At the End of the Illinois River! Grafton IL Mile 0

Wed pm 9/26/12 about 6pm we arrived at Grafton, Mile 0 on the Illinois River. We traveled 332 miles from Chicago to Grafton in 7 days. Actually 6 days since we stayed two days in Ottawa IL. We are as far west as we will be traveling.

Tech corner: We traveled 928 miles so far, burned 1075 gallons of gas, spent $4884 on fuel, dockage has been $3158 - Chicago was REALLY expensive.

Sorry for the delay in writing. We are having a difficult combination of no Internet service despite the hot spot and lack of consistent electricity for charging tools that means it is complicated to write and upload my blog.

Overall observations of the river:

·         Not much life in the towns along the river, at least some of the towns appear to be dying or dead. People in the towns appear to be a little embarrassed about the lack of substance left in their towns. I wonder what these towns must have looked like as bustling centers of commerce 100 years ago.

·         As a Chicagoan, I think I understand a little better why there is such a huge political and philosophical difference between Chicagoans and downstaters. The perspective is completely different.

·         Huge contrast between Chicago end of the river (so industrial) and the Grafton end (so rural). Along the river at the west end beyond the levees was farm country. You could see the tops of grain elevators and the GPS showed markings of farmland and roads that skirted large squares of land that I assume are farms. Along the river in Chicago was a mass of industry – steel, coal, waste disposal, manufacturing, shipping, trains

·         People talk with a southern-ish accent at the west end of the river. Like good ole’ boys.

·         It is not comfortable to dock overnight on a barge. Rusty hates it. It reminds you that you are in in your own element. You are visitors in another world.

·         People come up with interesting ways to amuse themselves outside of the industrial areas. We loved the pontoon boat filled with bow hunters shooting Asian carp. How clever! I bet they were having a ball.

·         The cheapskate in me is watching yet another expensive chart book put aside. We are done with the Richardsons for Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan, Waterway Guides for Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, and now the Illinois River Chart. Definitely worth buying used charts.

·         We are eating out a lot. No ability to grill since we left Michigan the week following Labor Day. We cooked on the boat only a few times. The rest of the time we ate out. I don’t see that changing much. Not a good time to be without our microwave/oven. New one won’t arrive until Green Turtle Bay in Cumberland KY.

Let’s pick up the story where we left it in Peoria on Sunday night. Reminder. Peoria IL we docked at the public docks, no fee, it was the end of the Oktoberfest, dog wouldn’t get off boat without a lot of coaxing, wandered around waterfront, finally decided on Joe’s Steakhouse for wonderful dinner, back to boat.

Monday September 24, 2012  Havana IL Mile 120.3

We left Peoria on Monday morning 9/24/12 bound for Havana. This was going to be a long day, and it was. It was very dark when Rusty and I went for our walk around the Caterpillar offices in downtown Peoria Monday morning. He was happy to be off the boat.

We left as soon as we got back. Kermit did the pre-departure chucking, I got the lines and we were off. Nice day, weather wise but cold. We were bundled up like winter. It is not fun to drive outside in the cold. We thought we would blow past Havana so we moved our mail drop to Alton, scheduled for Wednesday. Turns out, just after we called the post office to move the mail to Alton, the group decided to stop in Havana anyway because we had a lon delay at the lock. 

This is the lock outside Peoria where we had the long delay.

 This is One September waiting at the lock.

This is Sareanna waiting at the lock. There is not much to do while you are waiting. You just wait while they do something inside the lock and sometimes allow commercial or Coast Guard vessels in ahead of you while you just wait.

By the way, not much to see. It is a river. There is water, sometimes a stick or two, sometimes a critter in the woods, sometimes a barge. The scenery doesn’t change much.

We pulled into Tall Timbers Marina in Havana at Mile 120 about 3 or 4pm. This was a seriously disguised marina. Very hard to see and quite shallow with silting.

We were nominated to go first since our 36 Cruiser is the smallest boat in our little group (50 Carver Express, 44 Carver MY like Don Donataccio’s, and a 48 Trawler). All the other boats draw between 4 and 5 feet while we draw about 3.5 although we call it 4 feet. (Remember “draw” is the depth of the boat under the water). We pulled past the entrance, mostly because it is so difficult to see and also because the marker is beyond the entrance, turned back and slowly entered the mouth of the marina. You can hardly see it. And the entrance turns a bit so you can’t see the tiny little marina well from the river. We called out the depth over the radio as we entered the marina. 5.6, 6.2, 5.8, 5.1, 4.9, 4.2, 3.7, 2.9, 3.6, 4.5. We made it without problems. The other boats followed us in without problem. We got 107 gallons of gas at $4.99 per gallon but no pump out.

This picture is a view from the gasdock to the entrance of the marina. See that tiny opening? It is only about 20 feet across. Notice how small the other boats are?

Notice how big our boats are?

This is the cutest little marina ever! Our boats looked like giants in the circus compared to the 20’ boats around us. They keep the inside end of the marina open for visitors. It is a great money maker for them because we only need electric, fuel, and not much else and they make $1.30 per foot per night! The transients support the marina maintenance and the regulars get the benefit. Seems fair.

The marina is very cute. They have porta-potty’s but they created little gazebos around them for men and women using lattice with plumbed sinks and little mirrors and chairs so it looks like a regular bathroom even though it is not. Very clever of them. Flowers are everywhere and there are the nicest little sitting areas. We had docktails with One September, Sareanna, and Jim’s Joy. Wreckless joined us before docktail hour! These are the Canadians that like to go fast (25 to 30 mph!) – the exchange rate must be good! We met them in Joliet on the public wall.

The Asian carp were jumping as the big diesels came in to dock. They are fast little buggers but you can see splashed around the big Carver - that is AsianCarp. You don't know how many pictures I had to take to get one that included splashes!!

Rusty and I went for a pretty long walk. Most stores were closed. Not just because it was sort of late but because most stores in Havana are closed. Lots of “gift stores” that look like beat up old buildings on their absolute last breathe selling junk they call antiques. The park at the waterfront was nicely done with swings and two playgrounds. Rusty and I took a few minutes on the hanging swing to appreciate the lovely view. I forgot my camera but trust me - nothing to see.

Let me take a moment to contrast the Illinois River towns and facilities with Michigan. Michigan spends a ton to make their marinas beautiful and welcome. There is a municipal marina about every 20 miles with nice floating docks and all the amenities (laundry most times, bike borrowing most times, a park, great bathrooms with showers, most times fuel). The towns along the Illinois River do not. We are staying at private marinas or dockage. The public space is not attractive most times and not designed with passing boaters or visitors in mind. With that said, every town below Peoria participates in a marketing campaign about the river that consists of brochures that do not reflect the reality, some signs on their buildings with a bit of history, and occasionally a park along the river. But the towns we are passing are sad and dying if not dead.

Havana was such a town. The people we are meeting are marvelous and friendly but the towns are dying or dead. The lady who handled the phones at Tall Timbers was so nice. She even called two marina people away from their town jobs to greet us and help jostle the big boats into position. But she said there wasn’t much in town and she was right. We went to bed early without dinner.

Tuesday September 25, 2012 Beardstown IL  Mile 88.4

Tuesday dawned rainy and it rained most of the day. Put on that raingear!

Good thing because it was cold and the extra layers helped. We left about a little before 7am again. The big diesels of our fellow travelers really excited the Asian carp and they jumped like crazy as we left. We got a picture of one poor fellow flopping around on the floating dock.

They jump so high that this guy jumped out of the water and on to the floating dock!!! We didn’t put him back in the water. Seemed like a bad idea to rescue him when the locals are trying so hard to control the population.

The master plan was to push hard on Tuesday and Wednesday to be on the Mississippi on Wednesday night and to Hoppies downriver on Thursday. This required an 80 mile trip on Tuesday but we got delayed for 2.5 hours getting through the lock so that sort of blew our plans. We adjusted to go to Beardstown for the evening – only 48 miles to Mile 88.4. 

We tied to a barge for the night! Our first barge tie up!! This is quite an adventure.

The tug service makes $1 per foot letting people tie up to the work barges and tugs overnight while providing no services. It is a great arrangement for the boaters when there are so few marinas or anchoring spaces and the tug service gets income for no effort. This is a working operation so the barges have lots of equipment lying around – metal lines, winches, heavy equipment, welding equipment, lumber, etc. But it was quite clean and orderly. A barge is a large hollow metal thing. Really large and quite solid. They are well built so they can be attached smoothly together so they are about the same height without much discernible space between barges, making it easy to walk across. We docked next to Jim’s Joy with our noses upriver (evidently this is the way to do it). The other two boats were down another barge and around a corner. That night another pleasure boat pulled in next to the other two boats but was gone when we got up in the morning.

To exit the barges, you climbed these crazy metal scary stairs at a big angle straight up the side of the cliff.

Rusty was having none of it and we did not want him to try. We walked with him around the barges over and over trying to convince him that this hunk of metal was just the spot to do his business but he kept looking over his shoulder at us like we were crazy. He could see the tiny strip of land just 7 feet away across the water. THAT is where he is supposed to go. Kermit even demonstrated how this was supposed to work but no good. Rusty refused to poop or pee for 24 hours – finally peed at 6am on Wed morning because he was desperate!! Not a happy camper. He went back to the boat and sulked.

Beardstown is another sort of deserted town. Very sad looking but better than Havana. The same beautiful brochures and signs but not much there.

Good lunch at Yesterday Café in Beardstown. Kermit had ham and bean soup with fried potatoes and corn bread. Really thick and really hot. I had a cheeseburger. Fries were free!! Café had lots of old newspaper articles and pictures about the town. Looked like original tin ceiling and some original fixtures. It even had locals lounging on chairs around a large barrel in the front. It fulfilled all my stereotypes about small towns.

We walked east to the Sav-a-lot just for the heck of it. Then we walked further east to the Dairy Queen. Why not? Then walked back to the center of town to visit the courthouse.

Here is where reading other people’s blogs is interesting (it is interesting anyway but that is another story). Another group we are following visited Beardstown a few days earlier but they ate at a different restaurant and had almost a different journey. They missed the courthouse completely and had a completely different view of the town. But they took a tour of the tug and we did not. So the point is the journey is what you make of it. We all benefit by keeping our eyes open to opportunities and we all learn by sharing what we see!

The courthouse museum was guarded by a really nice lady who has worked on the museum for years, making something nice with very little resources. It was chocked full of interesting info about Beardstown. Abraham Lincoln tried several cases in this courthouse including his famous “Almanac” case. The son of his mentor got into trouble so they called Abe to represent him. The case was delayed for a few months so he had a chance to do a bit of research. Teenagers attending a revival slipped down the road to a moonshine party where they got into a fight. One fellow was killed in the fight and the son of Abe’s friend was charged. The eye witness swore he saw the whole thing because a full moon lit up the night. Abe cross examined, bringing in an almanac which showed there was no moon that night. After a passionate closing argument and 1 hour of deliberation, the jury found him innocent! We learn these stories in school but this was the courtroom where it happened! This courtroom is the longest used courthouse in Illinois. They still have court once a month just to keep us their streak. The jail is still there where that fellow was imprisoned before Lincoln got him off. We couldn't resist a few pictures. 

I thought it was kind of funny that even though it is famous for its relationship with Abe Lincoln there was nothing, not even the furnishings in the courthouse, left from that era. But there were rooms full of interesting stuff about Beardstown’s place in history since being settled in the early 1800s.  

As we wandered through the courthouse and museum with this nice lady, we stumbled on a room devoted to the Beardstown Ladies and we scratched our heads. Why is that so familiar? We realized we all had read the investment strategy the Beardstown Ladies “invented” about investment clubs! And we all had been in investment clubs in the late 1990s patterned on the Beardstown Ladies. They were from this Beardstown!! So the town really is famous for lots of important things. NOTE: The folks with the other blog skipped this completely so they had a different visit altogether!

Demographic note: Lots of Mexicans. This little almost dead town has about 4 restaurants, 2 of which are Mexican. It also has a Mexican bakery with real Mexican-Americans visible. I bought some cookies. Signs on the Sav-a-Lot bulletin board were in Spanish. We are not sure why this is. The nice lady at the museum said they work at a large factory near town.  

Generator didn’t work again – blew out the surge protector – score Jenny 2, Kermit 0. All the kings’ loopers and all the kings’ men couldn’t put the generator back together again. So we went to bed at 7:30pm when it got dark, without dinner again, and slept with the windows open. Not such a bad alternative except Kermit was up and down all night listening for traffic on the river. Not much traffic so we were ok. Add this repair to the list of repairs the group needed and we probably need to push Hoppies back another few days.

Only went 48 miles on Tuesday so we had a long trip ahead of us. We either push like crazy to make Alton or we stop at a restaurant dock downriver and make Alton on Thursday. Let’s see how it goes.  

By the way, Illinois River current is very low, non-existent. The idea of getting speed from the current is a joke so far.

Animal siting: A river otter!!

Wednesday September 26, 2012

Left Beardstown early. Up at 6am as dawn was breaking; left at 6:45am just as sun was coming up. Kind of weepy sky, grey, cloudy, and a little rainy on and off all day. Another lock with only about a 1 hour delay, leaving the lock about 9am. The plan was to stop at a place along the way about 40 miles away. It was supposed to have a great restaurant that allowed boats to dock. We passed that restaurant at about mid-day and decided to push on.

Here is how we pass the time when we drive long hours like we did today: we take showers; we clean the boat; we make lunch and eat snacks a lot; we read; I listen to my iPod, maybe write on the computer for a few hours till the battery dies; we take naps; we talk on the radio. It is a very comfortable way to spend the day.

Animal siting: Bald eagle!

In the mid-afternoon after showers and between naps, One September was goofing around on the radio (they are the lead boat so they tell us what is coming up: “stick on the port side”) when suddenly we heard, “what the heck was that” “there it is again”. Uh oh. They hit something that bounced back and hit them again. They drove for hours with that terrible vibration many of us know so well. So, the repair list grows longer. We need someone to look at the generator. Sareanna needs an electronics guy to look at his gps. Jim’s Joy needs something done with a waste tank and something else I can’t remember. Now One September needs the boat pulled along with a look at the air conditioning. So they get on the phone and get repairs scheduled at Grafton Mile 0. The only place to pull the boat is a marina in Port Charles MO a little upriver on the Mississippi.

So we trudged on to the end of the Illinois River at our now standard 9mph, burning about 4 gallons per hour per side or so. That means we are burning 1 gallon of fuel per mile, making calculations very simple.

We arrived at Grafton IL Mile 0 at about 5pm, making this a 10 hour travel day. It seemed very civilized and the time went very quickly. I expected a big drum roll when we saw the Mississippi but it looks like anything else we have seen. I guess the bluffs are taller but really it looks like a river.

This marina is beautiful. The guy on the radio kept asking how tall our boats are. We understood why when we saw that the entire marina is covered! Each dock (there are 6) is covered with metal roofing and a metal superstructure connected to the floating docks. Everything echoes a bit. According to the locals they do this because of the weather. The weather? How bad can it be? They like their boats to be covered. I did not notice a lot of birds, which would make it messy to have a roof. The docks are 18” cement squares on a metal frame. Evidently the larger boats can stay in the water all winter with hold heaters and bubblers. It doesn’t freeze like Lake Erie or the northern lakes. Go figure.

Charlie on Bama Belle greeted us as we rolled into the marina!!! So nice to see Charlie. He is waiting for his new crew to arrive on Sunday. This is a staging area for the trip down the Mississippi so there are lots of loopers. We ran into Les and Tommy from Mobile and Wreckless from Canada again. He made the trip from Tall Timbers in Havana directly to Grafton without a day between like we had. Mostly because he traveled at 33mph all day!!

We had dinner at the marina restaurant – good thin crust pizza. Everything here is a winery. That is their way to attract tourists and it works. Drinks after dinner with Charlie, Les, and Tommy. Tommy is an electrician so he helped work through the generator issues over a few beers. Then off to bed to prepare for the repairs the next day.

By the way, Rusty likes this marina experience a lot better than the barge at Beardstown. He pooped about 1 foot out of the gate after leaving the boat. Like a small pony. That’s our boy!!

Thursday September 27, 2012 Grafton Mile 0

The morning dawned foggy so I took Rusty for a long walk, about an hour. He has been a good sport and needed to stretch his legs a bit. Grafton is another one of those dying towns although they figured out how to attract tourists with wine tastings and eagles. Not much to see beyond the main street that stretches for 3 blocks along the riverfront. It is a little warmer so we could wear shorts with long sleeve t-shirts, a nice change.

The mechanics we lined up for our four boats requested that three of us come to their main marina in Port St. Charles MO. Sareanna was scheduled to go to Alton to get electronics repairs. So we split up. We left at about 8am in a little fog, moving very slowly upriver on the Mississippi through a narrow channel cut through an island around a corner to St. Charles. Another nice marina with covers over many slips. They have a little dredger working all the time and a special pushing thingy on the front of an open bow 20’ runabout. So clever! This marina is run by Fern and Hoppies nephew’s family (the folks who run the famous marina at the start of our 250 mile journey later in the week). The customer service is fabulous and the mechanics are top notch.

We fueled up (53.7 gallons exactly on each side – not on purpose, completely a coincidence!) for $4.19, the cheapest gas we have seen on this trip! We moved the boat to a 40’ slip that required Kermit to give a picture perfect docking lesson to anyone who watched. The dock girl scoffed that anyone could do it with bow thrusters like that. She was shocked and more than a little impressed that those were not bow thrusters but just excellent captaining on Kermit’s part! His skills get better every day.

Turns out One September needs a new prop. He didn’t pack his spares so his son is overnighting them to arrive tomorrow. We will take this opportunity to go shopping. My phone died so I bought a new phone at Verizon, we stocked up on pet food, and found a nice grocery store in a shopping area about 20 miles away that looks like it could be in Canton OH or anywhere USA. For dinner Judy and Mike joined us in historic St. Charles at the Lewis and Clark Restaurant – this is where they started their exploration of the Louisiana Purchase in 1804 so there is Lewis and Clark stuff everywhere. We will go back to see historic St. Charles on Friday in the daytime because it looks charming. We even found an Aveda hair salon and got reservations for a cut and color on Friday morning. I haven’t been to the hairdresser since mid-July so my hair is a disaster. I can’t wait!

I have a ton more pictu