Illinois River Downbound

Tuesday, September 15

Three boats are traveling in front of us and one behind. Like a little fleet. All five stayed in the same marina last night, Tall Timbers in Havana, and we’re all heading for the same lock 40 miles south at LaGrange. We might as well stay together because the lock masters will put all the PCs (pleasure craft) through at the same time. If you get there too early, you drop the anchor and wait until the lock is ready. One day we waited at anchor almost three hours, but yesterday he took us in as soon as we arrived. 

In locks, the barges have priority over PCs, whether they are upbound or downbound. An average barge/towboat combination is 3x5 - three barges wide and five barges long, with a towboat pushing at the rear. One night Brian saw one that was ten barges long, but it would have to be taken apart to get through the locks. 

There are eight locks on the Illinois River. Since leaving Chicago, we've gone through seven of them. We’ll go through the last one later today. There are two more on the Mississippi above St. Louis. I’ve counted 25 more before we reach the Gulf of Mexico if we include the side-trip to Chattanooga on the Tennessee River. 

On the inland rivers, when we say “on the one” it means “we will pass you on our port side”. “On the twos” means “we will pass you on our starboard side”. This refers to “one whistle” and “two whistles”. It’s the same whether we are approaching a barge going the other direction or overtaking a barge going the same direction since we are talking about ourselves. They travel at about 3 - 4 knots, while we travel at about 7 - 8 knots. 

The water on the river is down about a foot this morning, a process that is controlled upriver somewhere. But we can still see all along the riverbank the line where the floods rose this spring. About 20 feet of flooding! Houses have built secondary retaining walls, levees have been built, restored or improved, and silt has been dredged out of the river and replaced along the shore. The roots of trees are exposed all along the river’s edge and enormous tree trunks are washed up high on shore. The oddest sight is where the bottoms of the trees are all level, showing where the water rose to that height and drowned this year’s Spring growth, as though they had hemmed their skirts to be exactly the same height from the floor regardless of how tall they were. In older woods, you can see clear though where the lower limbs are gone. It is very pretty when backlit by the sun.

Wildlife - storks,  white geese, blue herons, white herons, eagles, hawks, swans, vultures, seagulls, a grasshopper, mosquitos. Today we saw a large bald eagle with a white tail take off from its perch along the shore. A huge old blue heron stood on the dock and cleaned himself while watching the water for his breakfast.

Asian carp - these invaders startle me every time when they suddenly leap out of the water! They can leap more than ten feet, sometimes landing on the boat! One hit the side window and made a big thump before landing back in the water. The ones I’ve seen are fat and about 18 - 24 inches long. They eat everything, so the native species have less food. At this point, there are not many other species in the Illinois River, plus it is polluted from Chicago upriver. It’s still very pretty on the surface however. 

In Chicago the river was a very exclusive location. Just past the city it gets totally industrial with big barges lining the shore several barges deep and enormous old factories using the river for both power and transportation. The barges load and unload grain or fuel at huge warehouses and silos. Sometimes the river smells like PineSol and sometimes it smells nasty. Now, however, as we have continued south on the Illinois River, it has become pretty and natural again. It is about as wide as the Connecticut River. The land on either side is flat but usually covered with deciduous trees, or it’s bare where a levee has been restored. 

I’ve been crocheting, basically just a rectangle, but yesterday I finally looked at it closely and discovered that it was quickly becoming a triangle as I dropped stitches from every row. Reluctantly I decided to pull out half the stitches - letting Brian have the fun of unravelling it - and I’m trying again. I’ve figured out tension and how to make certain stitches, but the counting-thing just isn’t working yet. While traveling, I also do crossword puzzles and make lunches, but of course most of the time is spent just looking out the window. I’ve also driven the boat a couple of times on the river, giving Brian time to read ESPN on his IPad. 

In Chicago we had screen doors installed on the side doors. We love them and they are definately keeping out the bugs. Recently we noticed another small hatch of mayflies. We also strongly endorse the Seagull water filter that we installed before leaving Connecticut. The water tastes as good as any we’ve ever had, plus we don’t have to lug any more heavy bottles or gallon-jugs to the boat. We’ve also discovered Wisconsin sharp cheddar, aged 9 years. Yum.

2:00 - Eleven PCs went through the LaGrange Lock together. Half of us are planning to anchor in one location about 20 miles downstream; the other half are anchoring about 30 miles down. Heading downriver on the Illinois, the green markers are on our right side/starboard and the red markers on the left side/port. There is not a sailboat in sight. We just passed a 3x5 barge. 

3:00 - By our calculations, we passed the western-most point of our trip today on the Illinois River at 90°38’783 West longitude, below the Pearl railroad bridge at Valley City where the Illinois River curves. If we were heading to New Orleans, the most western point would be later on the Mississippi River, but we’re heading to Mobile. A few days ago we passed latitude 41°20' North, finally putting us below our starting latitude in Essex, Ct. The rest of the trip we will be west of Essex, south of Lake Superior, and east of Valley City, Illinois. Key West is our most southern marker but we won’t reach it this year. 

Back at home, life goes on without me! The Garden Club had its meeting on Thursday and the choir practiced on Tuesday night. Fascinating.