Pierce's day

08.19.2010 after transferring two locks we made it to Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa IL. Ottawa is one of those river towns in the process of reinventing itself. The boating lifestyle appears to be a major element in this reconstruction.

The 32 acre marina is part of an under construction resort community. Their floating docks can withstand flood waters to 12 feet. I’m guessing because the dock pipes where way over my head.

You can buy a townhouse or single family cottage with a slip just a few yards from your door. In addition to the marina, townhouses and cottages, a hotel and retail shops are planned. It should be quite a complex.

08.20.2010 Tom and Diane (Noah Genda) arrived. It‘s always good to them. We enjoy swapping stories about our loop experiences.

Today is George, from our first buddy boat- Reflection, birthday. We wish we were in NJ to celebrate with him. George taught us that “it is what it is”. This attitude helps when being on the Loop has thrown us a loop. Happy Birthday George!

08.21.2010 Blake, Helena and three year old Pierce came out for a cruise. Three is when most of the world is new to you. You get excited about learning the names of objects like trawler, barge and houseboat. You are thrilled when someone in a passing boat returns a wave.

Three year olds look at things differently. For instance, when we were waked by another boat Pierce made a playful whoa sound. He thought it was fun to rebalance himself on the settee. Unlike the Captain and I who retrained ourselves from providing our usual response, “Thanks for the wake you @!@!”.

Three is when you can remember where the cards are placed in a match the pair’s game. You help the other player, (Thank you Pierce). You don’t care who gets the match as long as you can celebrate the win. And three is when your hug can steal a heart.

Blake and Helena are sitting in my seat!

Starved Rock

Driving Miss Paula

Driving Miss Paula pose

8.22.2010 Andrew’s friend Paula came out for cruise. We traveled 27 statute miles from Heritage Harbor to Spring Valley Boat Club. The journey included the lock at Starved Rock.

Paula was excited about going through a lock ever since she saw the blog entry where Greg and Howard managed the lines on the Erie Canal. Now it was her turn.

Andrew contacted the lock master who asked us to lock through with a commercial tow boat. This was good news because waiting for the barge to lock through and for the chamber to be refilled could take over two hour.

The lock master dropped us lines for the bow and stern cleats. You don’t tie off in a lock. Cleats are used for leverage as you take in or pay out line. Of course if you’re in a small boat you can just hang on to the lines.

The Lock master gave me instructions to tie off the lines when he opened the gate and sounded the all clear horn. The tow boat with its three by two barges would be departing first. This meant that we had to hold Freedom close to the wall so the tow’s propulsion didn’t whip us around in the chamber.

The bad news was that the Tow boat had already brought 6 barges down and had to hook them up before clearing the lock chamber.

The temperature kept rising as we locked down. Paula was on the bow and I was on the stern. Andrew stood mid ship to fend the bow off the wall. We were in direct sun light. It was 98 degrees. We waited over an hour for the tow boat to complete the task. We got a little sunburn but Freedom made it through the lock unscathed. It was a good day on the river.

Spring Valley Boat Club

Who is that on the little dock?

It's Tut The Explorer !

Who is that on the mud flats?

It's Tut The Explorer!

Spring Valley Boat Club

Indiana and re-entering Illinois

08.15.2010- 08.16.2010

We stayed two days at Hammond Marina which is next to the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond Indiana. We only lost $30.00. Actually the captain won $13.00 and I lost $30.00. Several locals told us that the casino has poor odds. Their location draws a lot of people in so they don’t need to make large payouts.

The casino has 1, 3, and 5 cent slot machines in addition to the regular 25 cent, $1 and up equipment. We took a look inside the high rollers’ slot machine room. The one arm bandits start at $25.00 and ended at $100.00. I can’t image putting 100 dollars for one pull.

Tut and I liked Hammond Marina's wide docks.

Andrew did a burgee exchange with member of the Hammond River Yacht Club member. The club had good burgers and cheap drinks.

Laura's (from Monkey Girl) friend Beth and husband Ned own a transportation business. They volunteered to drive the crews from 4 boats to Wal-Mart.

08.17.2010 at 0730 ,after 45 minutes on lake Michigan, we entered the Calumet Sag River, Chicago Illinois. Tut and I danced the”Thank Goodness We’re Back on the River System’ dance. Then we ate breakfast without fear of losing it.

Chicago Skyline

See how flat the water on the river is. I love it!

River birds

Andrew and Tut at the helm.

Tut naps because he knows riding down the river is a slow and easy.

The Asian carp barrier

Time to negotiate barges

and locks

City of Joliet Illinois wall

Jefferson St bridge repairs in progress

The Joliet wall has free electric, yeah!

08-18.2010

Spring Brook marina in Seneca IL. Their restaurant is called Andrew's so of course we ate there.

We've seen about 30 barges since we entered the river system.

A very large area of lily pads

Tut takes a nip and a nap after a long day on the river.

Sunset Spring Brook