tie ups to Abandoned wall, docks and Barges! OH MY...

Not alot to see along the way a few houses, lots of trees and barges though.

The barges are loaded with asphalt, bark mulch, salt, sand, stone, pig steel, grain, crushed stone and other unmentionables.  They are being transported from other plants on this river or the Mississippi as well as the Gulf ports.

Honey I'm home!  We tied to a barge for the night quite an experience.

Took a walk into town, (Beardstown that is) 88 more miles to our next stop Grafton Il.

We all had lunch at the local Elks lodge in Beardstown,  something new for our Canadian friends aboard SomethingSpecial.  Nope, no Elks in Canada, but they are the home of the Moose Lodges.  A good time was had by all.

Isn't he cute................this is Skipper he's just 12 weeks old he's a Portuguese Water dog.  His master picked him up along the way and have had him for 3 weeks.  He's Canadian as well.  We met him at his new home aboard MyWay for cocktails.

Hmmmm Not really sure

Heritage Harbor to Henrys

Sunset at Heritage Harbor

The plan for an early start was foiled by fog in the morning. we didn't get out until almost 9:30

After nearly 40 miles we pulled into our new home for the night.  This is an abandon lock wall we tied up on.  It is the oldest lock wall on the Illinois River.

A bit rough but its history, these rocks were laid here almost 140 years ago.  Imagine the stories they could tell.

Evelyn and Sid kicking back on the wall, as we plan for dinner at the restaurant/bar.

No, I made no donations to the decor today.

The next morning it was foggy once again, but not nearly as bad as the morning before, so we headed out to our next stop, Tall Timber Marina.

Illinois River Southbound to Joilet IL and beyond

This is at the crossroads where the Calamet and Illinois River meet

Ok .....We now consider ourselves warned, we will not be swimming here thank you.

Our first night on the Illinois River was a FREE wall in Joilet

We planned to leave bright and early but the fog held us up until 9:30 ugh! we were up and ready at 6am

We have seen lots of duck blinds along the way. 

Sad to see one less marina on a river that already has a shortage

Now this is a nice houseboat.

Goodluck getting a fish out of these lily pads

Our 2nd night was at the Heritage Harbor this marina is very accommodating to loopers as the sign says.  They also have a courtesy car here.  We liked it so much we stayed 2 nights.

Goodbye to Chicago

Heading out of Chicago a much nicer day for photos of the city

We left with a buddy boat to head thru the city, thats Something Special up ahead of us.

There are nice parks and many resturants, coffee shops and pubs all along the waterway

This is an amazing thing to experience traveling along thru the center of the city

Passing time in the BIG City

Today was dreadfully HOT 97 degrees the weatherman said it would feel like 105 and it did.  But we took the bikes into town anyway.  We locked them up at Millennium Park and continued on by foot.  The section we did was the Loop which includes...........

Millennium Park                                                                                                 

I would  

 of loved to stand under this for awhile today.

                St. Peters Church

Daley Plaza Battle of the Bands Pep Rally

The Chicago Football Classic presents a Band Pep Rally featuring Alabama A &; M University vs. Hampton University.

The Chicago Picasso was commissioned in 1963 by the architects of the Richard J. Daley Center to anchor the plaza on the east side of the building. Most public art in large cities at this time was calm and stoic, mainly depicting historical figures, but in the 1960s, architecture in American cities began to reflect the many cultural and modern changes taking place throughout the country. The Daley Center’s architects decided to commission the renowned Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso, to create a monumental sculpture for their plaza.

Hmmm I look at this and it looks very, socialist to me.  Anyone have any info on this one?

              The theater district

        After all that we stopped for lunch at Millers Pub it was quite good.

Some of Jim's favorites I look at the one below and can only hope he isn't planning on putting it somewhere on his body. I see a tattoo in the making. Scary aye?

This was one of my favorites very calming and peaceful its called the equestrian a piece from China from the Tang dynasty the 2nd quarter of the 8th century.


After a long hot day, did I mention it was 97 degrees today? We got back to the boat and received a call from Greg and Kate to join then on Grianan for cocktails.  So we cleaned ourselves up and took a walk over to DuSable marina next door for happy hour.  We were later joined by the crew of Godspeed from Louisiana, we had not seen them since Deltaville VA it was a nice night sharing travel stories.  Tomorrow morning Grianan will be leaving Chicago, and heading down the River system southbound,  and very happy to be off Lake Michigan I am sure!  See you downstream, safe travels.

St. Joseph's MI to Chicago IL

Today was a great day to cross over to Chicago its a 60 miles trip across Lake Michigan to Chicago.  It really could not of been better!

Happy Hours in St. Joe's, 6 looper boats were there and with a big trip across the lake in the morning cocktails were in order.  Of the 6 boats 3 of us were going on to Chicago in the morning and the others had different destinations in mind.  One was going down a little further to Michigan City, another going down to Indiana just after Michigan City, and the 3rd was off to north of Chicago somewhere to get their mast stepped.  Safe trip everyone!  See you in Chicago.

It was overcast today and very hot and humid, upper 90's today and tomorrow.  But we will be here for at least 5 days and they say a cold front in due in over the weekend.

Navy Pier

More Navy Pier

Later in the day when it cooled down some. we took the bikes off the boat and headed to Navy Pier to investigate.

Jim managed to get a couple of good night shots of the City.

This is Jim's first time in Chicago so he has a list of things he wants to do.  I went to school in West Chicago some 30 odd years ago but there is still plenty of things I will look forward to seeing.  More later....................