Good Morning, Cruisers and Loopers!!  We are planning an easy day today.  About a 35 mile day.  After the last couple of long days, it is time for an easy day, right?  We are expecting light winds in the morning hours of about 8 mph that will peak at 16 mph later in the afternoon.  Our plan is to get to Beardstown before the wind gets too high and makes docking more challenging.  We wake to low 60°F after the cold front moved through.

Leaving Tall Timbers Marina – off to the right – see the poles? That is the inlet

We had a blissfully quiet night.  Tall Timbers is a small marina that offers transient space.  A great stop on the way down the river.  A bit shallow for many boats.  We did churn up muddy waters on our way out.  Wayne was able to back out of our slip, do another 180 turn and head out.  Of course, all the boat owners ( many of them Loopers) had to come out to watch.  Masterful!!  I am still in awe of Wayne’s docking, turning, and undocking skills.

The part of the Illinois River is a mixture of industrial plants and trees.  Fascinating mixture.

Hold your breath!! They are filling a barge!

I am not sure whether this is a castle like in the Highlander movie? A fort with windows on top to fight against the pirates, the British, the Indians? or a Grain storage with breathing holes at the top?  Maybe a lighthouse with the light out?  It is tall, though.  Curious.

The Skipper Bob’s book on cruising from Chicago to Mobile mentions a stop, if you have time, at the Logsdon Tug Service.  It is a company that tows barges within a 40 mile radius.  They consider themselves the middle men.  They bring barges from local industry to this location for the big haulers to pick up and take up/down the rivers.

The Logsdon Tug Service offers a side of one of the barges parked outside of their river front for transients to stay over.  No services.  No electricity, no water.  Just a safe place to tie up for the night.  We first docked … since it wasn’t a dock… we barged our Always Home along the “grey top” barges in this picture.  When the other Looper came to stop also, we were asked to move over behind them to the “red top” barge.  The reason?  At midnight a tow is expected to stop by and “pick up” the two grey tops.  We wouldn’t want to have to move Always Home at midnight, would we?  Absolutely not!  Midnight?  OK!

Grey top barges are full.

I was given a tour of this tall tow.  Huge engine room.  No, I didn’t take pictures.  I was just tickled to be given a tour.  Up to the fly bridge 3 stories high.  A great view of the football field of barges this tow pushes down/up the river.

The barges similar to the grey top above holds the equivalent to 60 semi-truck worth of goods.  That means for every barge there is 60 less semi-trucks on the highway.  60!!

OR  Each barge holds equivalent to 16 – 100 ton railroad cars.  Who knew?!?!  It is amazing the complex commerce the rivers encompass.  I didn’t know these statistics.  The Logston Tug Service Manager/Owner was kind enough to tell us all about his service and the river system.

The barges traffic help keep the river clean and deep enough for other deep draft boats to use.  Otherwise the river would silt in over time and become less useful.  The picture below of the upriver railroad bridge is an example.  The right side, which looks newer (less rusty),  used to have a very nice marina behind it.  The sand and silt moved in and there is no longer a marina located there.  Just took less than 10 years for the river to reclaim it’s shoreline property.

You see that ruler near the tall pilings in front of the tow?  The ruler goes up to 31 feet.  Do you see the water line mark above the 29 number?  in 2013, the river crested at 29.8 feet!!  Amazing!!

The afternoon was rather quiet.  The few tows that came by pushing their barges really didn’t wake us at all.  The local fishermen in their little skiffs created more waves.

Looking up river

Down river from our back door

For you Verizonwireless users, this area is a very low reception area.  I thought our phones were broken or the service cut off at first.  Fascinating.  No wifi either.  Boy, am I a spoiled cruiser?!?!

Sunset in Beardstown 9