The beginning of the rivers back to the Gulf, Chicago to Green Turtle Bay

After a wonderful time in Chicago with most of our family, it was again time to move on. This time we are returning to more familiar river boating. Jan and I lived our lives in Minnesota where we boated extensively on the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers. We have transited every lock on the upper Mississippi River multiple times and transited the Illinois River to Chicago once. Having had this experience we were not expecting this to be an interesting part of the trip, only a necessity to get to new cruising areas. To our surprise the rivers were more enjoyable than expected.

We left Lake Michigan in almost dead calm waters. Transiting the lock at Navy Pier in Chicago was a milestone in our journey, going from the lake to the rivers. Although we had cruised through downtown Chicago several times on Mike's boat it was a thrill in our own boat. It was good to be moving again and not having to be concerned quite as much about the weather, especially the wind. We ran out of daylight just before arriving in Joliet, Il, our planned first night on the rivers. The first bridge tender really surprised us when he asked how far we were going and coordinated five bridges to open for us just before we arrived at each one. We were also thankful for the other loopers already tied up on the free wall who directed us to the front of the wall where there was room and helped tie us up. At first light we learned that we needed to get through the next bridge before it closed for rush hour. So, here we go again, in after dark and off just after sunrise.

After Joliet our trip down the Illinois River was quite uneventful. We had reasonable lock times. At one lock a tow allowed us to transit the lock ahead of him and another lock had the doors open and the green light on because he saw us coming on AIS. This was a surprise to me as I didn't know the locks monitored AIS. We also had tows call us on the radio because of the AIS and request meeting or passing on the "one" or the "two". That is river speak for passing port to port or starboard to starboard.

We stayed three nights in a nice marina in Ottawa, IL. We made good use of their courtesy car to tour the area. We also made good use of our bicycles including a ride to Starved Rock State Park which was beautiful.

There are Asian Carp in the rivers and they create quite a spectacle. The carp are annoyed by boats that transit the area and begin jumping out of the water. While we saw lots of jumping carp, we were fortunate that none landed on our boat. Other loopers have reported as many as thirty bloody dead carp on their swim platforms or in their dinghies. We saw several pontoon boats with cages around them, similar to the trampoline cages, that were trying to shoot the carp with bows and arrows. That was an interesting sight.

As we approached the Mississippi River, the river began flooding because of heavy rain in the area.The water was so high that no travel was advised for pleasure boats. There was a lot of debris floating down stream -  even whole trees. Because of the no travel advisory, we spent 10 days in Grafton Illinois. There were around thirty loopers stranded here, lots of docktail parties.

Grafton is a quaint town with a lot to do. We enjoyed a rather hilly bicycle ride, many docktail parties and generally hanging out. A highlight was seeing Mike and Coleen Kemp who relocated to St. Charles, Missouri from Plymouth, Minnesota. Colleen is a very close friend and was a  coworker of Jan's at West Health. It was great spending time with them. We were able to see one of their daughters, meet her husband and their young son as well as see their house. Upon leaving to return to our boat they offered us the use of one of their cars, a very welcome gesture that we enjoyed.

With the car we drove to St. Louis and toured the Gateway Arch, toured the Mel Price lock and dam, had dinner at Fast Eddies in Alton, IL, Hoppies Marina, among other shopping and errand trips. Thanks Kemp's!!! A highlight of the stay in Grafton for me was going zip lining. I was a bit apprehensive but thoroughly enjoyed it.

After the flooding receded we continued our journey down the rivers. The trip through St. Louis was uneventful. It is disappointing that there isn't anywhere to dock the boat anywhere near the Gateway Arch. The only place to dock between Alton Illinois and Green Turtle Bay is Hoppies which is almost an entire story alone. As the pictures below will show we met Mader from the Cars movie and thought we should rename Hoppies to Radiator Springs. Hoppies is nothing more than a collection of old barges tied to the river bank where you can refuel and tie up for the night. As we docked we needed to wait for huge logs and trees to pass before we could move up to the barges. The current there is extremely swift. We were happy that the debris mostly flowed around our boat and we had a relatively quiet night without being bumped by debris.

Since there aren't and other places to dock we needed to anchor for at least two nights. Our first anchorage was in Little Diversion Channel where we enjoyed a drink called dirty pirates with several other boats. After all, it was national talk like a pirate day! Our second anchorage was just downstream from the Olmsted Lock, a new lock under construction on the Ohio River.

Green Turtle Bay was an extremely welcome sight after a very long day going upstream on the Ohio River. Because the Kentucky Lock on the Tennessee River was backed up with commercial traffic we opted to travel a few miles further on the Ohio to the Cumberland River. We then transited the Barkley Lock without a wait. Green Turtle Bay is only a short distance from the lock and a very nice resort area.

The next blog will be our stay at Green Turtle Bay and our trip to the AGLCA rendezvous.

Average Looper with Chicago in the background on the way to the lock
to begin our trip back to the Gulf of Mexico. Nice and calm!

Jan is preparing lines for our lockage.
She is wearing an inflatable personal flotation device which is required in this lock.

Here we are inside the lock.

The lock building is constructed to look like a ship.

We never tire of the Chicago skyline, especially from the water.

This boat may be as old as Mike's.

More Chicago skyline - up close and personal.

This is Average Looper following us through downtown Chicago.

After downtown the river quickly turns industrial.
It's nice to see some recreational use of the river.

This electric fish barrier is intended to keep the Asian Carp out of Lake Michigan.

More of the fish barrier.
We transited the river at idle speed to arrive here after five pm. We didn't know the scheduled work had been postponed. Even though there was a sign to call the Coast Guard for permission to transit the fish barrier, there was confusion when we called. We could have transited earlier and avoided arriving in Joliet after dark.

While we were in Ottawa, IL we saw this double rainbow.

Little did we know how much it would rain and how we would be delayed in our travels from the debris floating down river.

We saw several wild turkeys on our bicycle ride to Starved Rock Park.

Another turkey.

A view of the Starved Rock lock and dam. We were fairly high up.

This is a typical lock on the Illinois River.

This is a typical scene going down the Illinois River.

We anchored out one night before we reached Grafton and awoke to fog.

After a short delayed departure we enjoyed a beautiful day.

Lollygagger, the boat in the foreground gave us a very hospitable welcome to the anchorage over the radio after we arrived. We had planned to anchor earlier but didn't find an anchorage we liked. 

A moon rise over Grafton Harbor.

A view of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers from the lookout on our bicycle ride.

The two rivers actually run parallel for a while before joining just downstream of Grafton, IL.

Here you can see the Mississippi and Illinois River junction.

Notice the barge tow going up the Mississippi.

All the white in this picture are migrating white pelicans.

Grafton Marina from the zip line area up on the bluff.

Navigator is facing the river next to a sail boat.

There is always something to laugh about with Mark and Jane.

There was some heavy weather while we were in Grafton.

The derbies floating down river included this green buoy 

that obviously became detached form its anchor.

Some interesting buildings in Grafton.

John and Pat from Satisfaction crossed their wake in Grafton.

Crossing your wake means completing the loop.

We all helped them celebrate at docktails one night. 

Even with the flooding waters this pirate ship was taking passengers on rides.

The zip liners ready to go.

Ready to go, receiving final instructions.

Away I go!

This was really fun. I will not hesitate to do it again some time.

Mark and I enjoyed the museum so much that we returned with Jan and Jane

 after picking them up at the mall. 

This large scale model of the river was really interesting.

The model showed lots of interesting river features.

River traffic is good for so many reasons.

We will transit this lock on our way to St. Louis.

We certainly hope this derbies will be gone before we get here in our boats.

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

My back is against the arch on one side here.

The City of St. Louis from the Gateway Arch.

This is the doorway to the tram we rode up to the top of the arch.

It's cozy inside that tram.

There is room for up to five people inside the tram.

At the top!

Looking down on the river side.

Notice the derbies hung up on those barges.

This is the city view from the top if the arch.

This gives a better perspective of the height of the arch.

Boating past the Gateway Arch.

We visited by car previously since there isn't any place to dock the boat in St. Louis.

Remember the white wake in Lake Michigan.

That is over with for a while. 

It even leaves stains on the bow of the boat, called a mustache, that is difficult to remove.

Navigator docked at Hoppies Marina.

Another view of Hoppies.

The "briefing room"at Hoppies.

Fern gives a briefing every day for the boaters traveling the rivers.

She has quite a presence among the tug boats captains and other river rats.

                                     We all appreciate her dedication to Mississippi river travelers.

And the long awaited MATER!!! holding the dock to the riverbank.

If you know the Cars movie you just have to love Mater.

We think this is Maters' little brother.

Just a sample of the derbies flowing past Hoppies.

We saw a lot of migrating Monarch Butterflies.

This one was hitch hiking with us for a while.

Beautiful!

Sunrise at Little Diversion Channel anchorage.

What a beautiful, peaceful place to spend the night!

On the upper Mississippi River they push a maximum of fifteen barges.

Here on the lower Mississippi this tow is thirty barges.

It is amazing to me that the tow boat is the same size as we see on the the upper Mississippi.

The rivers aren't all work and no play.

The waters of the Ohio River don't want to mix with the Muddy Mississippi River water easily.