Rolling Down the River

We left Joliet, IL on Friday, but not before several nights of visiting with other boaters, Lollygagger, Summerland, and Teri Ann, that came through.  Everyone stays at Joliet because the lock wall is free and has electric and water.

Loopers Takes Two, Attitude Changer, and harbor hosts With-A-K VIII enjoying dinner.

We left with Takes Two at 7:15 on Friday.  We made it through the first lock, Brandon Road with no problems.  It is a 34' dropping lock.

Blue Moon is tied to a floating bollard. 

We came to the next lock, Dresden Lock.  Yesterday, I mentioned locking can take up to four hours while waiting on the big tows.  We got to experience that first hand today while we waited for one tow to come out of the lock and another to go into it.  There is no place to tie up at Dresden so we idled up and down the river for 3+ hours.  We watched the tow push the barges into the lock.  Then barges are untied from the tow and put into position. Then the towboat backs out of the lock.  The lock drops 20'.  Then the lock has to be refilled and made ready for the towboat.  We were happy that we got to enter and go through with the towboat.

We had plenty of time to take pictures in the lock. Notice I don't have on a pink fleece jacket like I usually wore in Canada.  It is very nice warm weather.

King drives the boat out of the lock after a loud horn sounds, signaling that it is o.k. to leave the lock.

Towboat Cody Boyd locked through in front of us.  The picture below shows the towboat leaving the lock.  When the doors opened the 'mule' and cables had positioned the barges right in front of the lock doors.  We waited until the towboat tied back up to the barges and pushed away and then we left as directed by the lock master.

Lock Doors Open

The tow is tied to the barges.

And away Cody Boyd goes. The pilot house of the tow boat is hydraulically raised for towing and lowered when needed for clearance.

Four hours after we came to Dresden Lock we are underway again.  Takes Two passing Cody Boyd as we came out of the lock.

Many duck blinds on the river.

Friday evening we stopped at 5:00 at Spring Brook Marina.  It was a record setting day - only 30 miles in 10 hours! Ugh!

Saturday we left early, headed for Marseilles Lock.  It was an easy lock, and only waited 15 minutes to enter.

  King in the lock; look behind him and see two kayakers locking through, also.

We were directed to pull to the front of the lock.  We had maybe 12 inches between the front of our boat and the lock doors!

Takes Two and Blue Moon made it to Ottawa, IL by noon.  We like this town of 18,000.  Flowers and walkways, cute stores and friendly people.  Plus a free town dock with a vegetable garden.  

The town is decorated with flowers.  The Riverwalk has a mixture of flowers and vegetables, free to pick.  We will enjoy these vegetables.

Asian Carp - they also hit the side of our boat with a loud thud later that evening  Thankfully they haven't made it onto the deck of the boat.

Fishermen catching Asian Carp with spear guns, after the motor boat stirs them up.  The frenzied fish made quite a spectacle.