The Illinois River

Sunday morning, September 12, Henry, Illinois

The sun is coming up behind a fog bank on the Illinois River behind the trees that grow on top of a wall near us. Oh my, it is gorgeous! The fog is orange and swirling. Last night, before we went to sleep, about 20 white geese landed in this little area and slept here all night. They chattered all night, too, but it wasn’t too bad after a while. They are all resting on the point behind us now, too far away to get a photo. I have never seen wild white geese.

This is an unusual spot. Henry, Illinois, on the Illinois River. Around 1890 they built a canal here (probably to get around some rocks) but they abandoned it almost as soon as it was completed. Now it’s just a decaying wall made of huge horizontal slabs of brownstone. 

Another interesting but awful thing in this river is the carp. It’s an invasive species from Asia, and has infiltrated the rivers of America, eating everything and having no natural predators. Two days ago we crossed through an electrified stretch of the river where they are trying to keep the carp from heading upstream into Lake Michigan. The Big Chute, near the end of the Trent-Severn Waterway in Canada, is also being used for that purpose now. It was a short railroad track with an enormous boat-sling that hauled our boat out of the water on one side, portaged us over the land to the other side, and launched us back into the water. Originally they may have built it that way because they ran out of concrete during the first world war, but now they claim that it is an environmental asset. And it is.

So I’m waiting to see the carp. People say they jump out of the river and onto your boat! Wait and see.

Lots of news in the family. Jena has a job out in the San Francisco area. Nelson has moved to Albuquerque and has found work that will tide him over for a while. My younger sister is recovering from her bicycle accident and my older sister is building a brand new house in the Fort Worth area. Our niece, Mary Jane, had a baby boy on the 12th! All this while we make our way down the rivers.

It still looks like Summer here, but it feels like Fall. This morning there’s a red tree on the river bank; I don’t think it was there yesterday.