Home at Last!

Leaving our anchorage, we slowly continued downstream about thirty miles to the juncture of the Illinois River with the Mississippi River. Because long day of running at higher speeds the day before and my failure to want to buy too much extra fuel at Peoria, we needed to conserve fuel and run at a low speed to make it to Alton. Unfortunately, the temperature in the Midwest was in the high ninety’s and it was miserable creeping along down the Illinois and then the last eleven miles down the Mississippi.
What a change in scenery as we left the flat land surrounding the Illinois River to the huge river bluffs of the Mississippi valley. Imagine our pleasure as we rounding a bend in the Mississippi and were able to spot the familiar outline of the Clark Bridge which spans the river at Alton, Illinois.
About two in the afternoon, AWEIGH backed into a covered slip adjacent to the Clark Bridge in Alton Marina and the engines were turned off. We had arrived in St. Louis. After some clean up and quick packing, we were picked up early that evening by Todd and Julie along with grandchildren, Megan and Evan. Boy, were we glad to see them and be home for a while.
AWEIGH is so happy to be in the shade of a covered shed on these hot, dog days of August, that she wants to stay for a while, so we won’t be doing this blog for about a month. After that, it’s off again to Florida.

Goodbye for now

Ned and Judy

Peoria and Beyond

Sunday, August 5th and we left our snug anchorage behind Willow Island and headed south along the Illinois River. Actually anchoring out is very comfortable and relaxing, …….. if you have the right spot with plenty of room to swing about, if you have set the anchor properly and don’t drag anchor during the night, and if you are anchored out of the channel and a towboat doesn’t get you, otherwise, it’s fine.
Sunday was hot and by mid afternoon the heat was getting to us when we reached Peoria. The Illinois Valley Yacht Club ( IVY as it’s known), was a nice club with a very nice clubhouse and pool. The only negative was their very slow fuel pump and very high priced diesel fuel. It took over an hour to pump two hundred gallons and I thought we owned part of the club after paying the bill. After docking and showers, we headed for the club house for their Sunday night buffet featuring the best real fried chicken, with mashed potatoes, and wonderful gravy and all other fixings. We pigged out, but it was real “comfort” food and we loved it.
Because we were looking forward to getting to St. Louis and stretching our legs ashore, the decision was made to really push hard and try and cover some distance. So, Monday morning we were underway by 7am and heading down the river amid all the towboats and barges. Within an hour we arrived at the Peoria lock only to be told that the lock was under construction. They were opening and closing the lock doors using small tug boats to push the doors open and closed. Also, because of the size of some of the tows, they had to break the tows in half and lock through side by side, then make up the tow again. We waited almost an hour and a half to get through going south. If we had been north bound, it could have been five or six hours, since there were over five towboats waiting to lock through and pleasure boats have to wait on all commercial vessels.
As the day wore on and the heat increased, we reached more open river areas and made better time. Also, since it was a weekday and there were very few locals fishing, we did not have to keep slowing down. Our boat throws a terrible wake and we must be careful of our speed. Once past Peoria, there are almost no towns with any docking facilities, so we kept going until almost 7pm when we finally settled on an anchorage just out of the channel. Between the heat of the day and the 135 miles we covered, sleeping that night was not a problem. We do have air-conditioning below decks and a faithful generator that keeps on ticking.

Heading South!

Wednesday morning dawned pretty and hot. As we left Ludington, we followed the
S. S.Badger out of port. It was smooth on Lake Michigan as we headed for Muskegon where AWEIGH docked about three o’clock. A little later Ed and Nancy Weise, Pam and Mike Foster picked us up at the marina and took us to the Foster’s lovely home on a nearby lake. We had a good visit and even got in a quick game of Shanghai before going to dinner. The Fosters have come to Ft. Myers the past two winters and it is always a pleasure to see them. The Weises summer travel in their motor home has crossed paths with us several times, but now we are off in different directions so we won’t see them until Nov. when we both return to Gulf Harbour.

Thursday morning was again pretty and calm and although we originally planned to stop at South Haven, we changed our minds and went directly to Michigan City, Indiana which was a little over 100 miles. We docked about two o’clock because we were back in the central time zone. The Michigan City Marina was huge---518 slips!

The Captain said “we will be on our way early Friday” and that we did. By nine o’clock we could see the Chicago skyline as we entered the Calumet River. From that point on the day was long, tedious and HOT but also interesting, as we plowed through the heavily industrial area of the Cal-Sag Canal. We went through 44 bridges (however, we only required 4 bridge openings) and at the end of the day, a lock which required forty five minutes of waiting before we could enter. We arrived at Joliet, Illinois where we planned to stop only to encounter another bridge for which we had to request an opening. It was closed for rush hour traffic from 4:15 to 5:15 and we arrived at 4:16, so again we waited and finally docked at Centennial Park about six. Shortly after that a gentleman came along and talked to Ned and told him that a few weeks earlier a barge had broken loose from its tow and slammed into a pleasure boat docked right where we were docked. At that point, we went inside and poured ourselves glass of wine! That evening there were some good fireworks—don’t know what the occasion was—but we enjoyed them from our boat.
oday, Saturday August 4th is our 45th anniversary! We left Joliet early, only to sit and wait first for a bridge opening and then for a lock entry. It was a very slow day and not much mileage was covered. Late this afternoon, it was raining and we weren’t near any marinas of size so we are anchored in a nice private and protected cove off the Illinois river..
At the speed we are able to travel here on the Illinois River, we probably won’t get to St. Louis until mid week even though it is only about two hundred forty miles. We definitely have a “heading for the barn” mentality.
Judy