Alton, IL

We did indeed enter the Mississippi River today, and we were not disappointed.

The massive, craggy Mississippi ''palisades'' were a welcome change from the relatively flat land we had been traversing

The aspect of Elsah from the river is definitely un-inspiring.

Enroute we encountered a rather unusual vessel. It appeared to be a standard 200' river barge with a multi-story building on it. It was being pushed by a rather husky tow boat. 0ur curiosity got the best of us, so we asked and the radio; ''what kind of vessel is that?'' The answer astonished us; ''a private yacht.'' Boy would we like to know the rest of that story.

We are now ensconced in a very nice marina in Alton, IL.

Illinois was a ''free'' state in the 1830s among surounding ''slave states.'' Across the river from the thriving slave market place, St. Louis, and protected by the Mississippi and 0hio rivers, it was a natural as a staging area for the Underground Railroad.

In 1858 the last of the seven Lincoln Douglas debates was held at Alton.

More Mississippi meanderings tomorrow.

Grafton, IL

We have spent the past few days in Grafton, Il. This is an old river town at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.

We started out from our anchorage at Beardstown intending to anchor at a convenient spot behind another island, but the wind came up strong from the south. This meant we would have a wind opposing the current. We would have lain at anchor alternately upstream and downstream as the wind rose and fell during the night. Each time we swung around, John would have been up to insure that the anchor turned around and re-set each time. Not a recipe for a restful night. We therefore pressed on after a long, but uneventful day.

These are a couple of pictures of a car ferry across the Illinois River at Kampsville, IL. The little tug has a post on its bow and there is a similar post on the side of the barge that carries the cars. There is a link that fastens to each post. The tug pushes the barge from alongside across the river. When he wishes to return, he spins the tug around, still attached to the link, and pushes the barge back across the river.

The river has really changed it's character, with rugged hills and rock outcroppings. We are looking forward to entering the Mississippi when we get going again. Right now we are waiting for mail, which activity is becoming the bane of our existence.

Yesterday we borrowed the courtesy car and drove around the area a little. We happened on the town Elsah, IL, a quaint 19th century river town that time and the steamboats have passed by. Many stone houses from another era make a charming change from the newer and somewhat shabby river towns we have been seeing. A sign pointed the way to a pottery establishment 2 miles outside town. Unable to resist, we took the journey and were well rewarded for our trouble. We found a building housing a small show room featuring early American pottery more likely to be found in eastern Pennsylvania. The owner showed up from an adjacent field and invited us in notwithstanding the fact that the shop was closed. He introduced himself as Jonathan Wright and proceeded to give us a short history of the town and that of Principia College, a Christian Science institution we had passed on the way up.

After a discussion of ''Salt Glazed Pottery'', its history, chemistry and place in early American culture, he proceeded to give us a demonstration by ''throwing'' two very interesting pieces on his wheel while we watched in fascination. We peppered him with questions, but undaunted, he fielded them all and told a number of interesting stories about himself and his pottery.

Gail, of course bought one of the pieces and chose a motif for the artwork to be completed by Jonathan's wife, Jan and shipped later this fall. You can all come by the house this winter and see the finished piece.

Well, tomorrow the Mississippi.

Beardstown

Well we are indeed swinging at anchor tonight, for the first time in a long time, and we are enjoying it. We are tucked behind a small island just downstream of where the Sangamon River empties into the Illinois River at Beardstown, IL.

In 1831 the young Abe Lincoln took a boat from New Salem Il down the Sangamon River, joined the Illinois River right here, continued down the route we will be following as far as the 0hio River, then on to New 0rleans where he sold the products he was carrying, then returned up the Natchez Trace. While he was in New 0rleans on that trip, he witnessed slavery for the first time.

This picture is taken from our anchorage and shows a tow coming from behind the island that shelters us from the main channel. There are 15 barges, 3 wide and 5 long. This tow is longer than the Titanic, or an aircraft carrier. We will see longer ones when we get to the Mississippi.

Havana, but no Cigar

0kay, here is a better picture of Hennepin, taken yesterday morning just before leaving, and from the top of the hill. Hennepin was named for a Catholic Priest that travelled with La Salle as did Father Marquette with Joliet,only Father Hennepin had less character and a better publicist [himself.].

It was hoped that we would bore you with less technical detail today, but as it turns out, as we left Hennepin the bow thruster failed, just as we were depending on it to turn the bow away from a pile of rocks at the end of the the city wall. Disaster was averted through superior seamanship,or perhaps more accurately - plain dumb luck. A check revealed that a circuit breaker had popped, and we hoped that was the end of the story - fat chance.

When we arrived in the Illinois Valley Yacht Club in Peoria, we found that the bow thruster was still inoperative. The motor ran, but no thrust.
We immediately disassembled the bow thruster and found that the shear pin was sheared. This was probably due to a stick being jammed in the thruster propeller when leaving Hennepin. We were able to order a replacement for overnight delivery to our next intended port of call. A quick swim allowed us to verify that the propeller was not jammed with a stick, which had evidently been washed out during the days passage. [While there are lots of "we's" in this paragraph, you can guess that it was John who did all this mechanical stuff!]

With Gail fending off mightily, we were able to negotiate our way out of very restricted space in the marina, and were on our way.

Enroute we passed the "Spirit of Peoria," a stern wheel paddle boat evidently used on the Illinois out of Peoria.

We had to transit the lock and dam at Peoria, which is a "wicket" dam. The dam is actually a contraption built from steel and timber that is hinged at the bottom, and can be lowered to the bottom of the river when the water levels are high. In that case, you actually pass over the dam!

This is a picture of our sonar display as we passed over the wickets lying on the bottom of the river, seen as the spikey shapes to the left of the picture.

Upon arriving at Tall Timbers Marina in Havana, IL where Lincoln gave a speech from atop an indian mound during the Lincoln Douglas presidential primary campaign, we found a package with the shear pin awaiting us. We immediatly installd the pin and found to our great joy, that solved the problem. - 0nce again science and technology triumphs over fear and superstition!!

While John fixed the thruster, Gail hitched a ride with the marina owner to replinish the grocery stock. We will probably be swinging on the anchor for awhile so that was rather important!

Hennepin Revisited

Well we did attend St. Patricks church on Sunday, and it is a very old and beautiful church.

In the afternoon we decided to put the mast back up so that we would have an anchor light. As we raised it, there was some resistance, so we used a little extra muscle power and heard a "snap." It turned out to be the padeye that fastens to the top of the cabin to secure the starboard side stay. We had recently noticed that it was not the stainless steel we would have expected, and it turns out is is a bronze casting. The turnbuckle on the stay had kinked and twisted the eye of the padeye. The piece looks as if there was a defect in the casting. There is a black portion the casting that was probably a weak spot.

Although it was Sunday, we were able to order a stainless steel replacement with overnight delivery which would arrive before noon on Tuesday.

Nearly the whole day on Monday was spent in removing the broken padeye. It involved making a very ugly hole in the ceiling of the aft stateroom by chiseling through 2 inches of marine plywood.

We could then access the nuts to allow removal of the broken part.

Tuesday morning we fabricated blocks of plywood to fill the gap we had created. When the parts did arrive as avertised, it was fairly straightforward to install a replacement and put the interior pieces back in place.

While in Seneca, we made the acquaintance of a very interesting couple doing the loop in a 32 ft Grand Banks trawler. They live in Port Townsend, WA, where Traveller was purchased, and they shipped their boat from Tacoma, WA with the same shipper as was used for Traveller, our previous trawler, lost to Hurricane Ivan.

Jim is a commercial fisherman in Washington state, [with a docterate in fisheries], and Anita is a speech therapist [who used to own and operate her own commercial fishing boat!]

This morning we finally were able to leave Seneca, and we passed through the Marsielles, IL lock and the Starved Rock lock with out incident.

Starved Rock is a prominant historical landmark, where the Illinois Indian Nation was virtually wiped out by the supporters of Chief Pontiac who the Chief of the Illinois had injudicously stabbed to death.

The picture of Starved Rock is one of two that John missed today. The other was of a bald eagle snatching a fish from the the waters of the Illinois River. 0h well, we aren't National Geographic after all.

Tonight we are stopping at the free town dock at Hennepin,IL where John's brother, Jim, and his wife Rosemary stopped when the three of them brought Traveller down five years ago.

Somehow these two images of Hennepin don't seem to make up for the two we missed -- oh well.

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!

Lake Michigan

The waters of Lake Michigan are bordered by four states, and include Michigan, Wisconson, Illinois and Indiana.For most cruisers a trip on Lake Michigan includes a run down the lake from the Strats of Mackinac to Chicago as part of the Great Circle Route. What we did was the eastern shore from Harbor Springs, MI to Ludington MI and then crossed over the lake to Maniotwoc, WI and continued down the western shore to Chicago.

We arrived at Harbor Springs on August 18th , tied up at Stafford's Pier, had lunch at Dudley's Dock, shopped the great little stores, bought a Petosky stone and turned in pretty early. We seem to wear ourselves out in the little towns!!! The harbor was quiet and very pretty.

The next day we moved on to Leland and found it to be so different from what we have been experiencing. Leland Harbor was constructed by placing a breakwater diagonally along the shoreline with openings at both ends. The town is located just a couple of blocks to the east of the marina. Within a few steps of the Marina is a re-creation of a fishing village right on the water complete with dining, fish store [where we purachased white fish to cook for supper - yummy!!], cheese shop, wine, ice cream, and just about anything else you might want. Leland Mercantile was an awesome place to purchase groceries so we stocked up. We actually stayed a couple of days and wished we could have stayed more. It is definately one of those places to which we would like to return.

John was able to put battery and alternator temperature sensors in and fix the compus light. Both are great accomplishments that are making the journey easier.

Frankfort provided an opportunity for John to get another "high fade" haircut. The Marina is right off the main street on a beautiful park with a natural spring fountain. The next morning we awoke to the alarm at 5:00AM and a heavy rain storm that caused a sail boat to be towed in by the Coast Guard with a terribly splintered, broken mast.

We therefore delayed our south departure but were underway at 8:15 for Ludington in heavy swells that diminished as we entered the deep water. This is no small gift because we have found Lake Michigan no lady to take for granted. She can be intimidating at times.

We layed over in Ludington several days, rented a car to "do" Walmart, eat at Hamlin Huse, visit Pere Marquette Memorial and the beach where we met a Charter boat captain with his german short hair pointer who retreives like a lab in the Lake Michiagan surf. 0n Friday the 23rd we drove to South Bend and visited John's parents graves, Notre Dame Basilica [where Dad always wanted to go to mass as a boy], 1826 Donald Street[ to see the house that Dad built and John and his family lived in when he was a child], and then passed by Saint Joseph Hospital where he was born. It was actually a pilgramage. We prayed at the graveside and the Basilica and felt a real presence of Dad and Ada. It was difficult to leave. We placed a beautiful angel and plant on the headstone and then added some small pebbles as we left that we had found on the beach.

0n Saturday the 25th we drove to Alma, MI for a family reunion of Julie, Jake and Mitch's new family. We were so very pleased to be included and really enjoyed the whole family. They are a great bunch - warm, loving and fun to be around. The boys are absolutely awesome and spent some quality time catching John up with all their interests and adventures. The whole experience left us joyfilled and hopeful that we will do it again in the near future. Thank you, Wayne and Julie!!! Grandad and "Grandma Gail" loved it!

Next blog we will share our "crossing" and hopefully, bring us up to date. As we write this ,we are sitting on the boat in Chicago looking out at Soldiers Field.