Vacation from my vacation to end Oct 2

Rick and I will return to Havana, IL on Saturday to resume the adventure. In a few days from then we will be on the Mississippi River. I get my stitches removed today from my hand. The healing has been fine, with no pain or problems.

In the meantime, Rick has been enjoying his new granddaughter Bonnie and his other family there in Providence, RI. I have had a fabulous time with Janet here in Monroe, OH. This picture is at a county park where we took a hike a couple weeks ago. I remember how windy it was and thinking I was glad I wasn't out on the Great Lakes on a day like that. I've learned that in 1826 they built a north-south canal from Cincinnati on the Ohio River to Toledo on Lake Erie. It was called the Miami-Erie Canal since much of the course followed the Miami River. There are still locks to see, which I have. It takes on an increased interest for me given all the canals and locks I've been through on this boat trip.

On four occasions I have helped out with Janet's 5th grade class. The first time was on an all-day field trip, when we walked a mile to a regional park. The kids learned about animals, bugs, conservation, science, plants, and other fun stuff at six stations taught by local experts. The live black rat snakes were a favorite, as you can see in this picture. We also petted a red fox, watched a possum (they don't "play dead", they faint!), a barn owl (they have 14 cervical vertebrae vs. the 7 in mammals and the 2 I have left that aren't fused), and got to see numerous other critters, dead or alive.

I also have been in the classroom helping to maintain order while Janet evaluates individual reading abilities one at a time out in the hallway. I have a new appreciation for teachers, seeing how challenging it is to motivate, convey ideas, stimulate thinking, discipline using positive feedback, and in general handling 30 10-yr-olds for 7 hours a day.

This past Saturday we attended a fabulous concert at her church, in which her granddaughter, Morgan, was a member of her school choir. They had on stage 260 performers, from two high schools and two colleges. The full orchestra sounded professional. We also made fresh bread and two pumpkin pies over the weekend as the weather has cooled off to fall temperatures.

By the time I post here again, Rick and I should be heading down the Mighty Mississip. On Oct 10, Bob Brown and Bert Stock will be joining us for a week starting in Paducah, KY, which is about 60 miles up the Ohio River.

Stuck in Cuba?

Well, Havana anyway, but it's Havana, Illinois. Breaking Away will be sitting at the marina here for three weeks! Why? Because Bonnie Elizabeth Arrigo was born! This is Rick's first grandchild, and she was due October 5. Rick was planning to fly back to Providence, RI to be with Sarah and Anthony (and Beth) starting on Sept 28 and staying until Oct 17. At the same time, I was planning to go to Cinci for my hand surgery and to visit Janet, and to return Oct 10 to meet up with Bob Brown and Bert Stock for a week in Kentucky.

Well, babies don't care about our schedules, of course, and she wanted out early. We arrived in Havana for one night the day we left Peoria. The next morning, just as we were heading out for a bike ride before moving on, Sarah called Rick to say that her water had broken the night before. Within two hours, we had our plane reservations from Peoria and made arrangements to leave the boat there for a few weeks.

Beth from San Diego, and Rick from Peoria, arrived late at night, but importantly, just a couple hours before Bonnie was born. All turned out wonderfully with everything. I was able to move up my surgery date, so now the plan is to return to Havana on October 1 and continue the journey -- down the Illinois River 120 miles to the Mississippi.

Back in Peoria on Monday, Sept 6 - Labor Day, I started out with a 20-mile bike ride. Judging by this photo, I came to the town of Stepford. hahaha I thought this was such a funny statue for a tire dealer. I also passed the state courthouse with a statue of Abraham Lincoln in front. Judging from this boat trip and my bike trip across the country in 2007, as Virginia is a state where it's fashionable to claim that "George Washington Slept Here", Illinois has a similar attraction to anything Lincoln. He had given an anti-slavery speech here in 1854, so they needed their statue of him and their plaque explaining why.

Have I mentioned how nice everyone is on this boating adventure? Well, they are! We were docked at the Wharf Harbor Marina in Peoria (the one where I dragged bottom trying to get in), and they invited Rick and me over to the next dock for their weekly Sunday morning brunch - except in this case it was Labor Day so it was a Monday. It was fabulous meeting everyone and sharing boating adventure stories, and of course the food was yummy too. Meeting other people has been one of the treasures of this trip, and this was a highlight. We hated to leave, but we did at about 11 am.

After passing back through the 1/4 mile of sediment to leave the marina, we soon sailed past the Riverfront area where we'd visited the day before. There's the Spirit of Peoria paddlewheeler, and just to the left is the balcony bar where we drank our beers and watched all the weekenders having their fun.

Peoria trivia: (1) Between 1837 and 1919, they had 24 breweries and 73 distilleries and were known as the Whiskey Capital of the World. At peak production, their alcohol-tax revenues supplied half of the entire Federal government's revenue. (2) The Caterpillar Company is based there, having begun in 1909, and seems to employ about every second citizen! (3) The famous phrase "Will it play in Peoria?" began during the vaudeville days when new live acts were booked there, and the feelings truly were that if they succeeded there, they would make it anywhere. (4) The city was a hotbed for abolitionist activity and the Underground Railroad. (5) It's the 2nd largest metropolitan area in IL next to Chicago.

We descended a lock just past Peoria, and for the first time, we needed to wait for a tug and its barges to finish locking through. Luckily, it was only about a 30-minute hold. Interestingly, while we drifted-in-wait, our three boating friends with whom we traveled two days earlier caught up and actually locked through before we did since they travel faster.

As we sailed down the IL River, we continued to see either pristine shoreline, anchored barges by the dozens, or industrial factories. This picture shows an electricity producing plant and is unloading the barged coal to burn.

This photo shows more of the discards from the industrial nature of the river. Many times we saw beached barges filled with dirt and growing weeds and trees, like this one, or else pieces of rusted out and broken barges were lying there on the banks.

We called ahead to the only marina within many miles of a reasonable distance to cover for the day, 40 miles. It turned out, this Tall Timbers Marina in Havana originally had no slips available because there were five other Great Looper boats who had called ahead of me, including the three I let go in front of me. But the fellow called back later to say a slip had opened up. Little did he know I'd end up staying for four weeks!

Rick and I walked around the small town, dating to 1852, and this photo shows the old Havana National Bank that now serves as the city hall. Can you see the bricked street? The entire main street is brick! We ate at the only restaurant open on Labor Day evening, a gem of a Mexican place with an excellent pitcher of margaritas.

And here's a picture of Breaking Away in its little marina. They originally dredged out the entire cove in order to create a haven for boats off the wide river.

My surgery has been moved up to Monday, Sept 13, so Rick and I will return to resume the trip on October 2. As much as I love the adventure, I also look forward to this break from Breaking Away. In fact last night Janet and I went to an incredible concert by the Dukes of September, a new threesome of Grammy Award winning singer/songwriters Boz Scaggs, Michael McDonald, and David Fagan. They rocked!

81 miles yesterday!

If you've already read my previous posting from Sept 3, you may want to scan it again because I added three more photos I thought I'd lost. I also supplemented more text throughout.

Yesterday we traveled 81 miles, from Joliet to Hennepin, IL. We descended through four locks. We cruised for 11 hours, but the four locks took an hour so it was 10 hours of actual moving. Now you know how fast we travel - yes, 8.1 mph!!

This picture shows the scenic Illinois River. The first 20 or so miles were the Des Plaines River, but it becomes the Illinois when the Kankakee River joins in. Most of the river was like in this picture, but in quite a few places there were barges anchored along the banks, or grain elevators loading the barges, or power plants unloading coal from barges, or gravel yards loading barges, and tugs maneuvering around all the barges.

And when we encountered tugs pushing barges, it could get pretty interesting! We saw one pushing 15 barges, three wide and five long. I read there can be 18, 3x6. As we approach, we must call on the marine radio, channel 13, and ask whether he wants us to pass him on the right or the left. In all cases, they have answered immediately with their choice, except once when he said he didn't care.

The word on tugs and barges is that they have first choice at the locks. Since they have to untie their loads and can need two lock-downs to get it all through, pleasure boats sometimes have to wait three hours to get their turn. Well, I must say, that is NOT what we found yesterday! Prior to our first lock, just a mile down from Joliet, one of the five boat captains tied to the wall with us called ahead as we watched a tug go by with six barges. He wondered whether we might go ahead of him if we hurried there right away. The lock operator called the tug, WHO SAID YES!!, and the lock master called him back with the good news, and a demand to honor our promise to hurry. Well, I was on the phone with Janet in my night shorts when the fellow came running up yelling that we all had to leave immediately. I hung up and Rick and I scurried and departed in a matter of minutes. All five of us did. Sure enough, there was the kind tug waiting in front of the lock as we five passed him by and into the chamber. We thanked him on channel 13.

We also saw limestone cliffs like the ones in this picture near Starved Rock. There was a lock near there too, and luckily, we got through all four locks yesterday without having to wait. It was very windy all day, so getting safely up to the lock walls were a challenge, but we did it.

Here we are at our final spot for the night in Hennepin. The book had said the public dock was the best on the entire Illinois River, so we searched and searched when we got there and decided this must be it. Look how I'm sticking out since I'm too long. Oh well, it worked, and it was free!

One reason we traveled 81 miles was I could not find anything in our books to entice us to land and look around, especially since any landing would be risky in the strong winds. Hennepin was a small community, with a river front that reminded Rick and me of the little hamlets in the California Delta. Just 100 yards from the boat there was a perfect restaurant -- the only restaurant -- filled with local color, good food, and low prices!

I took this picture this morning, and you can see the fog we had on the river. It gave it a mystical appearance!

Today's 40-mile cruise to Peoria included scenes like this one, with old tugs or barges left high and dry on the banks. Of course, there also were dozens of anchored barges, moving barges/tugs, rusted pieces of barges.

Actually, today was neat because of all the pleasure boats out and about, more than any other day on the entire trip. And in places, the banks were lined with fishermen and campers. Loved seeing the locals enjoying their river.

We arrived in Peoria and turned into the marked channel in the lake to enter our marina where I'd called ahead for a reservation. I told him my boat had a four-foot draft, and he said it would be okay. Well it wasn't. I idled in and my prop and rudder were dragging in the bottom silt the entire 400 yards. I was pretty upset, but I don't think it did any real harm. Still, I'm not looking forward to going back through it when we depart tomorrow.

Rick and I biked into the downtown and located the upscale riverfront, complete with restaurants that overlook the river. We of course had to get rehydrated after our strenuous two-mile ride, so here is Rick, and...

...here I am enjoying a tall cold one.

As we were watching all the boaters having fun, we got to see a tug pushing these two LONG barges right through everyone's parties. He honked his arrival and quickly the pleasure boats scurried out of his way.

Another thing we saw were the infamous Asian carp jumping out of the water...for long distances! They would be scared by passing boats, and would leap out for about 20 feet, wiggling the whole time. The ones we saw were 1.5 to 2 feet long, and apparently they can reach 4 feet/100 lbs. We came back to relax on the flybridge, and saw them leaping right here too, as boats exited or entered the marina.

Tomorrow is supposed to be very windy again, so it may be another long day when the risk/benefit of stopping to explore will lead us to putting in many miles toward the Mississippi River 165 miles away.

Milwaukee! Chicago! Storms! FUN!!

What an exciting four days we've had!! Exploring all over Milwaukee, a glassy Lake Michigan cruise to Waukegan, IL, a visit with an old high school flame, a rainy/foggy/choppy day to Chicago, an incredible thunderstorm show last night from the flybridge in Chicago Harbor, and then today the exhilaration of cruising down the middle of Chicago with the majestic skyscrapers all around us!! This picture seems to say it all! The fireworks were after a ballgame in Joliet, where we ended today.

We took a fabulous dinghy excursion in Milwaukee, under 22 bridges through the heart of town.

The day before, when we arrived after ANOTHER difficult day on Lake Michigan from Port Washington (the wind and swells always built during the day and hammered us by the end), we walked all over town exploring, and tried several beer places. Hey, it's Milwaukee! One really cool neighborhood was called Brady Street.

After the early-morning dinghy ride, we biked out for a tour of the Pabst Mansion. No, they don't serve beer at the mansion; the beer would come later. We then biked to the Harley Davidson Museum, and spent three hours looking at 4000 motorcycles. Just kidding, it was better than that, getting to understand the history of cycles and choppers and gangs and hogs. I didn't realize that for their first 11 years, Harleys were motorized bicycles! You could pedal if you were a man, and use the motor if you were a wuss. hahaha just kidding. This picture shows me on a motorcycle for the first time since I had my Kawasaki 90 for a couple months in college.

To truly experience what makes Milwaukee famous, we then biked across town to O'Gallager's Irish Pub where we had lunch, and then ALL the way back to the south end of town to the Horny Goat Brewery where we sipped Hopped Up n Horny Ale. A lot of good it did us since our women weren't there!

Here are Linda and Jim Krueger, who live about 25 miles from our next stop in Waukegan. After we arrived, I phoned Linda, who was in my 7th-8th grade classes and whom I dated in 10th grade, and luckily she and Jim could come for a visit! It was fabulous to catch up on everything, with a Happy Hour on the boat and a nice Italian dinner.

That was about all Waukegan had to offer. Oh, Jack Benny was born there. But the BEST thing about Waukegan was getting there; the seas that day were total glass the entire way!! What a change from the usual beast-of-a-lake. Otto took over and we could relax and sightsee the coastline and view the Tall Ships heading north from their celebrated stay in Chicago. Interesting, the initial slip they assigned me at the marina was too narrow for my boat, and we got wedged in between the post and the dock! The dockmaster walked out to see our plight, and assigned me a new slip and gave us a good shove to get us out of our predicament.

Then it was on to Chicago yesterday. The seas weren't too bad at first - it was actually raining quite a bit and very foggy. But then the wind came up and the seas got bad, and it stormed some more. But, eventually we got to see the Chicago skyline approaching and we knew we'd soon leave the nasty Great Lakes. We also saw the impressive Bahai House of Worship through the fog in Wilmette, north of Chicago, where I'd been several times with Annette over the years.

What a relief it was to enter the breakwater in Chicago Harbor! We tied to a dock and were assigned a mooring (one of 1000) in the harbor. Here's the view we had, although this picture is from this morning when all the clouds had gone. Totally cool to see the City from that lake perspective.

And here is how it looked at night! That was even more impressive! And, it was lucky, because right after we took this picture, a massive thunderstorm came in to treat us to a spectacular show for the next hour or more. We had been walking around the city for six hours seeing various sites and eating at Billy Goat's Tavern (and having beers at Burghoff's), and when we took the water taxi back to Breaking Away, we beat the storm by only a few minutes. Man oh man was that a ferocious thunderstorm! It rained so hard you could not see any of the lights in the city for about 5 minutes, and the wind strength was whipping us all over. The lightning was incredible. I was SOO happy we were tied to a secure mooring and not anchored. We finally went to bed and it was still raining.

This morning it was bright and sunny, although the wind was still whipping at 20-30 mph. It didn't stop us. We first had to lower the radar mast and antenna -- we needed to be as low as possible to fit under all the bridges. It turned out it was a good thing we did that. We then motored the short mile to the lock, and descended all of two feet into the Chicago River. Pulling in behind us was the boat with the woman who had recognized me on Mackinac Island from from reading my blog. They had taken the east side of Lake Michigan along the Michigan coastline, yet we arrived at the lock to leave the lake at exactly the same time.

Here's the glorious scene of cruising down the middle of town, something I'd imagined myself doing for many years. Under all those famous bridges. Next to all those impressive high-rises. I even got emotional for a moment, getting to achieve that part of my dream.

The river eventually led out of town and got less glamorous. All the bridges we fit under except two, although many were only by a foot or two and were scary because it seemed like we would hit them. This picture is of the Amtrak bridge where we had to wait for the train crossing. Then it lifted straight up and off we continued. At another bridge just past this one, we weren't sure. Breaking Away is 16 ft high with the radar mast down, and this lock operator said on the radio to me that he was 16.5 feet. I hesitated, and he said, without my having to ask, that he'd raise the bridge to be on the safe side. It opened just for me!

The Chicago River soon turned into a canal to take us to the Des Plaines River here in Joliet. The scenery became very industrial. Eventually it even became crowded with tug boats and barges tied to the walls. We had to wait twice for tugs to move out of the way for us to pass, but they did so without hesitation.

Here's Breaking Away tied to the wall in Joliet. Even though it was very windy all day long, it didn't affect us until it came time to tie up or dock. Just before we arrived here, we had to lock down 47 ft at a huge chamber in Lockport, IL. We were the last ones into the lock with four other trawlers doing the Great Loop. The wind made it difficult as it pushed the boat all over, and the fenders saved poor Breaking Away. Then, I was able to land here on the wall with the help of the four other boats that arrived before me. When it's so windy, I'd never make it without such kind assistance, and Rick's capable line handling.

Tonight Rick and I went to the minor-league baseball game down the street -- after he played the slots at Harrah's and came out $60 ahead! The Joliet Jackhammers beat the Gary RailCats, 7-3. Such games are a hoot, with so many shows and promotions between innings. What a trip this is!