Lorenzo & Delois Johnson

We only traveled 18 miles today.  We are having problems finding marinas with adequate harbor depth to accomodate us.  The river is 2′ below normal level, and this is causing us some serious concerns when docking.  Tomorrow, we will put in a long day, and travel far enough down the river to find deeper water.  The next 100 miles of the Illinois River is rather desolate with very few shore facilities.  We will probably anchor for the next two days to get through this section.

Portia and Starrie are still proving that they are the real champions of this trip.  I will perform their scheduled maintenance when we get to Grafton, Il.  Grafton is where we leave the Illinois River and enter the Mississippi River. 

We saw lots of Asian Carp today.  These fish are crazy.  They will not bite a hook, but they go into a frenzy when boats are near.  They will jump as high as 8 feet in the air.  When You pass through a school of them, the boat shudders as the props hit the fish.  The birds follow close behind, feeding on the fish parts.  The schools are cleary visible on the depth sounder screen, and it is best to slow down as you pass through them to lessen the impact on the running gear.  These fish are big, ranging from 18 to approximately 30 inches long.  One jumped onto one of the boats traveling with us, and the boat railing is over 5 feet above the water.  These fish were introduced to these waters from Japan to correct a problem with grass in the water and now these fish are a much larger problem than the grass was.  They devour everything, including the game fish species.

Barges are used to transport bulk materials in this area.  The farmers send their corn and bean crops to the market via barges.  The typical barge arrangement for towing  is a six-pack, 3 abreast and 2 deep.  They are intimidating to the pleasure boater, because You know that you must stay out of his way, or get run over.

Well, We travelled 43 miles today.  We passed through 1 lock, and had a good day overall.  We are traveling through rural areas with lots of farmland, and corn seems to be the predominant crop.  The water is very dark and murky and is a far cry from the waters of Lake Michigan. 

It seems that the Loopers are all congregating at the same places.  We had 5 Loopers traveling together today, and We are all staying at the same Marina tonight.  We ate dinner together at the Marina restaurant, and we were the only customers there.  We had a really good meal and everyone enjoyed the fun and fellowship.

The river water levels are low, and some of the group had problems with grounding in the mud in the marina.  Apparently, we can expect even lower water levels as we continue to travel West.  Marinas in Peoria are having problems with low water levels at their docks, so We may be in for some challenges.

Tomorrow, we will travel approximately 30 miles to Peoria.  We are hoping to meet Ed Douglas there tomorrow night.  We met Ed last year when He was Looping  on Cat’s Cradle  with Dave Smith.  Ed is an accomplished photographer  and chef, and I am looking forward to visiting with Him.

We are in Ottawa, Il. tonight.  We left Spring Brook Marina this morning, intending to travel to Henry Marina, a distance of 56 miles.  We also planned to stop in Ottawa to grocery shop.  The Grocery store in Ottawa is fairly close to the docks provided by the city to allow boaters  to stop and shop for a few hours.

We arrived in Ottowa around 10:30.  All three boats tied to the docks, and we walked 5 or 6 blocks to the grocery store, pulling our folding cart with us to bring back the bottled water and other heavy items.

While we were shopping, Gary learned that the store owner would transport all six of us along with our purchases back to the boats.  Now, we can do some serious shopping.  We restocked our galley, including lots of bottled water and cokes.

The owner used his van to transport all of us, along with our purchases, back to the dock.  On the way back, he gave us a quick tour of the town, including a lot of it’s history.  While we were at the dock several people stopped by to talk and welcome us to the town.  We were so impressed, we decided to stay until tomorrow.   Distance travelled today ; 13 miles.

The waterfront Waterwalk is impressively beautiful.  It even has peppers planted along with the many flowers and other greenery.  The peppers are free to anyone who wants them.  This town has gone all out to make traveling boaters feel welcome in their town.

The six of us walked uptown to have dinner.  We found a very good Italian restaurant and had a good dinner.  We really enjoyed our stay in Ottowa, but tomorrow we ned to move on.

We had a good day today.  We only traveled 37 miles, primarily due to delays at the locks while the tow boats locked through.  This morning, a tow pushing 10  barges was locking through ahead of us.  We tied to the wall and waited for him to separate the 10 barges into smaller packages that would fit in the lock.  Then, He had to reassemble them into one big group before He could leave the lock.

We have had four boats traveling together since we left Joliett.  The Restaurant at the marina we are staying at tonight is closed on Mondays, so we had pot luck.  Lois strutted her stuff, and invited the people from the other three boats to dinner.  She and Judy really put on a spread.  We finished grilling our fresh Salmon, and they made a great meal from Country ham, salad, fresh fruit, macoroni and cheese, green beans, and finished it off with a dessert made from fresh blueberries.  We had a jolly good time laughing and joking after the meal. 

The most outstanding element of this entire trip has been the people we have met.  I have a new appreciation for  the goodness and decency of our fellow man.  I have been awed at how easily and quickly perfect strangers get to know each other.  The bond may be through the boating experience, but I am sure that it goes much deeper than that.  There is genuine concern and compassion for people that You have only known for hours.  I am extremely grateful for having had the oppurtunity to experience this side of life.

We left Chicago this morning, and had a very good trip today.  No waves, no concern for wind speed and direction.  Great!!!

We lowered the flybridge enclosure to lower our overall height enough to get through downtown Chicago.  We were expecting to have approximately 4″ clearance when we passed under the lowest bridges.  We were lucky, and the water level had been lowered approximately one foot below normal level, so we had 16″ of clearance.  I was still nervous and apprenhisive when passing under the first bridge or two, but then my confidence returned after  seeing that we had adequate clearance and that there was very little river traffic this morning. 

It is hard to describe the transit through downtown Chicago.  We passed under more than 50 bridges, and the closeness to people and cars on the bridges was very real.  Actually, closer than I felt comfortable with.  On the Hudson river, we were treavelling in the valleys created by mountains; in Chicago we were travelling in the valleys created by monster buildings.  The closeness was more than I expected, but it was also a part of the uniqueness of the experience.  In other words, I would not do it again.

We left on the weekend to reduce our exposure to the huge volume of commercial traffic.  That turned out to be a good plan, since we only met 3 or 4 of the huge tugs and their barges. 

We are docked in Joliet, Ill. and we will spend the remainder of the weekend here.  The Harrah’s gambling casino is very close to where we are, so we should be able to find a good restaurant there.

We arrived in Chicago this afternoon at 2 PM.  It was not a real good day on the water, but we were glad to get Lake Michigan behind us.

We are docked at the DuSable Harbor Marina.  It is an upscale marina in a prime location.  The famed Navy Pier is an easy walk, and the famed Chicago Loop is close by.  We will be here for two nights and then move on.  Passing through Chicago is going to be exciting in many ways.  We only have 4″ clearance between the top of the flybridge and some of the bridges we will pass under .   We will remove the flybridge enclosure, instrument box,  and the Captains seats to get the 4″ of clearance.  The measurements were made with full fuel tanks and full water tanks.  I just hope that I don’t get waked at the wrong time.  If the lake level is low, then we will have more clearance.

We really missed having Bill and Kathy onboard.  They are great people, and we really enjoyed their company. 

Today is the 4 month anniversary  of our Great Loop adventure.  It has been really great, and far exceeds any of my expectations.  These old eyes have really seen a lot of amazing stuff in these 4 months, and there is lots more to come.

We left Grand haven this morning and had good weather all the way.  We did not have a real good trip because of an engine problem.  After being underway for about an hour, We detected that something was amiss, due to a strange smell in the salon area.  Lois investigated and found that the port engine exhaust piping was very hot.  This piping is water cooled and should not be hot.  I quickly shut down the port engine, and increaed power on the starboard engione to maintain our set speed.  I went to the engine room and could not determine the cause, so we decided against pulling into a port earlier than our original plans, and continued on to St. Joseph, MI.   My hat is off to Starrie and Portia; when Portia fell short, Starrie picked up the full load and we arrived at our destination at the scheduled hour.

Reaching St. Joseph makes reaching Chicago tomorrow a possibility.  Manuevering and docking at the marina with a single engine was very tricky and nerve wracking.  We did not hit anybody, and we made a good landing.

I went to the engione room and found that the Water pump was the culprit, and there was no other damage.  I replaced the impeller in that pump about 2 weeks ago, and the pump has  only 40 hours of run time since the impeller was replaced.  The original impeller was changed due to having over 500 hours of run time, and it was approaching the recommended replacement frequency.  

I replaced the bad impeller with one from our spares, and everything works fine.  Examination of the failed impeller revealed that it had a manufacturing defect.  One mark for the “IF it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” camp.  Believe me, I was very happy and relieved to find that we had stopped the engine before serious damage occured.

Judy and Gary graciously volunterred to fix dinner for the 4 of us, giving me more time to solve the engine problem.   The engine repair only took about an hour, but the meal she prepared was so good that I felt like I was cheating.  You don’t deserve a meal that good for only an hours work, especially when you are working on Your own stuff. 

Tomorrow morning, Gilraker and I will head West across Lake Michigan, expecting to reach Chicago in the late afternoon.  We are approximately 70 miles away from Chicago, and it will be open water travel.  We will be out of sight of land for the whole day, with the first land we will see being the Chicago shoreline.

We are looking forward to spending the weekend in Chicago.  We have a list of things to see, and do, and we are expecting to have a really great weekend.

After we leave Chicago, we will be traveling the Inland rivers for the next 1400 miles and 3 months.  We have several side trips planned, including a trip on the Tennessee River to the Knoxville Tennessee area.

We finally left Ludington.  It was a very enjoyable stop, with many interesting sites and activities, including lots of opportunities to ride our bicycles.  We met new friends and  welcomed several Loopers we had met before.  It seems that all the Loopers are headed for Chicago, and are converging here all at once.  

We had lots of enjoyable visits over the weekend.  Lois and I had 8 guests for Sunday dinner.  We had 10 people on our aft deck enjoying good food and lots of laughter and tale telling.  We ate fresh salmon off the grill with all the trimmings.  Salmon are being caught by the hundreds by fishermen from this marina. Our master negoitator, Gary, caught enough fresh Salmon with His smooth negoitating skills to feed the entire crowd.  The gift of fresh Salmon was highly appreciated.

Tonight, we are in Grand Haven, Mi.  It was a 64 mile run today, and the weather started off rather crummy.  When We rounded Sable Point, we were able to change course about 15 degrees toward the East, and that was enough to stop the rocking and rolling.  The rest of the trip was smooth and comfortable.

Bill and Kathy’s daughter, Heidi, along with her two sons, came for a visit.  We all went to a local restaurant and had a very good dinner.  I really enjoyed meeting Heidi and her sons.  GrandPa has reason to be proud.

The town provided a lighted water dance on the bank across from the marina.  The show was enjoyed by all.

Bill and Kathy left with their family to return home.  They will really be missed.  We really enjoyed having them onboard, and we are looking forward to the time when they can join us again.

Tomorrow, we head for St Joseph/Benton Harbor.  It is approximately 70 miles, but the weather forecast is very good.  Hoping that the weather holds so that we can make Chicago for the weekend.

We arrived in Ludington, MI, on Friday evening as scheduled.  The weather was not good, but tolerable.  Lois cooked a great meal for the six of us, and we had a great time together. 

Saturday morning, Lois, Judy, and Kathy went to Walmart.  A fellow boater on the dock voluntered to take them, since it is 5 or 6 miles away.  Bill, Gary, and Myself rode bicycles to getr breakfast, and do a little sightseeing.

We had a picnic dinner, provided by Gary, at the picnic tables at the waters edge.  It was very good, and the setting was perfect. 

This marina is very nice.  It is the largest marina we have visited since we left the East Coast.  This marina also has full occupancy.  The salmon are running, and lots of fisherman are fishing for salmon, and catching a lot of fish.   The salmon were introduced here to control the population of a form of baitfish.  The baitfish were increasing in quantities that were causing lots of problems  with beach access.  The salmon has reduced the quanitiy of bait fish, and the salmon has now become a prime gamefish. 

We are planning to leave on Monday and continue toward Chicago.  We may be delayed by many things, such as bad weather or good restaurants.

This morning, Les and Judy, fellow Loopers we met in Campbellford, Canada, arrived here.  We were very glad to see them, and looks like we will have 8 people for dinner.

We are on the move again.  Yesterday, Judy and Gary arrived, and we were very glad to see them.  We also welcomed our long time friends Bill and Kathy Bouman, who are joining us for a few weeks.

We welcomed Gary and Judy with a hearty meal waiting for them  when they arrived at Northport Marina.  We knew that theirs had been a long day, traveling from Drummond Island to Northport in One day.

This morning we left Northport and traveled to Frankfort, Mi, a distance of approximately 60 miles.  We had a good trip and  the weather was good.  The forecast for tomorrow is 2 to 4 feet waves with 10 - 15 mph from the North.  If this forcast proves to be accurate, we will probably not travel very far tomorrow.  We would like to spend the weekend in Luddington, MI, since it has a Wal Mart.   (No comment) 

On Monday, we would like to travel to Grand Haven MI, which is a location we would like to visit for awhile. 

We are really enjoying having our friends with us.  We are really having a good time and enjoying their company.

We are meeting increasingly larger numbers of fellow Loopers.  It seems that everyone is, like Us, trying to get off Lake Michigan by Labor Day.