Good Morning Illinois River Travelers!!  Remember all of us along the Joliet Wall last night?  It was rather peaceful, actually.  Tows went up and down the river but they didn’t rock our boat too much at all.  Occasionally, I would awaken with the rumbling of the tow engines but I would go back to sleep right away.

One of the Loopers volunteered to make a phone call at 7am to the next lock to check the availability of getting all of us Loopers through.  Then the Looper would relay the message to all the boats.  If we know what the status of the lock – how many tows are scheduled to lock through – we would stay on the wall until it was time to lock through. No need to rush up there and wait when we have a perfectly good wall to wait on.  The Joliet wall is 2 miles away from the lock.  We didn’t need to make phone calls individually.  That would have really upset the lock master.  Anyway, people started buzzing about their boats right at 7am.  The lock master told us we need to get to his lock right away!!  For two reasons.  The Jefferson Street Drawbridge closes from 7:15am – 8:15am for rush hour.  The second reason is he would lock us all down together.  No waiting!!  We needed to move!!

All the boats along the Joliet Wall.

Wayne and I have never un-docked, thrown our lines, left the marina/wall so fast in our life!!  We were ready to get off the wall within 15 minutes.  Record time.  First us then the rest of the boats peeled off the wall.  A total 8 boats went in a fleet under the bridge and into the Brandon Road Lock.

Jefferson Street Drawbridge up and waiting for us to go under at 7:23am.

Approaching the Brandon Road Lock

We had floating bollards in this lock.  Very nice.  You loop your line around the pipe that floats.  As the water is lowered in the lock, the bollard lowers also.  So easy on us.  A quick toss to capture the bollard at our mid cleat.  A piece of cake, actually!

 Unfortunately, there are not enough bollards for all the boats, so several of us rafted together.  A very gentle ride down 34 feet.

In Brandon Road Lock

Leaving the Brandon Road Lock with Tow as last occupant

As you can see, this area is still quite industrial.  Lots of barges hugging the river edges, factories loading their wares onto barges, and tows ( not tugs ) moving commerce up and down the river.  We overheard a tow captain tell a lock master “yesterday I took 3 empties up river.  I took 2 filled with manganese and 1 with urea down river.”   Fascinating!  Just like rail road cars…but on water!!

We had to slow down several time to allow tows move barges around the high traffic areas.  We saw tows shoving barges sideways to get it closer to the next barge.  Like stacking and organizing the next load.

The “Mary C” being busy!

Smith Bridge – I55 Highway

Did I tell you we have 3 locks to go through today?  The first one was so easy, I was excited that maybe all of the locks would be open and ready for the “fleet”.  Alas, that wasn’t to be. When the first Looper boat got to the Dresden Lock he relayed back to us that it would be an 1.5 hour delay as a tow was being locked down.  After that time had passed, again one Looper called the lock master to get an update.  The Lock master told us we had another 1.5hour wait.  We waited up river of the lock for 3 hours.  One of the boats found some place to tie up.  Most of the Loopers put an anchor in the water.  We hovered in the middle of Illinois River.  We really didn’t expect the wait to be so long.  The water was pretty flat with a mild current.  The wind wasn’t blowing too strong so holding our boat in the middle of the channel wasn’t too hard.  Not too hard on me.  Wayne was doing all the work.  🙂

A small marina near the Dresden Lock

See all those water plants?  They had huge leaves.  Very healthy.  Don’t get too close or they will grab your props and not let go!   We left some of the industry behind and have more green trees and fields around us.  Very nice change.

By the way, in those 3 hours of waiting we so no other water craft.  No barge.  No jet ski.  No kayak or canoe.  Nothing but us Loopers.  Curious.

Finally, we were able to lock through.  We rafted again in the Dresden Lock.  The weather stopped raining so it was easier on us line handlers ( mostly the gals ) to get the boats set.

Leaving the Dresden Lock at 1.15pm

An interesting site along the Illinois River.  Rulers on the bridges.  Not the customary sign we saw in the ICW where we could tell the distance from the bottom of the bridge to the water level.  Here the bridges give the water depth to the bottom of the bridge.  In this case, you would know that the water reached 15 feet from the bridge.  That would also imply that over 30 feet of water height was going under the bridge for that much water to hide the ruler.  Curious.

Why are barges just sitting along the river bank?   I wondered if these have GPS trackers on them.  Would anyone know they are just sitting here along the river edge?  In the middle of nowhere?  Are they lost?  Like sidelined rail cars.  Are these full or empty?  Curious.

After a 3 hour wait, we were wondering if we would meet the tow that kept us waiting so long.  When we got through the Dresden Lock there was no tow/barge.  Nothing.  Ahhh, we finally came up on a barge pushing a set of 3 barges ahead of it.  Thank goodness!!  Untying these 3 sets, locking through one at a time, would indeed take at least 3 hours.  

Our first Deer in Illinois! – not in the least bit interested in the Fleet

There were a couple of Loopers that always want to go faster than some of the others.  They radio’d back to us slow pokes the Marseilles lock was going to open in 30 minutes.  Put the pedal to the medal and get there fast!!  We all increased our speed a bit.  We heard in another 20 minutes the same message.  We had over 40 minutes to go our 10 miles.  We were going as fast as we could.  Luckily for us slow pokes, we glided into the lock.  They waited for us for 10-15 minutes.  We are so thankful for such generous Loopers and Lock Master.  It is approaching 4pm.  It was getting late in the day and we hoped we would not have to wait another 3 hours or more to lock through.

Approaching the Marseilles Lock

Looking back up river

I know you were wondering about the lock walls.  Since I was just minding our boat lines going down gently 26 feet in the Marseilles Lock, I made particular note of the walls.  These have gunk, slime, mold growth.  There is a lot less than in the locks we have seen previously.  No snails.  No weeds.  Just a healthy collection of slimy mess.

Lock wall slime!!

5 of the Fleet were staying in the same marina for the night.  Heritage Harbor.  We patiently waited our turn as each one was given a slip number and directions.  Heritage Harbor had a very good staff on hand to rush to each boat and help with the lines.

Entering Heritage Harbor Marina at 4:46pm

Safe and Sound.  A good day on the water, after all.  We are planning to be here for 2 nights.  Exhausted, we met other Loopers for dinner, laughs, and tall tales.