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.
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| Rainbow seen from our boat at the marina upon our return |
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| Storm clouds over the Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa, IL |
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.
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| Washington Square Statue / Fountain depicting Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debate |
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| 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.
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| Zoom in to see the History of Communication starting with rudimentary. Indian hand gestures |
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| 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) |
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| 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 |
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.
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.
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| We biked about a mile to get to the I&M Canal Passage and then followed it until we passed over the Fox River |
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| Then we turned off the canal trail and followed the Riverwalk along the river into town |
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| Fox River near Ottawa Town Dock |
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| Reflections on Fox River |
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.
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