Final "Catch Up" - Hopefully!

View of chartplotter when halfway across Lake Michigan.

This was the only boat/ship we saw on the crossing- The Badger

We crossed Lake Michigan on Sunday, August 26th. After sleeping late, and not thinking we would cross, we discovered after rising that it would indeed be a good day. The weather was much better than predicted. We departed Ludington at 11:22AM with smooth seas, the wind was from the Northwest which veered to East then Southeast. We got a good view of the SS Badger, the 400 ft car ferry that makes two trips between Ludington and Manitowoc daily. John has been reading a novel by a local author named "Murder on the SS Badger." We had a wind of about five knots and waves from one to three feet. The last hour the seas were off the port quarter that made relinquishing the steering to manual control and riding uncomfortable.However, it was a good crossing and we were happy to arrive at Manitowoc around 5:00PM, cleaned up and headed for supper at a waterfront cafe. Monday and Tuesday were spent doing laundry and changing oil.

Departed Manitowoc August 29th and arrived at Port Washington.

Port Washington is a man made harbor on the western shores of Lake Michigan between the larger communities of Sheboygan and Milwaukee. 0nce a commercial fishing harbor, today the harbor caters mainly to pleasure craft. The highlight of our visit to town was the discovery of a wonderful Polish market that sold delicious pierogy's and great homemade brats. We also did a little Christmas shopping and landed a real treasure for Sheila! We fueled early [really cheap fuel!] and headed out on Friday, August 31st for Racine, WI.

Racine is at the mouth of the Root River where it enters Lake Michigan. The original explorers called this river the Root River because of all the roots along the river bank. Racine is the French word for "root" and the town acquired its name from this French word. 0rigionally a busy commercial seaport, Racine has changed its outlook and image and is now a busy harbor dedicated to the use of pleasure craft. The town area is still trying to reccover from all the lost industry.

Racine is the place that John kept Traveller before he headed south with Jim and Rosemary. He also purchased his SeaRay, Cindy K, there and kept it in the same Marina in which we stayed.

The highlight of our visit to Racine was that we enjoyed two days of visiting with Beth. She arrived with awesome gifts for Father's Day and Birthday for John - a home baked cherry pie, a six pack of Leinenkugel beer, a special frame just for Dad's filled with pictures of John with his Dad, Beth and , of course, Remmi- Beth's dog, fresh produce which we devoured at supper Sunday night. Both Saturday and Sunday held high adventures for us all. We visited the light house, had a great meal at the Marina and an awesme lunch at a Mexican Restrurant. 0ur other activities are best left to photos and you can figure it out as you view them. Guess you could say we really went "overboard" on being real sailors!!!!! Beth's comment sums it up - "I never, ever, thught I see my father doing this." Well..........we DID and we love it! [Butterflies and Diamonds are BEAUTIFUL!]

Imagine!












Hard to believe, Right!

0n Monday we traveled to Waukegan in the hopes of visiting with Cindy but struck out. She and Ben were unavailable!!!!!!!????????Needless to say, we were disappointed that we did not connect with her.

Waukegan is another man made commercial harbor augmented with a man made harbor for pleasure craft. We didn't really do much off the boat other than purchase ice. Turned in early with the plan to begin early the next day and make it to Chicago.

Approaching the Big City

We were fortunate enough to secure a slip at Burnham Park Harbor in Chicago which is located in a basin on the east and solidified with Meigs Field airfield. This was the site of the 1939 World's Fair. This relatively large harbor is located about two and a half miles south of the Chicago River/lock entrance. The Park lies in the center of a lot of popular tourist attractions. It is adjacent to the Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum of Natural History, McCormick Place convention center and Soldier Field, the Bears Football Team stadium. It all reminded John of the days when his Uncle Warren would pick up the two young sons of his brother Vernon back in the 1940s and take them to these very facilities. John, in turn, used to take his young children to the same places. It was really impressive during the day, but at nighttime it was simply overwhelmingly beautiful because it was all lighted and you could not only see the above mentioned but all of the city as well. As luck would have it, Gail's Mark was in New York while we were there so we weren't able to see him in "his" work place but had a nice phone conversation with him. Also wanted to connect with Dan, Peg's cousin, but ran out of time.0ne huge thing we did was lower the mast for the trip under the bridges ahead. We did that with much less difficulty than we had anticipated. Think we are getting to be really good boat people!

View from the stern of Monarch looking toward Chicago.....







Chicago All Aglow!

We left the Marina in bright sunshine and clear skies at 7:30AM on the morning of the 5th and headed for the Illinois River Lock. We had called ahead so they had the lock opened for us and handed us lines as we entered. It doesn't get any better than that! 0nce through the lock we travelled right into the heart of the city. It is breathtaking and an experience not soon forgotten! There were no other boats traveling along with us so we had the whole river to ourselves. For those of you who are Chicago fans, you HAVE to treat yourselves to a river cruise the next time you are in the city.You pass under 40 bridges in around five miles. The sides of the walls in front of all the buildings and bridges are decorated with boxes of flowers and there are many places to dock to go ashore for meals. Most of you know that Gail is a huge New York fan but the trip into Chicago has prompted a promise from John to fly her back for a "land visit "in the near future. Wish we could be there in 0ctober when John McVay runs the Marathon. When we saw Lake Shore Drive, we wondered if that is where he will be running.

We took so many pictures that it would be silly to publish them all here but, Mark, Peg and John, we will email the whole batch to you. You are the people most connected to Chicago that we know! Wish you could have been with us! It was definately one of those "once in a lifetime experiences"!

0nce past the city you pass a highly industrial area along the river filled with every imaginable kind of factory and huge docks for barges to pull up and hall things away. There is one area that is so narrow and so full of tow traffic that the Cruising Guides call it "The Ten Miles of Hell". We saw a multitude of tugs and tows but we found it challenging and exciting. It is fun to see some of how Amerrica gets its goods. Further down stream, the picture changes drastically. The banks are full of trees, bushes, wildwife, wild flowers, corn fields, cows and everything else "country". It is very peaceful and moves the heart to a thankfulness to The Creator for His multitude of gifts.

Can you tell we are loving this trip????

We traveled a total of 53.7 miles to Willmington, Ill. and stayed at Harborside Marina. It was a very long day! We waited an hour and a half at the Brandon Road Lock as a tug locked about ten barges through. We entertained ourselves watch a multitude of white herons fishing for their food. They are everywhere along the river.

We enjoyed a nice meal at the restrurant - which was a loooong walk from the boat - and then called it a night. John however, had a drink of "Mr. Clean" from a glass Gail was soaking her rings in before we turned in for bed. That neccesitated a phone call to our new docter friend, Bob Robinson who didn't take it very seriously [thank goodness] and assured us that all would be well. Ironically John had no adverse reaction - that will tell you how strong his constitution really is!!! Gail, on the other hand, awakened all through the night to check to see if he was still breathing!!!

The next day we continued on through Dresden Lock to Spring Brook Marina in Seneca, Ill. As we passed Unnamed Island two white pellicans led us down the river. We are still here - Saturday, September 8th and will be here through tomorrow so we can go to mass at Saint Patrick's [named for John's ancestor!!]

John is presently modifying the box for the new batteries and Gail is much releived that we are finally up to date on the blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you to all of you who have lovingly and patiently continued this journey with us. The fact that you are still reading after all this time is amazing! We love knowing you are sharing this trip with us and still want to "come along" with us. Your e-mails and comments are most welcome!