Tall Timbers Marina, Havana, IL

40 18.365N

90 03.956W

One of the boats leaving the marina is going by the sign for the marina almost touching the water.

Navigating the waters was tricky especially when the markers were in the trees along the side of the river. Some of the smart people have their houses on stilts. In one picture you can see how high the water was by the grey color on the leaves of the trees.

Eastport Marina, E. Peoria, IL

40 41.563N

89 32.951W

Downtown Peoria at night and then in the morning with the riverboat. More flooding. The river is finally open all the way to the Mississippi. We are trying to get south before the cold weather!

The Marina people said that they have been flooded 9 times in the last 13 months! Some of the dock ramps were underwater still. You had to dinghy to docks that were not under water.

Upper Henry Island Anchorage

41 05.129N

89 22.802W

First time we have anchored out in almost a month. It was a little unnerving at first because the current is about 3 knots. You can see more of the flooding. There are hedgerows that are under water and lakes where dry land is suppose to be. You can see the dam in one picture. Some of the dams are wicket dams--when it is flooded they put the wickets down and you just motor over it instead of going through a lock. Scary at first.

Joilet to Ottawa, IL

41 20.423N
88 47.203W
Some pleasant scenes of white pelicans getting ready to head south. Some scenes of the devastation along the river from flooding. In some places you could see how far reaching the water was by the fields with crops that had been destroyed. As of today there are still a few miles along the IL River that are closed (around MM100)

Huck Fin on the River

There are three guys on the mak- shift raft. They had pulled in to the Joliet wall on Friday and got on their bikes to go get some gas for their very small motor. We passed them today anchored on the side of the river.

Leaving Joilet

We left Joliet when the fog was lifting. Unfortunately, it had not lifted everywhere. We left with Full Circle in the lead, Freedom right behind, we were next, then the next boat Amy K and trailing behind was a sail boat Dulcinea. The first two boats were Sea Rays and made it to our destination three hours ahead of us. We got held up at the last lock for three hours. No place to tie up, we could only drop an anchor in a very small area. While we waited, and waited, and waited we got pushed around by the prop wash of the tug locking his tow through. It took us almost 12 hours to get to our destination 40 miles away.

Still in Joliet

There is a picture of a tow at night shining its spot lights down the river. Harrah's in the background of the bridge closing after the tow has gone through and of course, the nightly captains meeting in the park next to the boats. Actually it turned out to be our last night on the wall in Joliet!

More of Joliet, IL

A P

picture of all the boats along the wall in Joliet, IL. Ours is five from the right. Some will leave and go further down river but right now the end of the line is 40 miles south in Ottawa, IL. We are hoping for word any day now that the river has opened to pleasure craft and we can get going. Now it looks like some of our side trips are out of the question. We will reassess when we get going and move down the rivers. The other picture is one of the many barges passing us by.

Joliet, IL

41 31.428N

88 5.237W

We are now in Joliet, IL. This is the view from our boat. Harrah's Casino is in the background. The locks are not all open along the IL River or the Mississippi. We were told by our fellow boaters that there was room for us at a free dock with electric. The river was mostly free of debris so we decided to leave Chicago and start down the river. It looks like we will be here awhile waiting for the river locks to reopen and commerical traffic to resume.

Some of the scenes along the way

Can we make it under that bridge or do we have to call to have it opened? River traffic was very quite along the way. We only passed a couple tows. The first lock for the Chicago River is only a 2 foot drop but the one we have a picture of here is a 40 foot drop. The locks are massive to accommodate tows but we had the whole lock to our selves.

Chicago River

We were finally able to move down the river. We got up very early, before sunrise on Saturday in preparation for our 36 NM trip. We headed for the first lock at the entrance to the Chicago River which goes right through downtown. It was pretty quite on the river, no tour boats yet but the crew teams were out practicing.

Evening in Chicago

Our last night in Chicago. Fireworks again. It was a lovely evening.

Bike ride along Lake Shore Drive

Well since we are stuck here in Chicago we decided to take a bike ride and head south as you can see we ended at the first palm trees we came across! Chicago has 27 miles of biking, jogging, walking trails along Lake Michigan. It was a beautiful day. Do you like Linda's bike? We call Ed's bike a clown bike because the seat and handle bars are up so high and wheels are so small.

Rain & Flooding

Rain and flooding are keeping us in Chicago a while longer. We finally broke out of the boat last evening when it stopped raining--8.8 inches of rain here. The Chicago River Lock has been closed since Sat. We have spoken to boaters down river and the lockmasters are saying that it won't be until Wed that the Ill River will crest and it will take a few days for the river to recede.
Then the locks might open again but the commerical traffic has priority over pleasure craft moving through the locks--it will take a few days for that to get back to normal. It looks like about a week to ten days form now before it is feasible to move.

Wondering around Chicago

This McDonalds has a second floor with up scale food and memorabilia starting in 1950. They even have a picture of Levittown when it was first built. Rather unique looking building.

Contrast of clear and cloudy

The city looked even clearer after the rain. You couldn't see the tops of the buildings Sat., Sun., and part of Monday

Fireworks in the rain

On Fri and Sat nights near the marina a display of fireworks is shot off. It was pouring rain both nights but we had about fifteen minutes of beautiful color.

Millennum Park, Chicago

A huge park very near the marina. You can see what looks like a large silver bean. Ed took a picture of us reflected on the bean. The park has a large amphitheater where last night they had a free ballet performance. There is a picture of a child shown on a large tower in the park. The picture is live of the child in the park.

More of the Architectural Tour and Lunch

Our lunch picture: on the right is Roy, Rachel and Ellen; on the left Ed, Linda and Nat. Roy, Ellen and Nat are from M/V Our Turn and Rachel is Ellen's niece. Rachel showed us her Chicago. Thanks to her we saw Second Chicago Comedy Club, Broadway in Chicago--Jersey Boys, Aquarium and just walked and walked Chicago streets!