity

We finally pulled into the Tall Timber Marina in Havana, Illinois at 3:15.  Because we plan on several days of travel without the benefit of marina restroom facilities, we stopped at the main dock for a pump out of our holding tank to make sure we are empty.  As we waited for that job to finish, the other boats started showing up.

The crew at Tall Timber consists of the owner who does everything and his brother who is just another set of hands to help.  Bob from Tall Timber told the other boats to wait out in the river until he was done with us, so that he could help them dock.  Based on size of boats, he told us to stay put at the pump out dock, so he could get a much larger boat in first.

That boat, Elizabear, tried to get into the marina and failed.  With the type of vessel they have they needed more water than the entrance to the marina offered.  We had no problem as we need 3'8", but they need over 5' of water, and they just could not do it.  The owner of the marina told them where they could find an anchorage for the night.  It appeared that this was a somewhat common occurrence for him.

The next boat in line, Always Home, managed to make it into the cozy little marina.  To get into the slip, he used the bow thrust-er which really stirred up the silver carp.  They were jumping all over the place.  I heard one slam into the side of our boat.  At least two landed on the docks.  The owner just picked them up by hand and threw them back in the river.  He put one practically in my face to show me how lovely they look up close.  I was not impressed!

I do not know where Plane to Sea went today as their night's destination.  They passed by Tall Timber, so in the end, it was just the three of us loopers that stayed here.  Later, a non-looper came in and docked next to Fryedaze.  Originally the owner told us he would dock us next to Always Home, but when we saw the width of their boat and the width of ours combined compared to the width of the slip, we had him reconsider that decision.  He agreed to put us over on the side by ourselves.

After the fish settled down and we got ourselves situated, Clark and I took off on our bicycles to go to the food store for some much-needed provisions.  Thank goodness we have bikes.  Initially, when we asked about a food store, the marina owner told us where we could find the Dollar Store to buy whatever we needed except of course produce and fresh meat - the two things at the top of my list!   The bike ride to the County Market takes 11 minutes according to Google Maps, so we grabbed our backpacks and went out to get groceries and have a look-see around town.

On our way we saw a sign pointing the way to the historic water tower which celebrated its 150th birthday in 2003.  The tower is still in use and holds 50,000 gallons of water to supply the town.  It was named an Historic Water Site in 1982.

Havana, Illinois Historic Water Tower

The main street of Havana, Illinois is cobblestone.  It rather made my teeth rattle to ride my bike on it, but it was an interesting piece of preserved history.  Clark had inquired at the marina and learned that Grandpa's on Main Street in town sold hard ice cream, so after our trip to the food market, we stopped there before returning to the boat.

Cobblestone Main Street in Havana, IL

Interesting architecture for store on Main St.
"Ma's Got a Notion" Quilt Shop

 As we rode out to the food store Clark saw a park along the river that he wanted to explore before returning to the boat.  The park was very picturesque with a board walk view of the river.

Riverside Park in Havana, IL

When we got back to the boat, I put away the perishable food and then made dinner.  While I was doing that, Clark chatted with Dave from Fryedaze.  He got the low-down on IVY.  It seems that it was real cozy in that private yacht club.  After hearing some  of the tales of staying there, I am very glad we opted for the Peoria town dock.

BTW: We did get digital TV in Peoria.  Since it was a Monday night, we got to watch one of my favorite shows - "So You Think You Can Dance".  I didn't get to see as many episodes this season as I like because TV availability was so hit and miss.  I am happy I got to see last night's episode which was the season finale!

Illinois: Lower Henry Anchorage to Peoria Town Dock

Day: 82

Travel Time: 3.5 hours

NM Today: 27

NM Total: 1640

Locks today: 0

Locks Total: 76

Most loopers stop at IVY, Illinois Valley Yacht club, in Peoria, Illinois, but through talking with locals, Clark learned that local boaters stay at the Peoria town dock for free, so he decided that would be today’s destination.  As agreed the night before, we left at 8:00 and traveled down river with Fryedaze.

Along the river we see a variety of birds – hawks, eagles, sea gulls, and herons.  Today, off in the distance we saw a huge flock of white birds, but we could not tell the species from the distance.  Finally we got close enough to one of the birds.  Clark asked if it was a swan since it was very large and white.  When I looked closely, I said, “No, I can’t believe I’m seeing it, but that is a pelican”.  Of course I grabbed my phone and checked out pelicans in Wikipedia.  Apparently they travel in huge flocks.  As we traveled downstream in the Chillicothe area, we saw numerous, large flocks of pelicans.

Flock of Pelicans on Illinois River
(only part of the flock is shown in the picture)

Traveling downstream, we passed through Upper Peoria Lake which was quite choppy due to strong winds.  Clark mentioned that if we were still in Michigan, it would have been a “no go” type of day.  Shortly thereafter, we waved farewell to Fryedaze who are staying at IVY for the night.  We agreed to touch base in the morning regarding departure time as they will pass by us on their way to Peoria Lock, and we can lock through together and continue our coordinated travels.  We can call the lock from here to find out if we should start on our way or hang out for a bit before leaving.

We found the Peoria town docks shortly after the Interstate 74 bridge.  Immediately I noticed a lot of road noise from the trucks “overhead”.  With the salon door closed, however, it is hardly noticeable inside the boat.   Docking was interesting as most docks here are designed for a boat less than 28 feet long.  We measure 39’ bow-to-stern.  Luckily there are a few designated spots for larger vessels such as ours. 

We saw the boxes indicating power availability along one long dock, so we headed for that dock.  I was still prepping my fenders and lines when a strong wind pushed us over to the dock in a big hurry.  I barely got my last fender down on the starboard side before we hit the dock.  I figured the fender was more important than the lines as the wind would hold us fast until we got lines tied.  After we landed, Clark jumped off the boat ready to help with lines, but when I looked around, I said, “What do we tie to?”  No cleats or rings or any other hardware presented itself. 

I looked around some more and saw that another dock for larger boats did have hardware and pointed that out to Clark.  With the change of venue, I had to move all my lines and fenders from starboard to port.  As I worked that out, Clark rotated the boat to position the bow into the wind.  I was never so thankful to have taken boating classes than I was today docking the boat while fighting the wind.  Clark took multiple passes by the dock to get us in close enough.  As soon as it got within my reach, I used the boat hook to get a line around a dock cleat and tied at mid-ships.  Once I got a wrap on the cleat I yelled, “I have a mid!” whereby Clark ran down to help with getting on a stern and bow line.  In the pre-class days I would have tried to “lasso” the cleat by heaving the line at it.  Eventually the lasso approach succeeds, but it usually takes multiple frustrating tries to get a hit especially fighting the wind which typically blows the line in the wrong direction.

After getting the boat secured, Clark went to check out the “marina rules” and talk to folks about staying overnight when the posted signs clearly state it is not allowed.  I made lunch while he was gone, and then I ate lunch while he was gone.  I started wondering where he had gotten to when he finally showed up back at the boat with “the scoop”.  As before, he was told by locals to ignore the signs and not feed the meters at the pay stations since they do not work.  Once we were both done with lunch, we went exploring Peoria.

The one thing I had seen that caught my eye as of interest in Peoria is the Caterpillar Visitor Center.  Apparently that caught Clark’s eye as well since we both made straight for that destination.  Caterpillar has a multiple-building complex plus a multi-level parking garage for its Peoria employees.  The tour showing Caterpillar products is in a stand-alone building.  We found the display educational and fun with videos and hands-on simulations.  

I tried my hand at simulated ditch-digging to fill in a pipe-filled ditch.  I failed miserably the first time as I only managed to lift the equipment up in the air (the cab - not the bucket) and move no dirt whatsoever.  After listening to the instructions twice more, I still only succeeded in moving no more than a few spoonfuls of dirt at a time when the simulation told me to let someone else have a turn.  I wanted to stay for more playing!

Caterpillar complex

Clark standing next to tire of a mining truck built by Caterpillar
Each tire weighs several thousand tons

I decided to try driving a much smaller Cat

Here I am using the simulator to fill the ditch - fail!

After spending an hour at the Caterpillar exhibits, we decided that we should at least try to see more of Peoria.  For some place to use as a destination, we decided to walk to a food market that showed up when we looked in Google Maps.  What we saw from the bridge looked quite nice.

View of Peoria taken from bridge over highway

However, as soon as we crossed over the bridge to get to the store, I started to get a bad feeling.  Less than a half a block later, I told Clark that we were not in the good part of town.  We made an about face and walked back over that bridge fast. 

Since groceries were not essential, we abandoned the food agenda item completely.  Instead of going directly back to the boat Clark took me to an ice cream store for a refreshing treat.  On his earlier explorations, he found an ice cream store selling hard ice cream.  In my blog a couple of days ago, I mentioned that he passed on the soft serve.  After a quick sampling test, he got a “single serve” waffle cone with both vanilla ice cream and raspberry sorbet.  I got a strawberry / raspberry / orange juice smoothie made from 100% real fruit.  We were both very happy!

After our treat, I suggested we come back to the boat to relax.  I worked on the blog, and he did travel planning and read the Wall Street Journal on his iPad to find out what is new in the world.  It seems so easy to forget the rest of the world exists as we float downstream.  Every once in a while we need to look up and see what is happening elsewhere.  Watching television for the news has proven to be challenging as many places we get zero view-able stations.  Certainly we had zero in our anchorage last night but also zero in the Ottawa marina since we could not be bothered to plug into their cable connection.  Perhaps Peoria has digital television stations?!

Illinois: Ottawa to Lower Henry Anchorage

Day: 81 (9/13/2015)
NM Today: 43
NM Total: 1614
Locks Today: 1
Locks Total: 76

When I woke in the morning, I thought our plan to continue our voyage downstream today may be delayed due to heavy fog covering the marina.

Fog at Heritage Harbor Marina
Ottawa, Illinois
(Our boat has the green kayak)

Fortunately, with a breeze and bright sun, the fog cleared rapidly, and we were able to be on our way by 9:00 which was reasonably close to our original planned departure time.  We coordinated our departure plans with Fryedaze the night before to lock through together.  Just before we pulled out of our slips, however, Always Home also pulled out of the marina.  The three boats locked through together at Starved Rock Lock.

We almost missed our opportunity to lock through with them though as Clark was busy station-keeping, i.e. making sure his boat didn't go too far up / downstream or out of the channel.  He managed to balance the boat mid-stream such that the opposing forces of the wind and the current held the boat in one place.  I heard the whistle blow to signal the lock ready, but we didn't start moving.  I saw that the other two boats had moved on and were now much further downstream, so I pestered the captain of our boat about why we were sitting there.  He proceeded to tell me about his clever station-keeping.

I repeated my, "But why are we still sitting here?" question twice more before he finally "woke up" and got my meaning.  Then he got the boat in gear and zipped down and into the lock to tie up. When we got in there, Dave from Fryedaze said he thought we had broken down since we were sitting sideways in the river and not moving when the all clear sounded to load the lock.  I told him, "the captain was asleep on the job".

In truth Clark thought the boat in the lock was exiting downstream and that we had to wait for a complete cycle for our turn. If I hadn't nagged at him, we would have had to wait that cycle and possibly more since we found a barge coming towards the lock from the other way on the river when we exited the lock.  If large, the tows can take multiple cycles to complete  a lock through.

Traveling downstream, we have moved on from the heavy industrialization we saw along the river up near Chicago.  We still see various plants scattered along the way however.  We passed one today that smelled so bad it made my eyes water and my nose run instantaneously.  Later talking to the folks on Fryedaze I found out that it was a fertilizer plant.  I cannot imagine who could work there or what their health may be like if they do.  It was just awful, and I couldn't wait for the boat to get further along the river and out of smell range, so I could once again breathe freely.

I mentioned in my Chicago blog entry about the Asian Carp and their propensity to leap out of the water and occasionally land on passing boats.  Well, we have now seen many jumping carp.  Many varieties of invasive carp exist in the U.S., but the one that jumps is the Silver Carp.  They can jump up to 10 feet in the air.  I haven't seen any do that well, but I have now seen many jump several feet into the air (3 feet or so mostly).

I read on Wikipedia that catching carp by standard fishing / angling methods is nearly impossible due to their habits of digging down into the muddy bottom.  However, clever sports enthusiasts have come up with other means of challenging themselves.  Part of an official fishing tournament now is catching the most jumping carp in fishing nets -  not the kind you drag through the water.  I didn't read about it on Wikipedia, but I saw several men in a boat today using crossbows to shoot the fish as they jumped out of the water.  They generate noise / vibration to aggravate the fish to make them jump and then shoot them with an arrow when they come up out of the water.

Bow and Arrow Shooting of
Silver Carp

We targeted Henry, Illinois as our destination for the night.  As we came to Henry's Marina we slowed down to take a look.   From reading email from our looper friends, we had heard that the wall was rough and not worth the marina fee to stay there.  We have stayed on some rough walls but this one "took the cake"!  We decided to pass on this wall opportunity!

Old Lock Wall at Henry's Marina
Zoom in to see the uneven wall and rough edges!

We continued on by Upper Henry Island anchorage as we noticed that it was not well protected from boat traffic wakes, and instead, opted to anchor behind Lower Henry Island.  It turned out to be a lovely, peaceful little spot for the night.  We had a little concern with the anchor line as proper "scope" on an anchor is 7:1 meaning for every one foot of depth of water, seven feet of line should be deployed.  The water measured a depth of about 15 feet.  15 x 7 = 105'.  The anchorage area behind Lower Henry precludes that kind of line length.  If the boat swings around, as it normally does on an anchor due to winds and current, we could end up with the back of the boat sitting on land.

We positioned ourselves roughly in the middle of the waterway and used our eyeballs to guesstimate whether we could stand a swing of 360 degrees should winds shift, etc.  The captain said it looked okay, so we watched for a while until we were comfortable and then deployed the dinghy to go exploring.  Near to Henry's there is a wildlife preserve.  I read online that fishing and hunting on the preserve are allowed if the water is deep enough to get a boat in there.  We decided to go check it out.

First we stopped by to say hello to Dave and Betsy on Fryedaze.  That hello turned into an almost two-hour travel plans chat with Betsy and Clark comparing their notes on where to go and what to see.  We came away from that conversation satisfied that we had good plans as far as they went, but Betsy had planned well beyond Clark, so we took away good ideas for stops further downstream.

When we finally climbed back into our dinghy and looked back at our boat, I nearly panicked.  Sea Moss had swung so far to one side that it looked like it was most likely sitting on the shore.  We could see it was still on anchor.  What we couldn't tell was  what was behind Sea Moss - water or land!  Clark zipped over in the dinghy to take a look.  Sea Moss was floating!  He said that, using the depth finder on his dinghy, the water depth behind the boat was four feet.  No problem since we only need 3 and 1/2 feet of water, so we had a full 6 inches to spare.

Still I made Clark get out of the dinghy and check the anchor line as I wasn't comfortable that she would stay floating.  The anchor line was somewhat slack and I was concerned that any further wind would push us all the way to the edge and the pile of trees sitting there.  Clark shortened the anchor line to a scope of 5:1.

Having settled that, we piled back into the dinghy to go find our preserve.  For some reason Clark thought it was upstream on the right.  It wasn't.  It was downstream on the left, but regardless of that we never got there.  Upstream on the right we found the entrance to a lake.  When we tried to get in there to look around, figuring it closely resembled a preserve, we saw that the depth finder showed zero feet of water.  The depth finder sensor sits a couple of inches below the boat bottom, so we were still floating but we cannot use the outboard in 2 inches of water.  We abandoned our exploration and headed back to Sea Moss.

As we motored around the area, we found that the silver carp did not particularly like our outboard, and several carp jumped out of the water on either side of the boat as we motored along making me jump and screech.  Having read that people have suffered broken bones, concussion, and other injuries when hit by a flying carp, I was nervous being so low down in the water next to them jumping.  Clark gave me the fin part of the dinghy paddle (not the whole paddle mind you) to wack one if it came too close to coming in the boat.  I am sure the paddle fin would have done me no good whatsoever; however, armed and dangerous, I felt ready to take them on like a solid contender in a cricket match!

Normally I enjoy exploration in the dinghy, but between worry over the anchor for Sea Moss and combating flying fish, I suggested we call it quits, put the dinghy away, and make dinner before it got too dark to see the stove.  I hate that it gets dark so early in this timezone!

When we sat down to eat, I finally had a chance to check my cell phone and see that my son, Chris, had called earlier while I was cooking.  After dinner I called him back, and we chatted for a good long time as he drove to his temporary work location in Boston.  As we talked I noticed that stars were popping out all over the sky, and I mentioned to him that I wished I knew what I was looking at. I used to know more, but my current knowledge of constellations is sadly lacking due to lack of use. Living in New Jersey close to NYC means stars are a scarcity.

Chris suggested I try a constellation app on my phone.  I found StarTracker which is pretty darn cool. Using built in capabilities of the phone, it allows the user to aim the phone at the sky and the appropriate constellation appears based on location, direction, height, etc.  Using the app I found Ursa Major (of course - I had that one without the app), Ursa Minor and the North Star, Cassiopeia, Hercules (which I did not know existed), Aquarius (for my birthday in January), and Capricorn (near Aquarius in the sky).  I found others too that I had never heard of.  I looked for Orion's Belt (the other constellation I remember), and either I did not look in the right place or it was not visible in this place at this time.

With no WiFi and very low cell service, I decided to take the night off from blogging and hit the bed early.  We arranged with Fryedaze to be under way at 8:00 on Monday (I know that is sleeping in to most loopers - but not us).  Getting some sleep sounded like a great plan.

Illinois: Ottawa

After closing up the house, we left sunny New Jersey on the 8th of September with temperatures in the 90s.  We stopped in Youngstown, Ohio and stayed at the same hotel where we stayed going east to NJ.  The Hampton Inn there provides a refrigerator and a microwave.  Since I had a lot of food that needed to be kept cold, this hotel seemed the perfect choice.  In fact we cooked up leftovers from NJ and ate in our hotel room.  After 7 hours in the car neither of us felt like going out in the car to look for a restaurant.

We arrived in overcast and wet Ottawa, Illinois on the 9th with temperatures in the 60s.  Still wearing our shorts when we arrived, we noticed the significant difference.

Rainbow seen from our boat at the marina upon our return

Storm clouds over the Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa, IL

Friday turned into a chores day.  Clark changed the impeller on the port engine (the starboard engine was done before we went home to NJ).  After finishing the impeller job, he moved onto changing the oil in both engines.  Fortunately he changed his clothes to old work clothes before starting these jobs. The engine work he did was the messiest I've ever seen, and I've seen some good messes made on the boat while engine work is being done.

First the oil Xchanger hose splattered used oil over his shirt and shorts.  Then when he was filling the engines with new oil, he managed to spill some over his shoes and socks, so every article of clothing from head to foot had oil spilled on it.  I was tempted to take a picture of him for the blog but decided against it.  What a sight!  I tried soaking the clothes in a tub of Wisk, but the stains look like they will be permanent additions and render the clothes good for nothing other than the next oil change.

As Clark completed his boat chores, I stayed near in standby mode to help him.  Basically that turned into a lot of waiting around and then a lot of handing him paper towels to clean up either himself or the engine compartment.  When the jobs were done, Clark surprised me by saying we would eat out for dinner after he got back from taking a shower to clean himself up.  We talked to the Harbor Master who recommended a steak and seafood restaurant called Monte's relatively close to the marina.

We decided not to get dessert at the restaurant, but instead looked up ice cream stores in Ottawa on Google.  We found two candidates.  We went first to Tone's Cones.  They had a large selection of "flavors" listed on the board, but the flavors turned out to be toppings to put on the soft serve chocolate / vanilla ice cream.  Clark wanted hard ice cream, so we went to the Triple J on the other side of town.  The Triple J only served soft ice cream as well, and the toppings selection was no where near as plentiful as Tone's Cones.  I got a vanilla with peanuts.  Clark passed disgruntled at the lack of hard ice cream.  He was spoiled in Michigan where every town had hard ice cream in at least 20 flavors and one place we stopped at boasted a choice of 60 flavors.

Grocery shopping became our final chore of the day which we completed after the failed ice cream search.  We had a choice of a couple of stores including Walmart.  We went to Kroger's and got some basics that did not come back from NJ with us like milk and eggs.

We hoped that Saturday would be a relaxing, do-nothing day until we started to compile the list of odd jobs that needed to be done before leaving Ottawa and heading downstream.  We had to dispose of the old oil from the engines, mail some letters at the post office, find the UPS store to mail in the oil and antifreeze samples from the boat to be tested, glue the trim on a cabinet, try washing the oily clothes from the day before, return the rental car, and a fix the latch on my clothes closet.

Besides all the miscellaneous tasks to be completed, for all that the boat has been in Ottawa longer than any other stop on the trip, we had yet to see the town in daylight.  I wanted / needed exercise desperately from all the sitting around in the car for two days straight.  When we went into town to find the post office and UPS store, we decided to play tourist and take the walking tour of the town.  Boy am I glad we took the time to do that.  The town is rich in history and much more interesting than I would ever have guessed.

Either I never knew or I had forgotten that the first of the Abraham Lincoln / Stephen Douglas debates took place in Ottawa, Illinois in Washington Square.  A crowd of 14,000 people filled the park to hear their debate.

Washington Square Statue / Fountain depicting
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debate

Commemorative Plaque in Washington Square Park
explaining how Lincoln came to be elected

From Washington Square we took the walking tour of town to see the historic buildings and the murals in town illustrating the town's rich history.  Multiple themed murals show life in Ottawa from the Indians hunting buffalo to relatively modern communication and travel.

Zoom in to see the History of Communication
starting with rudimentary. Indian hand gestures

Through newspaper printing presses and film strips
to black and white TV and finally personal computers
(the mural was completed in 2002 so no iPad was shown)

Another interesting selection was the "Ottawa celebrating the 1950s" mural.

Zoom in to see the detail of 1950s Ottawa, IL
The mural is painted on a building next to the
actual ones shown in the mural

After our stroll around town and a quick stop at the farmer's market to purchase the most delicious peanut butter cookies I've ever eaten, we headed back to the boat for lunch.  Using the notes gleaned from numerous emails of fellow loopers (so grateful to be on that email chain), we managed to put together a basic plan for the next few days on our travel down the river system including marina choices and anchorage stops.

Our next job for today was to return the rental car.  All told,  we logged over 2300 miles on the car!  I certainly learned that I'd never buy a Chrysler if they were all like that one!  I hated the dial-a-gear.  Every time I wanted to put the car in reverse I turned up the fan as both circular knobs were next to each other! 

Clark inquired at the marina office about using the courtesy car only to find that it was not available as someone had taken it out.  Plan B was put into effect!  We took our bicycles with us to the Enterprise drop off spot, so we could bike back to the boat.  Of course we took the scenic route along the I&M Canal Passage and the Ottawa Riverwalk trails.

We biked about a mile to get to the I&M Canal Passage
and then followed it until we passed over the Fox River

Then we turned off the canal trail and
followed the Riverwalk along the river into town

Fox River near Ottawa Town Dock

Reflections on Fox River

The ride back to the boat was glorious - not too hot, not too cold and relatively flat.  I found that my legs have not forgotten how to go up and down.  I worried that the lack of bike riding for the last two weeks would have weakened my stamina, but I found I was good to go and just relaxed and enjoyed the ride back to the boat.

We restart our downstream movement tomorrow.  Fryedaze came into Heritage Harbor tonight.  We are departing with them in the morning and will enjoy having a buddy boat for our trip to Henry's anchorage for the night.  Fortunately, like us, they believe in leaving at a civilized hour in the morning.  Betsy reminded me that we first saw them in "The Pool" in Canada but never had a chance to meet.  She confirmed that she knew who I was when she asked me, "didn't you flip your kayak there?"  What a great way to be remembered!

Sadly another boat, Mist, came limping into the marina tonight after having missed the entrance to Heritage Harbor marina and running aground hard on rocks.  The harbor master took out a boat to "rescue" them and bring them back to the marina.  He scheduled a scuba diver to come out to see the bottom of their boat to assess damage.  They have been on the loop for under one week having started out from Wisconsin right after Labor Day.  They expect to be out of commission for a while as repairs take place on their props and possibly shaft.