Adios to the Illinois

Friday was an incredibly long and grueling day. We left Havana shortly after 7 am and covered 100 miles during the next 10 hours. It was hot and windy. There are only a few small towns visible along this stretch of the river, and even fewer marinas.We knew we did not want to tie up to a barge in Beardstown, and we preferred to not anchor out. (we need to replace our anchor.) So we planned this long day to end up in Hardin, IL. We tied up at the dock that belongs to the Illinois Riverdock Restaurant, also known as Mel's. No power or water, but that was OK.

We ate supper at Mel's, and Mark appropriately ordered the River Rat burger.After eating, it was a losing battle to stay awake. We were asleep before 9 PM, which they say is the Loopers' midnight. So true! This is not a wide river, so I was awake each time a towboat passed by. Wish I had night vision binoculars!

We left early this morning to beat the rain to Grafton. Grafton Harbor is a welcome return to civilization. We are in a covered slip, and there is a winery and a small town here. We have cell and Internet service once again. Best of all, we are looking at the Mississippi River!

Peoria to Havana

Today we successfully dodged rain and plenty of barge traffic. We left Peoria around 10 along with the last raindrops of the morning. We breezed right through the Peoria lock with no waiting and continued down the river. The  tow boats were thick south of Peoria. I lost count of them, and everyone knows I love these boats!! Various sizes and barge lines that we don't see on the upper Mississippi were really a treat. Our AIS was invaluable in letting us know what boats were approaching us.  This part of the river winds around so much it is impossible to see around the bends. The forewarning was really helpful.

We arrived at Tall Timbers Marina in Havana around 3:45. The rain started a few minutes after we secured the boat and hooked up the shore power. Perfect timing! As we docked the dreaded Asian carp started jumping around our stern. One landed on the deck and tried to thrash himself to death, leaving blood and stink all over the dock until marina owner Bob kicked him off. Luckily none of the fish landed on the boat. We hear that is really messy.

Peoria

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The morning fog burned off in time for us to start out at 8:00. Our trip was long and uneventful. We had only one lock today, at Starved Rock. We saw lots of herons, egrets, eagles and pelicans. Hundreds of pelicans. Thousands of pelicans!

We arrived in Peoria, IL, around 4:30 PM and are docked at the IVY (Illinois Valley Yacht) Club. We met John and Linda on Easy, a 37' Great Harbor. John helped us with our dock lines and we had dinner with them at the Club. 

Another day at Heritage Harbor

Two new things today. We made crockpot bread! Who knew this was even possible?? Thanks to Hy-Vee for the recipe. http://www.hy-vee.com/seasons/recipe.aspx?r=8770#.

We used regular bread flour instead of whole wheat, so our loaf looked a little different. Okay, maybe a lot different. But it tasted good.

The other more exciting thing is that we had a Siren Marine Sprite Monitoring system installed. Installation by a trained expert took about 5 hours. I'm glad Mark did not attempt to do this on his own! The Siren monitors many things on the boat for us-- shore power, battery level, longitude and latitude, bilge pump activation, temperature, and how many bottles of wine are in the fridge. (I'm joking about one of those.) if something is amiss, up to 4 people receive a text message immediately. It is odd to receive a text from Mara Beel!

  

Tomorrow we will untie the lines and head to Peoria, about 75 miles down river.

It's not much to look at, but it sent both of us 27 texts during the set up and testing process.

On board and definitely not bored

We arrived back on  Mara Beel yesterday afternoon. Thanks to our good friends Mark and Lynne for driving us to Ottawa! We started with fog and temp in the 40's this morning and ended with 80 and beautiful skies- ideal weather.

We are waiting on the arrival of a Siren Marine monitoring system for our boat. It should be installed tomorrow. When we are away from our boat, this system will text us if there are any problems- low batteries, activated bilge pumps, unusual temperatures in the boat, etc. We discovered that there is a dealer/installer right here in Ottawa, so it is worth delaying our departure until Wednesday.

Back in Ottawa

We returned to the Mara Beel for the weekend- we hate being away from our boat! This time we brought Mara, our almost 4 year-old granddaughter, with us. Mara is convinced the boat is named after her, which it is and isn't. She loved everything about the boat. We woke up at 6:30 Saturday morning to find her sitting in the salon patiently waiting for us to wake up! She progressed in her "swimming" in the pool and announced she wants to be a scuba diver when she grows up. She will have to master the art of keeping her mouth closed (i.e.- not talking) to succeed in that career path!

Mara and Grandpa

On Saturday Mara's parents (I forgot to take their picture) and younger brother James Nathan came to visit. We cruised for a couple hours. No one enjoyed the heat, but JN (11 months) seemed to like driving the boat!

 James Nathan at the helm

WAY too hot!

Earlier on Saturday Mark helped  Dennis install a new antenna on Reunion after a bridge ate the original. (Those darn trolls!)The 15 minute job turned into a couple of hours or so, but they guys had fun. Carol and Dennis treated us to dinner at Tracy's Boathouse, the restaurant at Heritage Harbor, and an after-dinner night cap. They headed south the next morning- we will miss them! We saw two other Loopers pull in Saturday evening, but we didn't have a chance to get acquainted before they left early Sunday.

Dennis and Carol

Our younger son Brandon and his wife Caroline came to visit on Sunday. Caroline is a born boater, and was happy, happy, happy as soon as she set foot on the Mara Beel. Somewhere down the line they will cruise with us for awhile. Now all of our kids have been on the boat, since daughter Caitie stayed on board with us in Sturgeon Bay last summer. We appreciate that they are interested in something that is so important to us. At least they are humoring us!

Caroline and Brandon

Now we are back on land for a short while.... Can't wait for the next leg of our journey.

Labor Day Weekend

We have moved to a different body of water and different boat this week- at our place on the Mississippi with our pontoon boat. Its good to be back in familiar territory for a little while.

Golf carts are a major form of entertainment and transportation in our island neighborhood, so it's only natural that we have a golf cart parade Labor Day weekend. This year's event was exceptionally fun! The golf cart "floats" showed great creativity with close to 30 entries in the parade.! My personal favorite was the "fiesta" cart with the 5 gallon cooler of margaritas strapped to the back. Why mess around with tossing out candy when you can pour free margaritas for spectators! We wisely positioned our "Pirates of the Mississippi" entry just behind the margarita mobile for easy access and used our plastic swords to steal candy from kids. Very few of them took us seriously when we demanded their booty- although several women shook their booties at us .For obvious reasons, the parade took 1 1/2 hours to cover about 5 miles. We're already planning for next year's event! If you have a clever idea for a theme, let me know.

Swans on parade

Love this one!

Caitie and Jing as pirates

Margarita mobile!

Fred and Wilma

The end and the beginning meet

The float that won 1st prize- free moonshine!

While we were out cruising on the pontoon, we encountered a kayaker traveling from Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi, to New Orleans. The sail was moving him right along today. He camps out along the way. Guess he's doing a straight "loop!"

Our Labor Day meal was not a traditional cookout. Instead we had sushi and stuffed Hatch peppers. Great food!

The sushi/pepper crew

Stuffed Hatch peppers

Sushi

The 97 degree days of last week have been replaced by an overnight low of 48- a refreshing change.

The view 2 days ago

This morning's view