Monday, July 23 . . . Still in the "Twilight Zone"

Woke up in Hamm's Holiday Harbor in Chillicothe, ILLINOIS :)  Since we pulled in late last night after entering the harbor through marginal depths for our boat (at times it was so shallow that the depth finder lost readings) we decided to get a better look around the marina.  Boy did this guy have stuff!

The first thing we saw as we got on to the main channel were those good 'ol flying carp!

Asian Carp that jump out of the water and can not only hit boaters, but injure them also, is not a joke on the Illinois River.  The fish become stimulated by an engine's vibration and leap well out of the water.  The ones that end up in the boats average eight to ten pounds.  The Redneck Fishing Tournament is held in Bath, Illinois, on a backwater and the winner is the boat with the most Asian Carp in the boat at the end of the three-hour contest.  In 2006, 78 boats brought in 1,840 fish!  The only gear allowed are hand-held dip nets.  Protective gear like football helments, baseball bats and rain gear for slime are optional. :)  Injuries requiring stitches from getting hit by the fish do occur.  Bow hunting (like the guys are doing in this picture), is also a growing sport and archers now come from all over the country!

While some people were on the river getting their workout hunting Asian Carp, Kelli and I took a much needed break after our rubber-band workout!

I thought the day was going to be pretty uneventful, but then I think the high temperature (100 degrees) started to get to us!  John knew the right way to cool down as we cruised; a little shower on the bow!

Peoria, Illinois, was a large town we passed.

Notice we're getting closer to the Mississippi River, as they had a hotel named after Mark Twain (right side of pic)!  This was one of the last large and for that matter, one of the last decent-sized towns we would see for some time until tomorrow night.  Since there was little in the way of towns, that also meant no marinas.  We did get lucky, though, as there was room at the Logsdon Tug Service!!!

Somehow we made our way in and found a spot!

Since it was sooo incredibly hot, we didn't feel like cooking, so we ventured to that large flight of stairs and over the big wall (see photo before this one) to see if there was anything on the other side that looked like a very small town.  Again, we felt like we were in the "Twilight Zone", as most of the buildings were closed and there were no people to be seen from anywhere!  We kept walking on Main Street, when Dave noticed a tin bar that seemed to have a smoker in the back.  Walking in of course, we got lots of looks.  We asked if they served food and they said only on Monday nights; ribs and steak!!! 

We had a wonderful rib dinner (of course not quite as good as the famous Lucky Dog Dan Dybdal ribs!!!) at "Annies" on Main Street in Beardstown, Illinois.  Remember, if you stop by, you'll only get this delicious dinner on Mondays :)

Maybe we are STARTING to come out of the "Twilight Zone"!!!

 

Sunday, July 22 "The Twilight Zone"

WOW . . . this truly has been a crazy few days.  We are thinking we've entered "The Twilight Zone" :)  As we started cruising yesterday, it seemed as if we were back on the Mississippi River, as we saw:

MANY towboats with barges!

"Beached" boats :)

Campgrounds and marinas.

Even jet skiiers . . .

RACING!!!

 THEN, things got a little crazy!  As we approached the lock, we were told there was a towboat in the lock and we'd have to wait one hour to go south.  The lockmaster told us there was no where to anchor and that we'd just have to idle around above the lock.  After one hour, we noticed the tow going SOUTH out of the lock and ANOTHER tow coming into the lock to go north!!!  After seeing that, we threw out the anchor!!! :) 
After finally getting underway, we came to another lock.  We were thrilled when there wasn't a tow and the lockmaster said the lock was ready for us!  Once in the lock, however, he told us that their lock had a broken valve and while it took the normal time to lock someone down, it would take approximately 1 1/2 hours to lock someone northbound!  Good thing we were going south!!!  BUT, since the lock wasn't working properly, they wanted to make sure they had as many boats that needed to go south as possible.  SO, there we waited for another half hour until a tow (no barge) entered the lock with us. (We did have a little luck on our side, as at this point the lockmaster said that they'd probably have to CLOSE the lock for some hours tomorrow to fix the valve!!!)
It was now 3:30, and we STILL had 5 hours of cruising!!!  We decided to Google the restaurants near the town where we would end up for the day, and Kelli and I were really excited when we found there was a Mexican restaurant two miles away with taxi service!  Well, interesting story . . . when we got to the town of Chillicothe (what a name!), we called the taxi service.  One was no longer in service, and the other had a recording that the taxi car was broken down and should be up and running the following day.  So, John called the Mexican restaurant to try to schmooz a worker to come and pick us up (he even said we'd tip well)!  The owner said unfortunately they were understaffed and it wouldn't work.  From there, we decided to start to walk to town, in hopes that a fellow boater in the marina might lend us their vehicle.  The LAST boat on the dock was a family tidying up their boat for the night.  Dave asked how far town was, and the boater then offered HIS WIFE'S vehicle!!!  As she hesitated in getting her keys, he asked where we were thinking of going to dinner (at 9:00 on a Sunday night!) and we said Tumbleweed Tex Mex.  The family said they never heard of that place and then said they just had the best pizza ever at Castaway's Bar.  As we headed in the beautiful silver family van, Dave told me to us the navigation tool on my phone to direct us to the Mexican restaurant.  When it popped up, it said it was 7 HOURS AND 26 MINUTES AWAY!!!!  Who knew there was another Chillicothe in OHIO!!!!

Lucky to have found Castaways . . . the BEST pizza in Chillicothe, ILLINOIS!!! :)
  

Saturday, July 21 Part II - The Rest of the Story :)

When I last left you hanging, we had to find a different spot on the Illinois Waterway to tie up to while we waited to go south through the electrical fish barrier, as testing of the water was being done.  During that time, the guys had time to put the arch and biminy back in place, while Kelli and I did some reading and relaxing.  Finally at 4:20, we began putting towards the Coast Guard in hopes that we would be able to get through.  At 5:00 on the dot, we were the first to be let through.  After seeing another sign like this, however, we were wondering if maybe the Coast Guard boat should have been first! ;)

Later in the day, we hear a story of how when they first put in the electrical fence that boaters had to turn off their engines and be towed across the 1/2 mile area.  Sometimes boats had to have their instruments and such inspected to see how everything held up going through the barrier!  This could even require a boater to have to be held up for the night!!!  I guess we were pretty lucky for only having to wait for 3 1/2 hours and everything on our boat continued to work after going through the barrier!

  The next venture was to go through two locks.  You'd think after the fish barrier, going through a lock would be nothing, right?  HOWEVER, as we approached the first lock, we discovered that there was no gate and we had to be sure to wait further back while they filled the lock, as it appeared we would otherwise be going over a waterfall!!!

It turns out their gate was broken and they had to use their emergency gate, which came up from the bottom of the water.

So, now we're in the lock and we can relax, right?  Well, first, there's yet another NEW way to tie up to a lock wall . . . just when we thought we've seen it all!!!  This time there was a floating ballard that we had to put a line around and bring it back around our cleat.  These are air-filled tubes that raise/lower as the water does.  So as you hold your line around it, your boat goes the way the tube does . . . interesting!

 

Wait a minute . . . is this a place to hold your line to the lock wall OR a beer holder?

As we left the lock, we saw how we needed to go through yet one more lock, as we were higher than the ground. 

 

After going 55 miles for ELEVEN HOURS, we tied up for the night at Harborside Marina in Wilmington, Illinois.  The crew was hungry and we thought the restaurant on sight would be closed.  BUT, luck was with us at this point . . . not only was the restaurant open, but it was very quaint with wonderful choices of food.  We toasted to the Peltier's arrival and a VERY crazy day!!! :)

Saturday, July 21 (Part I)

Saturday 8:30 a.m. and John and Kelli Peltier surprise us by making it to Chicago an hour early :)

After a quick tour of the boat, we were on our way towards downtown to the Chicago River.

While we were waiting for the lock and dam to exit out of the Michigan Harbor and enter into the Chicago River, we noticed many sailboats with flags and this sign.

Remember the sailboat race from Lake Huron to Mackinac Island?  It seems Mackinac is the destination!!! :)

We are now ready to go through the lock to enter the Chicago River and see the great city from the river view!  Both the Peltiers and us have been on the architectural boat tour of the city, but seeing it again, was great!  So much to take in, like:

Great buddies waiting for the lock to open.

Entering the lock to enter downtown Chicago.

Water spray over the Chicago River symbolizes the natural phenomenon of water . . . or Johnny Peltiers version is the joining of the two sides of downtown :)

First of many bridges with low clearance {yes, Danny, we used your Handy Dan D helpful design to lower the arch and take the biminy down :) }

The famous "honey-comb" residence (check out the cars and how they're parked . . . we can't think of the movie, but wasn't this residence part of a movie?)

If their residence wasn't enough, check out their boat slips :)

Look like any specific design you've already seen?

One last look at this great city before we head on to the Illinois Waterway.

A little further down the waterway, we see dragon boat races.

Much of the Illinois River began to remind us of the end of the Erie Canal.

Look at how the waterway is actually "carved" out.

Instead of going through downtown Chicago, we could have gone south on Lake Michigan for about a half-hour to the Calumet River (but we all know that we're soooo done with Lake Michigan :)}.  This is the convergence of the Chicago and Calumet Rivers to create the Illinois River.

 Beautiful waterfalls flow from each side (but where is the water coming from?) :)

After this convergence the waterway turned VERY industrial with many tows and barges.  We also saw many different types of material like this strange mixture:

Things were going great and then we saw this sign:

Then we saw another sign that told us we needed to wear life vests.  Confused, we decided to get the beautiful orange life jackets out as the Coast Guard approached.  They told us that the next part of the river was closed until 5:00 p.m., as they were doing testing of the water.  It turns out there's an electric barrier in this vacinity to try to eliminate the travel of Asian Carp into Lake Michigan.  At the time, it was 1:30 p.m.  With no where to anchor, we pulled along side the wall of the channel where some of the barges were and tied up. 

Crew member, John, works hard to find someway to secure the "Johnson & Johnson"!

Well, that lasted one hour, and then we were told by the Coast Guard that because of some tow activity, we needed to move.  UGGH!  So, we traveled about a mile or so and found another wall to tie up at, and there we waited.  Remember, that funny looking blue sand isn't too far away from us . . . are we safe?  At this point I lost my internet signal, soooo stay tuned for Part II of this day, to find out "the rest of the story" :) 

CHICAGO!!!

One day early and we've made it to Chicago!

Since we haven't had a signal since we left Mackinac City, let me catch you up as to how we got to Chicago!


Tuesday, July 17
Took our time leaving Mackinac City, as winds were blowing at 10-20 knots and there was a chance of morning thunderstorms.  By 10:30 a.m. winds had settled to 10 knots and the chance of thunderstorms was almost nonexistant, so we headed out for the "Straits of Mackinac" under the Mackinac Bridge.

Can you tell I just got a new camera? ;)

Enough of the bridge, on with the cruising of the "Straits of Mackinac"!  While we were cruising there were some very narrow passages along the straits, so instead of just lighthouses with foghorns to tell the captain where the channel is, these lighthouses had the ability to give the captain an enhanced and larger image on the boat's radar screen; they're called "radar transponder beacons".

Things were good as we crashed into the very large waves, however when we had to make the turn . . . uggh!  Back to that rolling that we experienced on Lake Erie.  Captain Dave put the boat on plane so that the rolling only lasted for about 30 minutes.  Before we knew it, we were at our destination; Beaver Island. 

This picture is looking out into the bay from the island.  The island turned out to be mostly that of a resort island with only one grocery store, gift shop, restaurant, and hardware store (you know Dave loved that!)  Anyway, not too much to do.  This was, though, a historic first on the trip, as we anchored out in this beautiful bay!!!

There we are, first boat in the left of the picture with all of the other sailboats :)
Had a nice dinner on board and watched "Meet Joe Black" . . . very interesting and LONG movie!


Wednesday, July 17
The next morning, we got going fairly early, as we wanted to get to Pentwater, Michigan, which is half an hour south of Ludington (for those of you who know of the famous Badger Ferry, this is where it leaves from in Michigan to travel across the lake to Wisconsin; fun trip . . .did it with the girls some years ago).  We traveled most of the Michigan shoreline, which is very sandy.  This is Bear Point (Krystina climbed this on our family vacation to Mackinac Island!).

We also saw from the lake a lighthouse that we had stopped to check out from land on our family Mackinac Island trip.

The weather was beautiful as well as the cruise.  The large hills of sand were something else to see from the lake.  How would you like to travel these stairs to take a refreshing dip in Lake Michigan?

After a long day of cruising, we finally arrived at our location; Pentwater.  This resort town turned out to be the cutest town ever (right up there with Vermilion, Ohio, without the canals)!  This park is what we first saw as we entered a canal which led to the Pentwater River.

Adorable homes, parks, and marinas lined the canal and river.  We had dinner at Gull Shores where an eight-piece live jazz band played as we had dinner outside overlooking the river!  There were bike/jogging paths all over with the cutest shops ... too bad I ran out of time to check them out :(  I would HIGHLY recommend this town as a destination stop for a summer trip!

Thursday, July 18

Well, today was a very interesting day.  Unlike the beautiful, sunny photo above, we woke to rain showers.  The wind wasn't too bad, so we decided to cross the lake and head to Racine, Wisconsin - ahh, home :)!  However, we weren't out on the lake for too long when we discovered the waves were crazy!!!  It just didn't make any sense, as the winds weren't strong, but there seemed to be huge rollers which tossed our boat all around.  I don't get seasick, but since it was difficult to move around the boat, let alone do anything, I spent most of our cruising day in the pilothouse either reading or sleeping.  I just got a wierd feeling in my stomach as the boat rolled in many different directions.  Dave stuck it out on the top deck for most of the day.  I managed to give him a break and drive for an hour.  The last few days I have driven about a third of the time, so I felt bad not doing my part today.  Since our good friends, John and Kelli Peltier are meeting up with us in Chicago Saturday morning, we wanted to make sure that we got to Chicago sometime on Friday.  However, in listening to Friday's forcast, the winds were supposed to be anywhere from 10-20 knots and waves from 5 to 7 feet!!!  I don't know what we had today, but they were large and we didn't want to deal with anything larger, especially since the winds were going to be rough!  As much as Dave and I wanted to go to Racine and get off of the lake, we knew we had to push through and get to Chicago today.  So, on the water by 8:00 this morning and we finally pulled into port at 5:30 p.m. at Burnham Harbor - by the History Museum, Shed Aquarium, and Planetarium.  We're also right next to an outdoor concert where the majority of listeners are teenage girls.  Carly Rae Jensen (I think that's her name), who sings the popular "Call Me Maybe" and the band Boys Like Girls are performing.  I have to say, looking at the city lights of Chicago while listening to a live band - and plenty of screaming teenage girls :), is the best spot to work on the blog!!!  It's nice to be back in our regular time zone and no more lakes with unpredictable waves!  Saturday morning we leave Chicago for the Illinois River . . . that will be a nice change :)

I'll leave you with one more picture.  This is of the marina as we're pulling in.  You'll see the Willis Tower (Sears Tower) on your left.