Back to the Grind :)

Before going home, Denise, Jenni and the kids and even Maud came up to Kenosha for the weekend.

We stayed two nights on the boat and enjoyed the amenities of the marina, especially the pool.

The kids brought their fishing poles and were both able to catch their first fish.  To get to experience this with them was priceless.

Once I showed them the engine room, Ryan kept wanting to go back in.

Going home for several days felt like taking a vacation from the vacation.  Big changes occurred in the two months I was away.  Jenni bought a house and her, the kids and Maud moved in the middle of July.  I knew Denise was giving her much of our furniture so I wasn't surprised when I found a nearly empty house.  Thankfully, they didn't take my Manland furniture.  I'm happy they now have their own place and the neighborhood is great with several kids the same ages as Ellie and Ryan.

Jenni had a little get together at her house for my birthday and the following weekend we were in Madison for the Roloff family reunion.

Originally, I had planned to resume the Loop on about Aug 30, but after talking to a friend of mine who still works :), I delayed until Sept 3 so that I can time a stop in Peoria, IL where he travels to every other week. 

My nephew, Jason, took the Metra train to Kenosha after work on Friday the 2nd and we departed Saturday.  The plan was to leave early for Chicago, but when I got up at 6:15 the weather looked pretty stormy, so I went back to sleep.  By 8:30 though, the storms had passed, the winds had died and the sun was out and we were off.

Early on we had pretty smooth seas and very warm temps.  The forecast was for a chance of showers and T-storms and about 2 hours from Chicago we heard a radio conversation between two other boaters about an approaching band of strong storms near Chicago.  We checked the radar map via the internet and saw that the storm was tracking to hit Chicago about the time of our estimated arrival.   I increased our speed a little and we watched the storm coming as we neared the city.  We could see the lights on at Wrigley Field, so we turned on the game and heard there was now a T-Storm warning for the area and soon after they announced that the rain had started.  But it was the slight increase in speed that kept us mostly dry as we watched the heavy rain sweep across the northern part of the city and out over the lake, just behind us.

Even though it was pretty grey, the skyline was still an impressive sight.

I had reserved a mooring ball in Monroe Harbor, but when I called upon our arrival, they suggested we tie up to the wall first to let the storm pass through.  We did, but the severe parts of the storm went both north and south of where we were.  A couple of Jason's friends, twin brothers, who live in the city came by were aboard before we eventually moved to the mooring ball.  Monroe Harbor is in the heart of Chicago, just off from Grant Park and Buckingham fountain.  It provided a great nightime view.

We took the water taxi to shore and went to Harry Caray's on Navy Pier for dinner.

We were back on the boat just in time for the Saturday night fireworks.

Jason kept me up late and as we sat outside the weather continued to be interesting.  This next picture includes the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower), but you can only see about the first 30 stories, the rest are in the very low clouds.

Sunday arrived with clearing skies and the very same view as above looked like this:

Having cruised through New York Harbor and now Chicago, I can honestly say that NY has nothing over the Chicago skyline.

To enter the Chicago River, you must traverse the Chicago Harbor Lock, which keeps the river water out of the Lake Michigan.  This was the 42nd lock of the trip so far, but the only one that required life jackets to be worn by all aboard.  Jason grabbed the one most handy, but not necessarily the most stylish.

I'm not even sure it would have saved him.

Just out of the lock we headed under Lake Shore Drive.

Before leaving the mooring ball, we had lowered the mast again.  While the bridges through downtown Chicago are draw bridges, they don't regularly open for pleasure craft.  If you can't clear 17 feet, you must go south to Calumet City and take the Cal- Sag canal which comes into the river southwest of the city near Lockport.  Now that I have a masthead light again, I am right at 17 feet, but didn't want to challenge the stated bridge heights.

Traveling through downtown on the river provided awesome views.

Just after the picture above, we came to the Amtrak rail yard and the Amtrak bridge, that only opens when there are no trains coming.  I hailed the bridge tender on the radio but he didn't answer.  I called two phone numbers listed in the guide book and one answered, but gave me a third number to call, which noone answered.  I called a passing tour boat on the radio to see if he could confirm that the bridge would open when there were no trains.  He did, but also said the bridge tender should eventually answer the radio.  About that time we heard a train crossing signal and assumed a train was coming so we tied up to the wall to wait it out.  Jason got bored and decided cocktail hour could start early.  It was 11:10 AM.

Soon arrived the longest and slowest train in the history of the world.

After it passed Amtrak arrived.  He got part way across the bridge, then stopped and then eventually headed back from the direction he came.

Eventually, the trains stopped coming and the bridge tender answered the radio and raised the bridge for us from his remote location.

At this point the river becomes very industrial.

A wide variety of bulk products move by barge up and down the river.

Even landscape mulch is loaded into barges.

It wasn't real evident, but somewhere along here the Chicago River disappears and becomes the Chicago Saniary and Ships Canal.  This canal was built in 1900 and its 20 mile length connects the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River.

I'm not sure why, but most barge tow boats are name after women.

Asian carp have become a problem in the inland rivers and there has been a significant effort over the past few years to try to keep them out of Lake Michigan.  An ongoing attempt to stop them using an "electronic fence" is in this canal.

A guy up in Kenosha from this area had told me that if I had a metal steering wheel, which I do, I should cover it with a towel because I might get a shock.  I didn't cover it and used the auto pilot, but touched the wheel anyway just to see if it was true.  I didn't get shocked, but  I did try to get Jason to take a pee over the side to see if he could get shocked, but even after two bloody marys he wouldn't do it.

A few years ago this area was closed to pleasure craft and people doing the loop were forced to have their boats hauled from the water and transported by truck to a spot beyond.  At $600, most boaters thought this was some kind of scam, which it probably was, because now we're just warned of the potential hazzard.

This next sign could have read, "If you can read this sign, consider yourself lucky".

When we got to the lock at Lockport, a barge was just coming out and we were told we would have to wait for a southbound barge that we had just passed.  He was waiting for the lock to clear of the northbound barge.  The lock tender called him and asked if we could lock through with him and he said that would be fine and that we could tie off to his barges in the lock.  So we waited for him to load his barges.

We came in along side and it took a few attempts to get Tranquility along side as the wind kept pushing us and tried to turn us sideways.  Eventually we got it tied and the barge tow pulled in behind us.

Jason was getting thirsty again, but I told him to wait until we were out of the lock.  He  had his coozy ready though.

Three miles from the Lockport lock we came to our stop for the night in Joliet.  Though not considered to be in the best part of town, there is a free dock with electric right in downtown.  Its across the river from the police station and there are motion activated cameras, but the guide books sugggested to not leave your boat unattended.

This is where I was meeting some friends who I worked with a few years ago when we opened a new distribution center near here.  Eric, Angela, his wife, their daughter Ella and Laura met us here.  They even brought dinner.  We cooked steaks, sweet corn and baked potatoes and even had desert.

Shortly after they left, Jason's friend Amanda arrived as she was going with us on Monday.  There were three other boats at the wall and two were still there when we got up.  As suggested in another loop blog I read, we called the next lock just a mile down the river to see what it looked like for traffic in the lock.  He said now would be a good time, so we hastily got everything ready to go and left with the other two boats.

First we had to get the bridge just below us to open.  It was charted at 16' 4" and he asked how tall we were.  I said 17', so he only opened it a little.

We got right into the lock, but again the wind was pushing us away from the wall.  The lock tender had told us all to go to the starboard side, but the port would have been better with wind we had.  Jason and Amada first tried to hold lines they had given us, but we eventually backed up to the floating ballard and tied off.  We found it to be the preferred method and one I will use whenever available from now on.

Not to far out of this lock we came to the junction with the Kankakee River.  Its this junction with the Des Plaines River that forms the Illinois River.  From here its 273 miles to the Mississippi.

Our destination for the day was Starved Rock Marina, just past Ottawa, IL.  We traversed two more locks, but these were mostly uneventful.  We did get an anchoring drill though when we had a 40 minute wait for a barge at the Marseilles Lock.

For a few miles we had a couple of jet skiers playing in our wake.  These guys were hard core, with helmets and wet suits.  They were jumping the wake and one guy was then diving his jet ski into the water.  At one point I obliged a request for a bigger wake and bumped the speed up for a short period.

The only other pictures from here to Starved Rock are bridges, but I'll spare you those.  We pulled into our assigned slip just after 4:30 and Jason's friends were already there to take him and Amanda back to New Lenox.  It was a good three days and Jason was a good crew member. 

 I'll be here until Thursday and then go home until Sunday.  Denise is coming back with me then and we'll continue down the rivers starting next Monday.