mvalwayshome

Good Morning late risers!!  You missed the sunrise!!  It was glorious.  I think.  I slept through it, myself.  This is a chore, nap, and grocery store day!!  Wayne will be doing the laundry.  I will be doing the blogging.  We both will be reading up on the road ahead.

The Heritage Marina has a nice courtesy car that we borrowed to go the Walmart.  We needed a few items.  Nice little town of Ottawa.   Wayne was concerned because I had Google Maps go one way from the marina to Walmart and I took a different path back. A bit of exploring as we drove around the town.  I saw a couple of murals in the downtown area.  I was only able to capture one mural through the front windshield.  Very nice.

A nice relaxing day at the marina.  An excellent marina if anyone wants to know.  I don’t know why I didn’t take more pictures during our stay there.  Sometimes, that happens to me.

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.

Good Morning, ex-Lake Michigan cruisers!!  We are leaving the Lake behind and venturing into the Western River System.  Exciting times ahead!

Sunrise in Hammond, IN

Sun saying hello there Cruisers. Time to get started!

Goodbye X-Dock! We had a great time meeting all of you!

By the way, the Horseshoe Casino has a great buffet.  I loaded up on all the seafood I could find.  Excellent desserts to top off our meal.

Into the Calumet Harbor!  We are following Elizabear and Corsair today.  We are going to Joliet today.  We hope that with the three of us, the bridges and locks will be easier to contend with.  That means, the locks may accommodate three pleasure craft and let us lock down rather than just one at a time.  Makes sense to travel in a group.

Chicago skyline in the far distance

The best photos are at night from the water.  Who cruises at night?  Maybe another time.

Morning fog or smog? Chicago in the distance

Approaching the Cal-Sag Channel

We cannot drive our boat through downtown Chicago because we are too tall.  We have to go around the city via the “Calumet-Saganashkee Channel” or affectionately called the “Cal-Sag Channel”.  This channel will link back up with the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal farther downstream.  The Cal-Sag serves the barge traffic and is very industrial.  We expect to have to negotiate around a bunch of tows and bridges as we start our journey southward.  Eventually, the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal will join the Des Plaines River that flows into the Illinois River.

First barge as we leave Lake Michigan at 7:00am

Chicago should be called the city of bridges!  We will be going under a lot of bridges this morning.  Both car bridges as well as rail road bridges.

Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad Bridge – lift bridge

Maze of bridges

These structures look like they are smiling at us! Good morning to you, too!

Scrap Metal being loaded on a barge

We could get under these with ease.  Still very intimidating with all the rusted steel overhead.

Our first Lock of the Western Rivers – Thomas J. O’Brien Lock

Just information regarding the “Locking Priorities” throughout the river system, we Recreational or Pleasure Crafts have the least priority regarding the locks.  We may have to wait for a tow/barges to transit the locks before we are allowed to go through.

Hovering in the middle of the lock for a 2-4 foot drop

More bridges!!  Although these two bridges look similar they aren’t the same one!

Barges, barges, and more barges.  Industrial area continues past the Des Plaines River junction.

Tow pushing a barge sideways to get the barges closer.  Pretty little boats!

Are steel cables connecting barges called “lines”?!?!

The pipe arch is the beginning of the fish barrier

Approaching the Asian Carp electric fence.  It is a half mile electric field that is used to help prevent the Asian Carp from entering the Great Lakes.  Asian Carp are an invasive species that would change ecosystem dramatically.  Asian Carp is the catch-all name for a number of carp species.  The carp were brought to the US in the 1970’s to help filter pond water in fish farms.  They got out and are a very adaptable species of fish.  Don’t dangle your toe in the water!!Boat engines scare the carp which in turn jump out of the water and into the back swim platforms and sun decks of many pleasure crafts.  We didn’t see any jump onto our boat as we slowly went through the barrier.

The clouds set in early in the afternoon.  There are 9 pleasure crafts bundled up at the Dresden Lock waiting for our lock through opportunity.  THEN it started raining.  The tow captain told the lock master that it would be fine with him for some of us to raft up to him and have the smaller trawlers raft up to the larger trawlers.  In this way, we could all go down the lock at the same time.  That was very nice of him!!  

Spirit Journey behind us with a Tug rafted up

Our view ahead in the lock with the tows and other trawlers

Always Home rafted to the barge

We had another Nordic Tug rafting to us.  We all got down the lock amidst the drizzling rain.

Out of the lock and down the Illinois we passed under the final lift bridge to our stop for the night.  Joliet free-wall.  All 9 of us did a 180 degree turn to have our bow facing the current.  There were 10 boats all on the wall by the end of the day.  Luckily the rain stopped long enough for us to dock.

At the Joliet City Municipal free wall

There is power at the concrete pedestals.  Very nice of the town to give us free power.  The wall, however, is quite crumbly in places.  Care must be made to step on / off the boat so you don’t slide into the water.   The first Loopers on the wall quickly helped the rest of us find a space and tie up.  A great bunch of Loopers to be sure!

Boats all along the Joliet Wall

Hammond Indiana to Joliet, Illinois

Sunset at the Joliet Wall

Good Morning, Indiana-ites!  We are staying here until the waves are again less and 2 feet.

Trivia. Yesterday when we became Indiana-ites, we crossed into Central Time.  We got to relive an hour of our day.  Just so you know we took this time change seriously, we napped.

Sunrise in Hammond, IN

I measured the distance from our slip on X dock to the marina office.  One half mile.  Yes, we needed to walk.  Quite the distance to talk to someone about staying an extra day or two.  You guessed it.  Weather.  RWW.  Waves and wind rather than rain, this time.

What did we do with ourselves?  We read up on the Western Rivers in the Skipper Bob book “Chicago to Mobile” and the Waterway Guides.  Lots to read and understand the new bodies of water we will be encountering.  Soon.  River lingo.  Tow and barge lingo.  Rules of the roads especially pertaining to the many barges we will be meeting on the rivers.  We did boat chores, laundry, dishes, took a nap, etc.  Just like everyone else.

We spent several hours with the local boaters on X-dock on Labor Day.  They gave us hints for traveling between Hammond Marina and our first stop in Joliet.  How to talk to the tow boats.  Little tricks and tips.  A very enjoyable time with all the folks and their dogs on X-Dock.  On Wednesday, John (local) took us to Walmart.  We want to publicly thank him again for going out of his way to help us and the crew of Elizabear by providing chauffeur service.  It was mighty nice of him.

Humorous picture of the day….

Thirsty?? Cold, refreshing soda

How about now??  Is this just a day’s worth of spider webs?  OR is Coca Cola the preferred drink?  I wasn’t even sure if it was plugged in.

We are on our way “south bound” on the rivers tomorrow.  How exciting!!

Good morning, Absent minded Cruisers!!  How could we have traveled from Michigan City to Hammond Marina without taking any pictures?  Maybe because Wayne didn’t believe me when I told him to turn left and go straight to Hammond??  Maybe because it was only 30 miles?

We did have excellent water after that squall yesterday.  The water quieted right down and we had less than 2ft waves.  Rollers.  Not bad at all.

Michigan City to Hammond Marina

Hammond Marina is renowned for being at the gateway to the Cal-Sag Canal bypassing downtown Chicago and Chicago’s many bridges.  It is one of the largest marinas in Illinois and is enormous.  We pulled up to the fuel dock (lowest diesel prices in the region) and got pumped out.  We asked if there would be anyone to help us to get to our slip.  Well, no.  We were given our slip assignment and we were expected to dock ourselves.  No one from the marina was available, apparently.  This might be interesting.  Always Home is a tall boat and with floating docks (which are lower) this might be challenging to lasso a line over a cleat from 6 feet above the dock.

We cruised over to X dock, found our slip and a fellow boater came over and grabbed our lines.  Yea!!  The man quickly tied the lines and disappeared.  Shortly afterward, we were quickly told “Welcome to X-Dock”!!  The friendliest group of local boaters we have encountered.

We wondered what could be wrong with X-dock since many of the slips were empty.  Spider webs were plentiful around the electrical pedestal and water outlet.  Wayne used our broom so he could plug our 50amp cord into the outlet.  The local boater welcoming committee made our initial arrival very pleasant and positive.

Later in the evening, on a Labor Day holiday weekend, the local boaters were all out in their chairs, drinking, talking and regaled us with their local stories.  We told them all about the Loop.  Several have been “planning” to do it, but just have to wait till retirement.  Alas, work keeps getting in the way.  🙂

Twilight at Hammond Marina