9/2 When we last wrote to you, we had just endured a 3 hour wait to go through the lock past Joliet, after our long day of travel from Chicago. In the nearly 80 locks we had previously managed, we had never had to wait for more than 30 minutes to get in. Added to 9 hours and 60 miles of boat travel and an early morning wake-up call, this created quite a full day. And when we thought it was over and we were arriving at our marina….there was no marina entrance. Only a sign that said PRIVATE – DO NOT ENTER. Eventually someone on shore informed us that this was the entry to our marina. Who knew?
Although this was a great trip, it was wonderful to have Lee pick us up and take us back to the Cunningham home in semi-nearby Homer Glen. The fancy multi-jet shower, beer, and dinner were great creature comforts. They created a second wind that allowed me to hang in for some games of pool with Lee.
9/3 After some bocce,
laundry and errands, Lee and Terry drove us back to the boat, but first dropped
one of their cars in Ottawa. That
allowed them to spend the night with us on the boat (and share a GREAT dinner
at the Big Fish Grill) – the Harborside Marina restaurant and then cruise with
us the next morning down to Ottawa
As we were leaving, there was so much duck weed in the water, it looked like we were about to drive up onto a putting green....
As we were leaving, there was so much duck weed in the water, it looked like we were about to drive up onto a putting green....
9/4 Like I said, it was a nice cruising day on the Illinois River – and Lee and Terry got to experience a couple of locks before we ended up in a resort marina near Ottawa. More bocce ball, a swim in the marina pool, dinner at the marina restaurant, and one last card game (thanks, Terry) before Lee and Terry took off to pick up their other car and head home. Lee and Terry were not the first to be on the boat more than once, but the first to take two separate cruises with us in the same year. Guess they caught the Fever.
After they left, Debi and I hung with some Loopers around a fire pit on the marina grounds.
9/5–9/6 Our
shortest trip ever? 3 miles to the Ottawa
town docks. Why? To be downtown and experience what it had to
offer – and to take advantage of free docking for a couple of nights. We’re spending a day taking care of business,
doing the things that are hard to do while under way – hanging on the boat for
the most part. We did a quick bike tour
of the town – saw the park where 14,000 people crammed in to watch the first
Lincoln-Douglas debate – their statues mark the spot. We were across the river from the high school
and caught all of the ambient sounds of Friday night football.
9/7–9/10 73 miles
to a stop at a yacht club just north of Peoria where we went out with four
other Looper couples that we’ve met in multiple ports. 57 miles to Havana (who knew it was here?)
where we enjoyed their Octoberfest in early September. Great band – guys about our age doing music
like 10 Degrees Off.
9/11 Pre-sunrise departure for our longest cruise ever. 120 miles, plus 90 minutes for a lock and 45 minutes for a fuel stop. That took almost all of the daylight hours. We finished the day in Grafton, IL at the end of the Illinois River – at the junction with the Mississippi. It was a grueling day – as the temperatures reached 100 degrees. I understand this when I am in Atlanta in July. But Illinois, in September? As soon as we were tied up and plugged in we dove into the marina pool. I’ve never been so happy to have a pool in a marina (happens maybe 10-20% of the time). I often envy others in our cohort with more fuel-efficient boats. But that efficiency comes at the price of slower speeds – and none of them made it this far. In the absence of marinas, they all had to anchor out in those temperatures – 100 degrees inside the boat, no breeze, bugs outside the boat. No way to sleep. More time with Loopers - there are more of us traveling on the same schedule, now, since we are all pacing our trip to arrive the great Loopers' Fall Rendevous in northern Alabama in October.
9/12–9/17 We
stayed in Grafton for two nights because it was such a nice marina. Then we ventured a mere 15 miles down the
Mississippi to Alton IL and stayed there another two nights – again, a very
nice marina with pool and other nice amenities.
The second night we received a visit from Jim Kirchherr, a friend since
5th grade – which means something like 50 years. Jim made the drive from his home in St.
Louis, about 20 miles south. We had a
good dinner in town, and a better time just catching up on our lives and mutual
friends (sadly, did not take a picture).
After leaving Alton, we cruised by St. Louis – and the
famous Arch. I realized that this was
the last iconic view we will have while on the Loop – and the last big
city. We’ve seen Miami, Jacksonville,
Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk, D.C., Baltimore, New York, Chicago, and St.
Louis – all great skylines and famous landmarks to view from the water. Not to underestimate Paducah KY, which we
will hopefully see tomorrow.
The next stop we had another nice visit from our other St. Louis friends, Jeff and Ruth. For those that don’t know, Jeff Mayer was one of my grad student buddies back at MSU, now a professor at St. Louis U. They drove down to Kimmswick about 25 miles south of St. Louis (see Hoppie’s) below. Kimmswick’s two restaurants are both closed on Friday nights (who eats out on Friday nights?), so we ate on the boat, and enjoyed hours of great conversation. We thank Jim, Jeff and Ruth for taking the time and trouble to drive to see us the last couple of nights.
The next stop we had another nice visit from our other St. Louis friends, Jeff and Ruth. For those that don’t know, Jeff Mayer was one of my grad student buddies back at MSU, now a professor at St. Louis U. They drove down to Kimmswick about 25 miles south of St. Louis (see Hoppie’s) below. Kimmswick’s two restaurants are both closed on Friday nights (who eats out on Friday nights?), so we ate on the boat, and enjoyed hours of great conversation. We thank Jim, Jeff and Ruth for taking the time and trouble to drive to see us the last couple of nights.
Next stop – Hoppie’s Marina. Fern and Hoppie have run this marina (actually three barges cabled to the shore) for 40 years, and the enterprise has been in the family for over 70 years. They are a storehouse of local knowledge. Every afternoon, Fern (in pink shirt) gathers the visiting boaters to a briefing – her advice about what to expect and the do’s and don’ts of the next couple hundred miles. Of course she throws in a few stories and wisecracks to make for a very entertaining presentation.
This is important because this is the most stressful part of
the entire 6000 mile Loop. Why? Mainly, the lack of marinas (224 miles
between Hoppie’s and the next one) and a dearth of places to anchor, partially
because of the low river level. Add a
couple of locks under repair which means very slow service – and you end up
with a situation that requires a lot of strategy – but also luck. That’s a good combination for a card game,
but a little less fun in real life. You
can plan your next night’s stop, but if the locks slow you down and/or you get
there to find the minimal space already occupied (and there’s no place to call
ahead and know that), you can end up having to negotiate heavy currents and
constant barge traffic of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers after dark. This is to be avoided at all costs, but how? We will have to figure it out...
We survived the first night of this segment between marinas
by joining with three other boats and anchoring/rafting together in the harbor of
the Port Authority. Again, local
knowledge informed us that you can only do this on the weekend when they are
not working – so we lucked out there.
And we were glad to have the experience and support of fellow boaters
from Second Wind and Golden Hawk to help situate us. We cruised 110 miles to get here, a long
day. Tomorrow promises to be even
longer, thanks to the slow locks (I called one today that promised a “minimum 3
hour wait”). If we are lucky, we can then
have one more long day before hitting our next marina.
These long days create a challenge for our buddy Loopers with dogs on board - when we anchor out, they get dingy trips to land.“Tomorrow” (above) is now yesterday. It was long, as promised – and we ended up anchoring/rafting with our two buddy boats between a bridge and a casino boat on the Ohio River – near Metropolis IL. This morning we talked to the lockmaster of the lock just 5 miles up the river – he told us to be there by 7:15 for the lockage. We arrived on time – and waited, idling and maneuvering to stay in place in the current for over two hours before being called on in.
The barge traffic is almost constant – huge assemblies. We thought they were big when we would see them on the Illinois River – up to two columns of five barges pushed by one tow. Here, on the Ohio and Mississippi, the largest assembly we have seen is a 7x6 – 42 barges holding 15 tons of coal apiece – pushed by one powerful tow. Since these big tows can be up to 1/4 mile long and have limited maneuverability (huge understatement), we stay out of their way. In order to do so, we call them on the radio and ask for permission to pass (if we are in the same direction). Regardless of whether we are passing them in the same or opposite directions, we need to get instructions as to what side of their vessel we should pass – using a reference to one or two whistles. “See you on the ones” “Come on the two” “I’ll take you on my two” “One whistle, captain”. But you have to be in the cruising world to know how to interpret the above instructions – we’ve got it down.
9/17 Safe and sound in a beautiful resort – Green Turtle Bay
on Barkley Lake – one of the two large lakes sandwiching the Land Between the
Lakes in northeastern Kentucky. We got
in just before dark after another three hour lock wait just a mile on the other
side of the dam. We anchored while
waiting – and were happy to do so successfully on a rocky bottom. More Loopers congregating and lingering here, for a little relaxation and boat sprucing...and, of course, the almost every day 5:00 Docktails.
9/18 Today, I take a bus to Nashville to meet Steve for the Americana Music Festival. Tomorrow, Debi rents a car to drive to Atlanta. The boat will be here for about two weeks while we do various things in and around Atlanta.
These last two weeks from Chicago to here – the Chicago,
Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, and Cumberland Rivers have been a real push. Nearly 650 miles on the water. If you assume cars go about 70 mph on the
interstate, this is the equivalent of driving about 4500 miles in two weeks –
with long stops waiting to get into locks.
Imagine while doing all of that driving you didn’t always know where you
might stop – and the fear that if an anchorage was full, you were out of luck –
you’d have to go on for hours, possibly into the dark, with those big barges
roaming the waters. In other words, as a previous Harbor Host told our gang of Loopers - “Heh guys, this is why wimps don't do this trip!"
By comparison, last year we covered about the same portion
of the Loop in the entire 4 months we are on board! Of course last year we also added 200 miles
by going up and down the Potomac, and certainly added lots of miles by going
back and forth across the Chesapeake and in and out of harbors. But still…..
I have to say that although this is a great adventure, I’m
looking forward to being on a bus where I don’t have to consult a chart to get
to where I’m going. Where I don’t need
to know anything about currents or winds.
Nor does the weather matter, nor tides, nor water depths. No navigational equipment needed, nor
guidebooks, nor radios. If a truck
approaches from the other direction, it is not necessary to hail the driver to
get passing instructions. I know there
will be a hotel at the end of the trip.
And when I get to the hotel, I do not need to put out bumpers, nor attach
power cables and hoses. I won’t need to
throw ropes to waiting dockhands (assuming they show up). I will walk in and they will give me a
key. And I’m quite sure I can walk
through the door to my room without even thinking about hitting the walls on either
side. Quite amazing.
Debi opines that “anyone can do that!”
Hope you are enjoying the blog – we’ll be back in touch when
we are back on the boat. Hopefully we’ll
see some of you in Atlanta.
Jim and Debi
Jim and Debi
