We are officially back on the Mississippi River.  The clouds have finally rolled in to bring a few rain showers and cooler weather. Actually it’s is a it’s a welcome delight. On our last trip down we stayed in Grafton. This year we decided to give Alton a try.  Grafton was a $1.30 a foot for dockage. Alton was 1.00 a foot for dockage. I have to get laundry done in Alton so the cool weather is welcome.  Well if you consider 82 a cool down.  Alton Marina had a laundry room. It was a dollar to use the washer and a dollar for the dryers; not bad. The local grocery store came to the marina to pick us up and they brought us back after we got our groceries.

It is so funny to see George up during the day while we are going down the river.  His little sniffer was sniffing something. Maybe he just liked watching the rain.

The rain started early this morning. Bryce decided it was a good time to clean the boat during the rain.

On our last post I posted the home on stilts. This time they used the space under the house for garages.

This is Brussel car ferry.  You can see how smooth the river is today.

This is where the Illinois River Meets the mighty Mississippi.

Just before Alton on the Mississippi River such a spectacular view.

We went into the Argosy casino for dinner we ate at the buffet. The food was delicious.

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Traveling down the river today was quite peaceful.  Our trip on the Illinois River might be coming to an end Wednesday. We are on our last stretch of thirty miles which brought us to an anchorage behind Willow Island for the night.  This has to be the best well protected anchorage we have had on the Illinois River.  The water depth is 17 feet. This is a nice wide area to anchor in. We had hardly any movement all night. George was able to play on deck all night. The weather map shows a possibility of rain and South winds.  So without a doubt, winds on our nose will have an effect on our speed.

The Trackmytour map allows us to show you all the places we have stopped along the river and how far we have traveled. If you don’t hear from us for a while and wanted to see where we have been or just our last whereabouts this website will show you:  http://trackmytour.com/35L17  We update this every day.

Most of our scenery today was houses on stilts.  The homes a built like this to withstand the massive flooding in the Spring.

I wonder if this home floated away.  The only thing left is the chimney and foundation.

So I also wonder if it is better to have a home on bricks or stilts? This home is on a tall building block first floor.

So as I focus my attention back on the river, I noticed we are starting to see the scenery changing to a bit more hilly. 

This is so cool..a floating picnic table. It even has a place for the umbrella. Presumably, someone ties it to a tree and they just enjoy a day floating on the water. 

Wow… these houses are on really tall stilts.

Doesn’t this look like it would be a good murder mystery place?  Perhaps even a masquerade party. Gosh, now I want to go to a party..LOL

We came along our first car ferry today along the river.  Bryce haled him on the VHF to see which side he wanted us to pass on. He replied back to us telling us to keep coming forward. He would wait for us to pass him.

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It was such a brisk morning. We tried to sit on the bow with our morning coffee while we were waiting for another sailboat (Seafox) to pull up anchor so we could go through the LaGrange Lock together. I had on long pants and a sweatshirt and was so cold that I put my bath robe on too. We didn’t sit out long before we saw SeaFox headed our way.  So Bryce pulled up anchor and we headed towards the lock. The lock was only 5 miles from our anchorage. The LaGrange Lock is a 10 foot drop down. We are normally not here this early but we wanted to see how it was going through the lock early. This is the last lock on the Illinois River.

This is SeaFox 402 owner: Bill.  He is single handing the trip down the river.

I can tell you this much; it is colder in the morning.  We ended up having to wait a bit because there was a Southbound tow and barge going first. So we putted around till it was our time. We entered the lock only to find out we had to hold a line. There were no floating Bollards. Bryce walked the line back and forth depending if the bow or stern was drifting out.  This kept the boat straight and tight to the wall.  My foot is still hurting so he is spoiling me.  I held a docking pole incase I was needed.

Unfortunately SeaFox 402 is  single-handling his boat, and wasn’t able to keep it next to the wall.  Really I think he was too busy talking to Bryce he forgot to hang on to his line.  Bryce has this effect on people.  LOL He was going to have to float in the lock.

Cruising out of the lock, I noticed the dam and its waterfalls.

The blocks you see here use to be an old dam and lock on the starboard side of the boat once used before the LaGarange Lock.  Army Corp is putting some dredging around it.  Soon you won’t even know it was one there.

We came upon the Army Corp of Engineers work area.  They were dragging a floating pipe across the whole river. We waited nearly 15 minutes.  Bryce drove the boat backwards to keep out of their way.  The boat you see here is SeaFox

Bryce likes engines.  Here is a large dredge powered by a huge Caterpillar Engine. 

This is the head Quarters and crew quarters for the crew doing the dredging. Taggatz is its name.

More sandy beaches coming our-way.  Thank you ACE.

Finally a call came through over the VHF. Telling us we that they opened it up on the starboard side by the green buoys. So we moseyed along our way.

This tiny tow boat pushes the floating pipe line up and down the river.  This pipe attaches to the outlet of the dredger and carries sand and water to the shore creating my sandy beaches!!

When we came upon the rest of the dredger Bryce saw this huge anchor!  It is a huge Danforth style anchor.  About 10 feet long. It’s worth a photo..,LOL

A while later pushing 30 miles, we found an anchorage near MM 55 it is across from Florence Illinois.  Water depth 11.4 feet.

Doesn’t this barge look like it’s doing a wheelie?  Looks like it’s being loaded with some type of grain.

 

After the anchor was set we took a nap. Only for about an hour. I started to make Ramen Noodles. When we heard a boat come up next to us. Bryan, Jill, Anita and John. They are locals to the area and just came up to visit. We really enjoyed talking to them. They are a fun group of people. We love meeting the local people.

I believe we have traveled over 900 miles on our journey so far.  http://trackmytour.com/35L17

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Another day warm day of cruising the river. I often wonder if I will find anything to share with you all. When all of a sudden I start clicking the camera button. Today, the flies seem to be out and we have these tiny bees that resemble humming birds flying around. What I mean is their wings move so fast and the are hovering in one spot. Anyways, we passed quite a bit of industry along the river today.  We anchored at the south end of Bar island near the town of Beardstown Illinois.

This barge is being load with grain from local farmers.

We passed by Havana today. Seems like there are high-rise buildings.. Opps.. grain elevators! 

LOL, I think this vessel didn’t know what to do so he was pushing the shoreline.  Or perhaps taking a lunch break.

We motored past the Army Corp of Engineering dredging. They caught a fishing net in their grinder.  This thing is like a gigantic vacuum cleaner with a grinder on the end of it.

The grinder/vacuum sends water and dirt through this tubing to move to the shore line.

The writing on the crane says..Slow No Wake. So Bryce: better slow the sailboat down.. right? We go so slow, we have no wake. LOL I think he just enjoyed watching them hard at making us new beaches…LOL

This is an area where they added more sand.  Thank you Army Corp of Engineers for creating the beaches we enjoy so much!!

Carol Ann. Now this is a real tug boat. Ever wonder where your old tires go…LOL

And the sign read. Warning underwater Hazards Plumping Station Stay clear.

It’s Saturday and we are seeing boaters on the river. Most of the time they wave and smile as they go by.

For some reason my childhood mind was thinking of a fairy tail. Where a princesses was waiting for her knight in shining armor to come rescue her.  

Hard at  work and they still took time out to wave.

Bryce said it was crew photo time, but he forgot to tell George to look at the camera.

This guy had his 4 wheeler in his boat and pulled up to this shoreline.. What a neat way to move your 4 wheeler around.  We saw another boat zipping down the river with a 4 wheeler on the bow.

This boat rushed passed us so fast I hardly had time to grab my camera.  These guys were waving vigorously!! Must have been a great Saturday for them!

 

Okay, I thought it was time I showed you the river view.  Since we left home we have  traveled nearly 900 miles. We are enjoying the views of the Illinois River.

I think the spring floods have taken a toll on this poor house.  The corner is now sagging due to the erosion of the ground of the support.

I need a new zoom lens.. Here is a Bald Eagle.  It was cool perched on that branch.

I hope these don’t roll in to the river!

I was thinking the last time we passed here this was an open restaurant.

Now this was awesome! At first we didn’t know what was going on.  Looked like a “push of war”. The large tow stopped in the middle of the river. Bryce had to radio him to see what side he wanted us to pass on. He replied our portside. It wasn’t till then I noticed a smaller vessel headed towards him from shore.  See the smaller vessel at the other end?  Anyways the smaller one was removing one of the barges from the Big tow. It was pretty neat to see.

Okay we are at the other end now. If you look closely you can see the center barge next to the green getting longer because it is attached to the smaller vessel.  The center barge is being pulled out.  These little tows shuffle the barges around.

Beardstown has this concrete Levey protecting it from the Spring floods. 

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I’m starting this blog with Bryce having a 30 to 40 minute break from me.  He really wanted to take Patch out for a spin and explore the area. Me? I have to get some cleaning done. When he came back from his vacation, we proceeded traveling down the river. It was another beautiful day.  The temp was 77 degrees and sunny.  It’s is nice to travel slow we get to see so much. I am surprised that there aren’t any river boats or houseboats here to rent.  We found another anchorage spot along the river this one is near mile marker 121 just before Havana.  Not the best anchorage, but it worked.

We watched the tows go by with our morning coffee. Then Bryce went back to work for a few more hours.

This is Beauty anchored at Mile Marker 148 Bryce is out on Patch enjoying his freedom.

He jet-skied over to Mackinaw River. This sandy beach is where the locals stop.

Nice clear water coming out of the Mackinaw River.  Water is a bit cooler then the Illinois River.

The Mackinaw River is flowing quite a bit of water.  Nice to walk through the delta formed by the river.

Apparently, a great place to camp out for a few days near the Mackinaw River.

As we traveled down the river, It’s nothing new to see barges self –disintegrating. I don’t understand why owners of these barges let this happen to the shore line.

We have noticed a few camping areas with launch ramps.  Apparently a good destination.  More sandy beaches.

I stared to laugh. I don’t know why I took this picture; but I like these hoists. I think that should be Bryce’s next thing to build when we get back home to hoist the toys out of the water.

Near Mile Marker 137 is an old Lock and dam. I would love to know some history on it but google didn’t have any. I will call it: the old 137 Lock.

Here is a dock for Tows and barges.

We were passed by several  Northbound Tows and barges yesterday. This one is the tow for the barge below. She is called the ERNA E. HONEYCUTT. From the Ingram Barge Co.

These are the barges she was pushing along the river. Do to the curve in the river it was to hard to get a photo in one shot.   She is pushing 15 barges.

Doesn’t George look miserable? We had to keep moving him to the shaded area out of the sun.

This is a photo of our anchorage at mile marker 121. We had several Northbound and Southbound Twos and barges pass us during the night. It is the coolest thing to see at night. We don’t see much of a wake but we do swing a bit in a half circle when they pass.  We don’t even know we are moving unless we are watching the tow go by.  I love it!

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Traveling the river after we left Peoria was quite peaceful. The weather was great; 75 and sunny.  We started to see the weekenders coming out on the river.  There were people fishing from the sandy banks on the river. It is always nice seeing others enjoying their day too. Bryce and I motored to a beautiful anchorage spot just off Mile Marker 148. We are anchored in 14 feet and a good sandy bottom for the anchor.

It was incredible night. We sat and enjoyed watching the tows as they passed.  Throughout the night, we must have had 6-8 huge tows & barges go by.  We are once again getting use to the sounds of the tows and can hear them at least a mile or so away.  At night we can see them early on because they use massive spotlights to shine on the banks of the river.  They shine the spotlights on the navigation buoys to help guide the huge tow through the channel.  Some tows/barges are larger than the biggest aircraft carrier.

We anchored about 15 miles from Peoria.  What a peaceful place to anchor.  Across the river on the East side of the bank is a small stream called the Mackinaw River.  And as usual, a sandy beach nearby.  So many cruisers rush down the river from marina to marina and never experience this.

This is the Peoria Lock.  As this picture shows water levels are at normal levels.  If water was higher, it would be washing over the lock gates.

After we arrived in side the lock, the lock master told us to go ahead and float. Do not to tie up.  Floating is an easy way to lock through. The lock didn’t have any floating bollards. Not sure, but I don’t remember a lock without them. If you do not float, they had lines that you hold during locking.  When you reach the bottom you just release the line. If you look closely you will see the waterfall from the dam. It’s how they control the water depth on the rivers.  This is also an indication that water levels are normal.  Pretty cool I think…

The horn blew given us permission to leave the lock, I turned to see the 110×600 foot lock closing its doors. I could also see the water rushing over the dam. It looked so pretty.

I had to take this picture to show you the trapped trees that rush down the river during spring floods. I guess they will continue their journey down the river next Spring.

This is pretty awesome.. We watched the Coast Guard putting in/replacing the buoys on the river.

I started laughing.. I looked over at Bryce and said “someone surely didn’t want anyone to steal their ditch digger. They put it on the concrete slab..” Then he explained to me;  they keep it there to remove items from the barges…

Pekin Boat Club with gas.  It also looked like a camping area.

Look how long this tow is..  Jerry Jarrett is his name and it’s the Marquette Transportation Company.

Here is a satellite view of our route in the river from: http://trackmytour.com/35L17

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What another day full of exciting things to see. Bryce and I went to the Peoria Riverfront Museum & Planetarium. Well, between the Peoria History, Illinois River Encounter and the Peoria Holocaust Memorial this was worth the visit.  I almost forgot the Planetarium was great too.  But Bryce did take a nap during the star show. LOL.. I did too for a split second.   Peoria water front is great.  Peoria is in the development stage of rebuilding the water front restaurant.  That is cool, because last time we came by (2015), it was open.  We were told that we would probably see a difference starting next year.  I am just glad that all of the sites to see are within close walking distance to the water front. With having a broken toe it is still hard to walk but I do it. We will be leaving here tomorrow around noon to head to our next spot.

We heard grumblings from some other cruisers about the extremely low water level on the rivers.  However, we have not noticed any water level problems so far.  The channels are all at least 10 feet deep as required and managed by the dams.  We have noticed less water going over the dams.  However, all our anchorages and stops are the same levels as last time we came through in 2015.  The marinas like always are a bit skimpy, but they don’t cater to Sailboats.  So I don’t see the water level problems others talk about.  I think perhaps they are looking at flood stage marks on bridges and seawalls.

The first thing we did today is stop in and have lunch at the Blue Duck. They have Bar-b-Q sauce for everything. We split 1/2 rack of ribs. They were delicious.  A number of restaurants are close by. 

After lunch we walked over to the Peoria Riverfront Museum & Planetarium and this is where all the fun began.

The history is mind blowing. This is really neat; there are a number of glass cases here filled with “buttons”.  Each button represents a life lost in the Holocaust. There are 6 million buttons that represent the 6 million lives lost in the Holocaust.

And more cases filled with buttons.

The first part of the gallery is a sport hands on exhibit. Bryce was checking his jumping ability, He jumped 12 inches.  Must be getting old!! LOL

 

I didn’t make any baskets..But I had fun. The board rotated while you shoot the ball at the basket.

Smarty pants made 4 shots!

This is a photo of the entrance of the Peoria Illinois waterway gallery.

Did you know the difference in the Buoys other than color?  When we are looking through the binoculars (also at night) we always look for the shape of the buoys too.  Nuns and cans..  Shape is useful at night when you can’t see the colors.

Below shows a photo of the Asian Carp.The following was written on the photo. I just rewrote so you could read it. Some fisherman have found for the silver and bighead Asian Carp. However, in an effort to prevent these invasive species from destabilizing the $7 million fishing industry of the Great Lakes system, Army Corps of Engineers installed an Electrical  barrier system in the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal  and neighboring  waterways.

 

I found this fish aquarium with some local fish in it.

This shows the relative heights of the different parts of the Illinois River.

This was the second lock we went through at Lockport.

This photo shows only one side of the awesome History of Peoria room. This was a great history learning experiment.

LOL.. We built Derby cars and raced them. Bryce won because his car was heavier. 

But after the race I put on a puppet show for him….

This was an interesting engine.  It is one of the first Caterpillar Diesel Engines.  If you look close, you see a two cylinder gas engine mounted on the side used to start the Diesel.  The gas engine is started with a crank!!

The Planetarium was our next stop. We went in and Learned a little more about the galaxy. 

I became an astronaut….It was so much fun traveling the galaxy…LOL

In back of the Museum are these huge Statues of Abraham Lincoln and a “Common Modern Man”.  Notice Bryce sitting at the base!

Our position map is same as last post: http://trackmytour.com/35L17

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Caterpillar Visitors Center

What a great place to visit.  This afternoon when Bryce finished up working  for the day, We went to the Caterpillar Visitors Center. This is a museum of Caterpillar Construction Equipment. I thought, I would be bored. Let me tell you from the moment we walked in to the time we left; I found this museum so interesting.  I had a great conversation with their wonderful staff Kim, Jean and Mindy.  Then Jean and Kim lead us into the virtual ride of the 797F Mining Truck.  The seats vibrated a bit according to the engine and truck movement. The movie lead us into a customer’s site down a gravel road.  We could feel the vibrations in our seat as the 797F moved.  This is so worth visiting; you should add it to your vacation spot if you come this way.

If you are traveling by boat there is a free dockage with electricity. There are two docking areas here: one area near the bridge where we were.  The other docks were on the other side of the Spirit of Peoria.  Quite nice floating docks, but the bridge docks do not have cleats, so you need to tie up to the deck.  The other docks have cleats.  Some boaters complain about traffic from the bridge at the bridge dock.  But we barely heard it.   There is very little wake here except from the trawlers and power boats that pass by in the morning headed to the Peoria lock.  The tows run quite slow.  For boaters, Peoria should make this area no-wake.

The Caterpillar Visitors Center. It’s about a 2 minute from the water front.

Look I get a seniors discount now days..

Okay I don’t think I want to play with this.  But it does look like fun to play with.

Holy-crap this is the real size of this 797 F  Truck. I thought we were seated inside a theater; but in reality we were seating inside the dump truck bed. They use these trucks all around the world in coal and metal mines. My ankle is glowing in this picture. LOL.. I have my Fitbit on and the flash reflected on the night reflector.  

This is crazy look how small Bryce looks in front of this monster.

Watch-out!!! Bryce is in the driver seat.

I took This picture of this Cat because it just caught my attention.   It shows this equipment in its element.

This old Caterpillar was found on the side of a farmers mountain.  These old CATs are on loan from a Museum out west.   I thought that was pretty cool the best thing is all these old Cats still run. 

This is a Cat diesel generator.  A standard product from Caterpillar.

Here you can unleash your engineer design and design your own Caterpillar. 

Get this… this is a propeller blade that they use on Tows, crew ships, and coast guard boats.  Caterpillar make propellers for boats! 

Jean and Mindy it was such a pleasure speaking with you two today. Your knowledge of the Caterpillar blew me away.

Last post we showed a picture of the “Spirit of Peoria”. https://spiritofpeoria.com/about-the-boat  This is a quite interesting boat appropriately powered by twin Caterpillar engines driving actual paddle wheels.

Here is a picture of our route we are and a link to track my tours: http://trackmytour.com/35L17  Track my tours also has a picture at each point that we stopped.

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After leaving Sandy Island, we stopped over in Ottawa. Bryce followed our waypoint on the GPS from our last visit here and we anchored in the same place.. This is where he will take the jet-ski into the marina and get diesel and gas. The depth is only 5 feet deep so we cannot take Beauty in.  It really isn’t a big deal that is why we carry jugs with us. The weather is much better this time around. The locals are out and about. Several of them came by and talked to us. The water is so warm we were able to swim in it. We enjoyed this anchorage so much that we spent two days here.

I’m enjoying some water time.  Air temp is 93, water is 81. This lift has several uses one for Patch (I named the jet-ski) and me…LOL

The locals are enjoying the warm weather.

Bryce leaving on a fuel run. I think he has way to much fun on his new toy “Patch”.

This is Vince; our new friend.  He came by and talked to us about our trip and imparted us with local knowledge.

This is the island we anchored next to near Ottawa.

We left Ottawa on Sunday and had no wait at the Starved Rock Lock. Our journey today was short.  It was so hot, we just wanted to stop, take in the view and float.

We passed a town call Peru. This is a photo of someone’s lost dream.

Busy water front in Peru.

Here is a local pub in Peru, Ill.

The locals dot the shore line, swimming and fishing from one of the hot spots.

We sure are seeing a few ultralights this year.  They often fly right next to us.

We are anchored between Spring Valley & Peru Just enjoying the day.   We took “Patch” (jet-ski) out for exploration.

Bryce and I went to the beach area near by where we were anchored. We went to enjoy a walk along the beach. We were thinking it might be cooler.

At 94 degree we were looking to get off the boat and cool down on the beach.. The joke was on us. It was just as hot on shore.  For those who do not know, the Illinois River has many such beaches that are only accessible by boat.

We had to watch out for the kids at play….

We took a jet-ski ride and noticed they are building another bridge.  Large cranes lofted huge steel girders into place.

Later that night we were sitting on the bow of Beauty when this biplane flew next to us. I know our brother-in-law Bill would love this.. Bill we are always thinking of you…

The following day we pulled up anchor and headed to our next anchorage spot. However, we couldn’t find any place that was deep enough to anchor in.  Bryce went below deck to check on Active Captain for any area that we might be able to slip into. We ended up having to do a bit of night motoring to get into Peoria Illinois. We arrived around 9:30 p.m and docked to on the free wall with electricity. With the past few days in the 90+ degrees, it sure was nice to turn on air conditioning.

I was enjoying some good music and my pool on the bow of the boat.

The Sprit of Peoria passed us going North up the river.  She ties up just near us at the Peoria docks.

It is so funny to see George sitting on deck while we were motoring to Peoria.  George was resting up on deck during the day. That is very unusual for him to get up on deck during the day time.  Apparently, he was trying to stay cool in the breeze created by the moving boat.

Looks like these kids found a new way to use the floating trees coming down the river…

Looks like the local artist might live here. It’s actually kind of pretty.

OMG!!! George never ever goes on the bow at night like this. He always waits till we are anchored. I started laughing and called him Prince George. He was overseeing the captains driving.  No doubt he could see better than us.

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Well till the next time……

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My heart is pumping fast.. The excitement once again is over whelming. I’m not sure why, but just knowing we are finally heading into the Calument is exciting.   Bryce took the day off and we woke up early wanting to enter the river and head up towards Joliet.  Traveling though the river was quite peaceful. We could hear the sounds of the manufacturing starting up for the day.  As we went under the bridges, I could hear the rumbling of vehicles as they passed over.  What a great day!

Bridge was only 7.3 feet tall. It is a railroad lift bridge. It’s open unless a train is approaching.

North America Stevedoring Company

These are a few bridges we had to pass under within a 1/4 mile of  entering the river.

As we passed under one bridges there is another one to take its place..LOL I always wonder if we are low enough to make it under them..

More industry along the river

This is Big Metal.  Apparently a scrap metal company.

I would say this is a big pile of coal

We started to see tows and barges again.

These  guys were out taking water samples of the river.

Our first water fall of the trip.

I’m sure that if I went back and looked at our last blog, I would see the same picture. I would think they would have pulled it out..

Look it’s our second waterfall… It just captured our view.

We made it though the first lock.. But Bryce and I was a bit nervous. The lock master had us tie up on the starboard side which is no big deal.  We were sharing the lock with 2 powerboats and a tow with three barges on it. The lock master had us tie up to the last floating bollard.  No problem.. Unfortunately, the doors could not open without us backing up because our overhanging mast interfered with the lock doors. So after the water dropped, we had to disconnect and back up prior to them opening the lock.

We meet another nice couple in Joliet. Don & Lesli on their PDQ 34 name Soulstice.

Okay, so I just broke another toe…

This is early morning in Joliet.  They really cleaned up the free docking area.   Police come through regularly to check on the boats. They added many more outlets for boaters to get power. The water is very clalm in the morning before the tows and pleasure crafts start coming though town. This is the free wall for dockage.

After leaving Joliet, we headed down river to the next lock Brandon Road lock.  We had a three hour wait again while they push tows through. The lock master asked me if we had been waiting long I said yes, 3 hours! He apologized for the wait. 

We are once again the only one in the lock.

I get a kick out of the little waterfalls they create while they lift us down in the locks.

After making it out of the lock, We were pushing time before sunset. We needed to find a place to anchor for the night.

This pontoon Ultralight flew right next to us as we motored down the river.

We were just relaxing looking at the scenery when this train blew his horn and it cared the crap out of me! LOL This reminded us of coming up Hudson River.

We had several bridges to cross under. I’m always amaze when we fit under them because they seem so low.

Dusk came to quick after we left the lock, so Bryce checked the computer and noticed  Sugar Island.  We headed there.. according to Active Captain, there should have been plenty of water for us.  Well, as we approached the channel to go in we bumped a tree  with our keel.  At that point we were so tired, we reversed our a bit and we anchored at the opening of the river.  The following morning was great.  The view was awesome. We had 8.5 feet of water under Beauty and the water temp was 81 degrees and air temp will be 93 degrees over the next week or so.

Treasure Island Beach.  Lots of sandy beaches litter the river.  The locals always know where the nice spots are.

We noticed this pontoon was out walking his dogs. 

I so wanted to stop and play too…

Bryce called the lock master at the Marseilles Lock.  He said he had a commercial load coming North and one going South so we were to tie up along the LDB cell (Left descending bank cell )  It’s jus a big round cylinder of cement.

Bryce used his winch to tighten up the rear stern line to straighten out the boat.  It is 93 today.  Bryce is in his swim suit and most of our enclosure plastic is down.

Mike Bird is a South bound tow and barge.

Mike Bird is so big, my camera couldn’t take his whole picture from our angle.

Look… He fit into the lock. The captain had to move the tow to the side of the barge so the doors on the lock could close.  So his barges and tow were over 600 feet long.

Our current position is the lower left most point.  Or go to http://trackmytour.com/35L17

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