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!
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