Football--We are VFL--Vols for Life

We are in GTB, connected to cable TV for a week—a first since June and it is football season.  Soooo..the Vols play Florida in THE game of the season for us Vols fans that have waited much too long to beat a rival.  It is unhealthy how much we want this win in a game-played by 18-22 year olds.  But we watch and expect anyway.  The people here at the dock think at first that someone must have fallen in a hatch the first time we yell—soon they realize we are just watching the game.  The first half we trade leads but UT has a lead at halftime even though no one on Sunny Days is comfortable.  Friends from Kat and GimmeTime come for the 2^nd quarter and when they leave at the half we joke that if we fall behind we are going to make them come back because we are shaking up the ju-ju.  Then inexplicably in the 4^th quarter we decide to quit playing on 4^th downs.  Florida makes 4 of 4 4^th down plays—the last one was 4^th and 13 with 2 minutes to go?!? In the last second we miss a 54 yard field goal to lose the game.  We are so depressed—we had a Seafood Boil Party to go to here at the dock—we pass.  Fitz and I are in bed by 9pm.  Yes, there is another game next week but it will be a year before we get another crack at Florida.  Text from Nick—So depressed, I wish I drank.  Katie on FB—It is probably best to just not talk to me until next football season:-(   Chips off the block.

Back in the Good Days

Nothing like Rocky Top

Green Turtle Bay

This is truly an oasis (pools, a couple of restaurants, bike trails, quaint small town) after the travels since Chicago we are ready for it.  They really cater to the Loopers here and have the best ship’s store ever –and are having a sell!  We meet back  with our Canadian friends Mañana from Parry Sound/Michigan City –Fugitive has rented a car to go visit a sister in Louisville area but will be back this weekend and Kat and GimmeTime are headed here (presently caught between Lock 52 and 53—I hope they better luck getting through that 1).  The injector cable is supposed to be here today (please Lord) and we will change the oil, etc. and head for Nashville next week. 

Changing the oil

 

All good news from the engine room

 

Friday brought an interesting turnover on the dock.  About half the Looper Boats went on down the Tennessee (none northward toward Nashville or Chicago) and by nightfall we had about 15 boats arrive.  This included our pals GimmeTime and Kat in the Hatt plus Fryedaze we had met in Michigan City--all with tales of Lock 52 and 53.  We took the courtesy car (and the long route thanks to the faulty navigator) to Paducah, KY to reprovision because we were out of everything.   Saturday is the big game between Tennessee and Florida and we have cable and can watch then the Marina is having a Shrimp Boil.   It is sure to be a great day. 

Notice Sunny Days' Mustache--Muddy Mississippi?

Green Turtle Bay comes by its name honestly--turtles abound



Shopping at Patti's with Kat and Amy--fun

Came a little too naturally

Leaving the Mississippi, up the Ohio

We loved the anchorage at Little River Diversion—docktails with Fugitive—locals came by with their families.  We took off early in the morning and around 1pm we rounded the bend leaving the muddy Mississippi and finding the prettier water of the Ohio.  We got to Olmstead Lock around 3pm and waited with Valentine and Fugitive to start the lock through process—Olmstead, then Lock 53, then (if we are lucky) Lock 52.  Everybody we talked to had a different ways to get through so we just showed up at Olmstead and trusted them to run us through all 3.  This was not to be…we came out of Lock 53 at 6:30pm –just enough time to get to Bean Branch Creek to anchor—we will have to tackle Lock 52 in the morning.  Locks are NOT fun anymore.  We did see eagles—most of them perched on sandbars sunning themselves and go by Metropolis, Illinois—birthplace of one of my favorite student workers—Mike McCoy and Superman?!?  5pm we exited Lock 52 on the Mississippi—we had traveled 15 miles and waited 6 hours but we are finally weeding our way through the Barge/Tow interstate they call the Lower Ohio to anchor in Cuba Towhead. Tomorrow we will be on the Cumberland River and Green Turtle Bay—our stomping ground. 

We loved this--the family (for fun) goes out and catches the Asian Carp
 by letting them jump into the boat and the little girls throw them back in

Olmstead Lock (under construction) lines up the tows/barges and the pleasure craft
 for going through the 3 locks --Olmstead, 53, 52 took us 2 days to go the 25 miles 

After Lock 53 we had to anchor across from the concrete plant after dark-not fun

Ft. Massac outside Metropolis, Il--we anchored and dug in for the wait for Lock 52

Our buddies Fugitive from Penetang, Canada were great running friends

Barge/Tow Interstate--the day we came to Lock 52 there were 21 tows with multiple barges there to lock
 through as well--they worked us in but some of the barges were going to have to wait for 3-4 days 

Of course, through all this we cracked an injector cable and it is a blessing
Fitz can fix it

Paducah, Ky 

Swimming squirrel --who knew

Kaskaskia Lock to Little Diversion Channel Anchorage

Traveling about 50 miles on a beautiful sunny day is no hardship- especially when there are no locks with which to contend.  The Mississippi is very muddy and weir dykes and wing dams built to stay the heavy current make for very turbulent waters.  Closer to St. Louis there are pretty homes that dot the shore but the further south you go it is really barren.  The weather is just perfect and predicted to be such for the next week.  The Kaskaskia Lock offered a great tie off and we were joined there by 4 other boats- Fugitive (scene of our docktails), Cutty’s Arc (Newbies to the Loop out of Port Charles, Mo), Next Step (Chattanooga people-almost done), and Valentine (California people-been on the Loop for years and sort of wonder).  This was a great place to spend the night and we all got up and rolled by 8am.  Little Diversion is a couple of miles south of Cape Girardeau, Mo. and one of the few places to anchor off the Mississippi.  Even though we have traveled 70 miles the current has brought us to this anchorage by 2pm.  Only Fugitive anchored with us—the rest of the gang went on –some as far as the mouth of the Ohio River—we will catch up with them probably at Green Turtle Bay on the Cumberland. 

Mist on the water as we cast off of Kaskaskia Lock

 

Shores of the Mississippi have great bluffs--these reminded us of mushrooms

 

Chester--Birthplace of Popeye

 

Lots of trains--Holden would love these

 

Cape Girardeau--birthplace of Rush Limbaugh

 

Fugitive--Janis and Brian--anchored with us at Little Diversion

Alton/St. Louis/Hoppies



We pulled into Alton Marina on Wed. the 16^th and all of us (Kat, Gimmetime, Fugitive) were ready for civilization.  We leave Kat and Gimmetime here as they are renting a car and going to St. Charles and St. Louis to see the sites. 

Dinner in Alton as we go separate ways for a little while

After a couple of days Fugitive will head south with us.  We hope to host all these new friends in Nashville in a few weeks. Alton was fun—marina and city plus we had 2 great dinners with our friends.  The trip from Alton to Hoppies Marina was 42 miles through 2 locks and downtown St. Louis. We got up early to try to make it through the locks and got in the Mel Price (1^st) by 9:20am—then down at the other end of the canal came the Chain of Rocks (2^nd)—this took 4 hours! It was grueling.  We thought it was good that we were following a cruise boat called the American Eagle through the not only did it not seem to get priority over the barges but when we entered the lock, the lockmaster sent us to tie off next to them and as we got along side, they hit their bow thruster and sent us sideways into the wall.  We had an abundance of fenders out and thankfully hit the wall smack on the fenders—not damage, big scare. Downtown St. Louis was filled with high rise buildings and the Arch—waterfront was sadly lacking.   We got into Hoppies around 3:30 and met the infamous Fern.  We are here with Fugitive, TiKi (Michigan City buds), Plane 2 Sea (Charlie and Kay) and Valentine (Jon and Nancy) these will be our running buddies down the 220 miles of the Mississippi. Fern held court for an hour explaining the best way to tackle the mighty Mississippi. 

Fern is the great sage for navigation of the southern Mississippi



In the lock with the American Eagle

Hoppies Marina



Our life jacket got hot and set off the CO2 Cartridge --scared us to death

St. Louis
 

Rural Illinois River

The Flying Asian Carp have shown their selves from Heritage to Lower Henry.  We had gone thru the electric shock at Chicago but hadn’t seen them in action.  While at Lower Henry a big one—at least 2 ft. I swear-- actually jumped into the cockpit of the boat!  It looked like a murder scene—they have really thin skin and bleed profusely.  I flattened one of our plastic tables and used it for a shovel to help it overboard--it served to excite. In southern Illinois River eagles are a very pleasant surprise —we see them in the mornings and are well paid because they sit out on bare branches and allow themselves to be photographed.  Sportsmen along the river are setting up their duck blinds getting ready to shoot Daffy, I guess. Commercial traffic takes over in this part of the country and the pleasure boats have to hurry up to wait at most of the locks.    Another surprise is the lack of cell service—driving the Captain crazy.  

This Big Boy had to be shoveled off the boat

 

Look closely and you see the Asian Carp flying--they loved the vibrations of our engines

 

Beautiful Eagles held court --especially during the morning cruises

 


Beautiful days but very cool with very windy afternoons

The Illinois River

Peoria at Night

Anchored at Lower Henry Island with Fugitive, Kat in the Hatt, and Happy Days.  An early start, cruising with 2 Nordic Tugs—Pearl  (out of Connecticut)and Melinda B (out of Maine/Florida)--took us into Peoria to meet up with Kat in the Hatt and Gimme Time –it was a noisy little town with anchoring space right down town.  The Walmart was off a sandy beach and up a short steep bluff.  I proved I was woman by climbing to the top and running in to Wally World to pick up a few items.  The 40 pin USB cable on my reader gave way right outside Chicago and I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed this electronic gadget.  For the record, Walmart nor any of the phone stores carries this item—Amazon after I get home I guess?!?  Found a new drink that was yummy at the riverside tavern called New Amsterdam—gin, basil, lime wedge, Triple Sec and cranberry juice, topped with cucumber slices called an Endless Summer.  They were filming a beer commercial there featuring Zombies at the waterfront and looking for extras—it didn’t start until 10pm so no participation from Sunny Days.  We went 60 miles each of the next 2 days (with 3 hour waits at the locks testing the patience of the Captains) the last 175 miles of the Illinois River was not very pretty.   The Buckhorn Island anchorage had us with Kat, Gimme, Pearl, Melinda, and Fugitive.  We had one big docktails on Gimmetime. The morning mileage seems to zip right along –we get to the afternoon’s ready to find an anchorage and it is slow as molasses we will be glad to get into Alton and start down the Mississippi River.

Armada at our Lock

They have casinos along the river

Anchored at downtown Peoria

Joliet to Ottawa

We went through 3 locks and had hard rain in 2 of them.  At Dresden Lock it rained and hailed so badly the lockmaster said we could stay there until it blew over if we wished.  At Marsellies Lock they told us we would have an hour wait and it turned into 2 ½ hour wait for barge traffic.  It rained off and on for the entire time.  When we got to Heritage Harbor Marina (who graciously took us in about 15 minutes before dark) the crews of the 5 boats went to dinner at Red Dog Grill and celebrated our survival of the day.  We may stick around here another day to do laundry and take a breath.  The locks/commercial traffic go a long way to challenge the pleasure boater.  Heritage Harbor is making up for the Locks, they have a loaner car and a very quaint town in Ottawa.  This is the historic town where a Lincoln/Douglas debate took place in 1858 --one of 7 debates over slavery in their run for the US Senate. 

We have lost our pretty water--Milfoil has returned

Rain--I worn 3 sets of clothes

Loved the rainbow

We called ourselves the survivors
Fugitive, Kat in the Hatt, Gimmetime, Sven and Teresa, and Sunny Days--we had had a rough day

Leaving Chicago

For a variety of reasons we waited until Wednesday to leave Chicago not the least of which when we head out of DuSable Harbor we will take a left into the Chicago River and go through downtown.   So off we go with Gimmetime and Kat in the Hatt traveling through the city viewing all the skyscrapers up close.  Then we had miles of industrial traffic on the other side stopping often to make way for barges pushed by tugs.  Joliet, Ill. is our destination—there is a seawall that is free for the evening and even has power.  There we find about 10 other Loopers some we have met in passing over the last few months.  We all met for docktails around the central park and traded (mainly) Canadian experiences and boat cards.  A lot of us will be traveling together for the next few days.  Bob and Pat (out of Maine), Janis and Bryan (on Fugitive), Sven and Sharon (out of Toranto), Bill and Jann Mellman (Ivory Lady -Marathon Key) are a few of our new running buddies.

Going into Chicago Lock

Skyscrapers

Under Willis (Sears) Tower

Joined the Cal-Sag River outside Chicago

Electric Shock to go through to not allow the Asian Carp into the Great Lakes

Found the bollard locks again

Joliet Wall

Chicago 5

Last full day and it was very muggy and hot.   Labor Day 2015 and we hit the Maggie Daley Park (with the masses).  The park just opened this year, covers over 20 acres, has climbing walls, a skate trail, swings, and slides.  After a couple of hours here we decided that we had to cool off over at the Crown Fountain again.  We hit the boat in time for happy hour and to wind down and get ready to travel the next day.  It has been a great time for all of us and we hate to see the kids leave but we will see them in a month. 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We found an awesome grocery store that is actually very close to our dock called Mariano’s.  I wish we had found it before Katie left—Whole Foods meets Kroger—great quality low prices.  It had a restaurant, a sushi bar and a wine bar --a real urban supermarket.  Two stories of awesome shopping—we took our friends Gimmetime and Kat in the Hatt back between storms that hit the area all day. 

Mariano's Bakery