Scott from Bloch’s service department came back this morning with cleaned transmission filters. He installed them and we loaded up with fluids and everything checked out 100%. So that’s taken care of for another 450 hours. That means that I still need to check the levels, but it’s not due to be changed until after I get home. Hard to believe that we’ve done 300 hours of time since we left home.

We reloaded the boat and I did last minute blogging. I’m now caught up as far as Grafton, IL. I had gotten behind with all the touring in Chicago and it snowballed. So if you are reading the blog, you can start with Chicago and move forward in time.

Lunch was leftover Pappy’s Smokehouse meats. Very good, really love the chicken.

We waited until UPS with my replacement nuts for the wipers, of course they were the wrong size. So I put an order in with McMaster on multiple sizes and hope that one of them fits. It’s annoying since on single parts price, they are $2.45 – $6.00 each.

On the way out of the marina we saw Toba They were the first loopers we met, our first time was in Cape May and then briefly in NYC. We will catch up with them in Alton.

The river ride down was calm, we just puttered along since we had lots of time to get there.

On the dock we were visited by the crew of Corkscrew. They started from Michigan, but they really live in Nashville. They will start on the loop full time next year. The Captain has lots of experience on the Tennesee Rivers and has done some here on the Mississippi. We will be traveling with them as far as Hoppies (our next stop) and do planning from there.

We went to a late dinner at “Gentelin’s on Broadway” with the crew of Toba. The food was very good, lots of interesting dinner and dessert choices. As always with Loopers great dinner conversation.

Part of the conversation about both our positive experiences with Bloch Marine Services. Both crews will make an effort to post gold starts in Active Captain.

It was fun, back home after Looper Midnight. The ride on Wednesday should be easy, two locks and 40 miles of river to Hoppies. A chance for me to meet the river sage, Fern, I’m excited.

Monday in Grafton. We are recovering from our St. Louis visit. Even with us cutting the places to see and go down quite a bit, we didn’t get into the boat until around 9 PM.

We got up early and Susan took the car back to Enterprise. Our goal was to be off the dock about 9AM to head upriver on the Mississippi side to get the boat serviced.

(Tech stuff to follow)
The Quo Vadimus has a transmission that goes forward and reverse, but it needs some level of maintenance. It needs to have the fluid replaced every three hundred hours. You need to suck the fluid out, there is no drain underneath. This will be the first time on the trip that it’s been done.

It’s also time for an oil change. I’m running Amsoil, a top of the line synthetic oil. Normally the oil would be replaced every 150 hours. What I’m doing is replacing the filter (and adding oil) at 150 hours and then replacing the oil and new filter at 300 hours. With an expected run of 600-700 hours for the trip it means only one oil change and multiple filter changes. I’ve also drawn a sample of the oil to send out for testing. I sent one out with 10 hours on it as a baseline. The one that came back at 145 hours was very close to those numbers. We changed the oil today (300 hours), and I’ll send that sample out. If the oil numbers are good then I’ll do filter changes at 450 and 600 hours and a change at 750 hours. This is one longer cycle than I did this time, a total of 450 hours on the oil.

For trucks this has been the Amsoil suggestion. Filters at 5K, 10K, 15K, 20K and replace oil at 25K miles. So in theory I could do the entire loop on one set of oil and multiple oil changes. One of the problems I have is that the suction system does not pull that last amount of crud from the oil pan (about a quart). In theory if it circulates then the filter will catch it, so we will see.

Oil burn has been very low, about 1 quart per engine per 50 hours, so I’m happy with that.

(End tech stuff)

I called the service people at 8:45 AM to make sure we are good for us to come to their marina. They decided that Scott was coming here, he could ‘easily’ do our job at the same time. Bonus me, I can stay in my free slip and use the great wi-fi.

We met the crew of Potest Fieri (It can be done) They came over to say hi, they are from Canada. They didn’t have butter tarts, but liked that we had spent a great deal of time in Canada. They are Gold Loopers moving their boat down to transship it to the Northwest to start their Alaskan adventures. They had read my AGLCA blog posts, I said try the regular ones, I’m much nicer.

Scott arrived at the boat next to us around 10 and said, no problem on our boat at 1PM. About 12:30 Susan grabbed laundry and her swim suit to play in the pool, maybe bike, but have a relaxing day.

Scott came over at 2 PM and said he was jammed up, we would need to postpone. We talked about that I was a looper I had places to be. I had been here on Friday, and waited until Monday. IF I was off the dock by 11 on Tuesday, I’d be OK with that.

At 3 PM Scott came back and said he had a cancel, he could work on my boat until 4:30. Yay! So we rocked as much as we could. We got oil samples taken, old oil removed, new filters on and oil refilled. Transmissions were a little harder, two of the measurement knobs were stuck, but Scott soon wrangle them off, fluid pulled. He also sucked the fluid out of the one fuel filter that has about 2/3 of a cup of crap floating into the bottom.

The filters in the Hurth 630A are stainless coils formed into a mesh, so they needed to go back to get cleaned. Scott would take them back, clean them and be back at our dock by 9AM to put us back together. At 4:29 PM, I pushed Scott’s work boat off our dock and he headed away. I’m pleased, we got lots done in 1.5 hours and should be only an hour more on Tuesday and we can be off.

I’ll order new filters so I can swap the new for the old and then be able to send the old out to be cleaned for the next cycle.

Very pleased with Scott, he knew what he was doing and the process went very quickly.

Susan was back at 4. Part of her adventure day was going to the top of the bluff to the winery. The views were amazing and she wanted to go back for dinner.

I showered and changed and at 5:30 we were at the “Aerie Wineyard”. It is “230 feet above flood stage of the 1993 flood” overlooking a very pretty Mississippi and Illinois river. Dinner was very good, we had two small plates of appetizers, a sausage pizza and a mushroom pizza. All is right with the world, I’m back in the land of thin and crispy pizza. They also had a good beer selection, so it was a great night.

We had been taken up in a 4 seat Ute, we came back the same way. It was fun to be in an outdoor car skimming the landscape. They are building a tramway to take people up the mountain. I think we will pencil in a trip in 2016 to ride up again. Grafton is a place I would like to come back to again.

Off to bed about 8:30, I want to finish the St. Louis post and then help Scott do his last little bit. Then it’s down the river for another 9 day, 300 mile adventure!

Grafton is nice, we’ve really enjoyed our stay here. One great thing is the wi-fi, we’ve both been able to catch up on our internet surfing.

On Sunday we got up and out the door at 8 AM to head to St. Louis. Traffic was light and it was a pretty easy drive. I was unable to find Spray 9 cleaner yesterday, so we would try again today. It turns out that car guys like it, and the first auto parts place that we stopped had it.

We also stopped at a local doughnut stop for a quick breakfast snack. I really like cinnamon rolls, and they had a doughnut that was layers of dough and cinnamon rather than a spiral. I think this has become my new favorite.

First stop in St. Louis was the Botanical Gardens. It’s a huge place, bigger than Longwood Gardens. We picked out the places we wanted to see. We both wanted to see the Japanese and Chinese gardens, and of course they were at the farthest corner. Two tram tickets later and we were on our way!

The Japanese garden is around a small lake that has a stream with a three level waterfall filling it. Around the edges are planting with the white sands that have been raked into designs and patterns. It is very tranquil, we both sat on a bench for a few moments taking it all in.

At the far end is a bridge that has feed for the koi. It was fun to feed them and to watch the ducks zoom in to grab the feed. Some of the fish are fat and lazy, they come to the surface and open their mouths so you can toss the food into it. Sometimes it works, but I watched one duck stick their beak into the mouth and snatch the food away. We circumnavigated the pond, stopping often to get great pictures.

The Chinese garden is set in the woods and has a winding path through it. It was also very tranquil and it was nice to be in the shade for awhile. Lots of pretty sculptures in little nooks of the landscape. There were also a number of benches that you could sit and admire.

Next door was a boxwood garden like you would find in England. Perfectly trimmed boxwood around a stone path. There is a gazebo at one end, I can imagine sitting there enjoying a meal with friends.

We took the tram to the next stop, Henry Shaw’s restored County Residence. Shaw was the founder and creator of the gardens in the mid 1800′s. We toured the house and the Victorian style gardens around it. One of them is a maze, the hedges are about 5′ tall, high enough for a parent to see over, but still blocking the view of children. There was one family playing chase in the maze, it reminded me of a time the kids and I did a corn maze and got totally lost.

There is an observation tower in the corner where we could watch the maze activities and also see the designs in the other gardens. One of my favorites was the Pincushion Gardens. About 4 feet across they were intricate designs all done with succulent plants. Very pretty and very ornate, I’m hoping Susan’s pictures come out.

We walked over to the “Climatron”. It is the first geodesic dome to be used as a conservatory. It was designed using Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic system. It houses all of their tropical plants and we wound our way through it admiring the collection. Outside of the dome is a long reflecting pool that has glass sculptures by Chihuly. They are long flame like globes, that reflect in the water.

In our wanderings we also pass through two rose gardens. Not a lot was in bloom since it was late in the season, but Susan was thrilled with the ones that were. I can imagine in the spring it is a pretty stunning display.

We passed through the Linnean House on the way out. It’s the oldest orangery, a building to overwinter citrus plants, west of the Mississippi. It has high arched ceilings with glass panels on the roof to be able to collect massive amounts of sunlight.

We hopped back in our car and drove cross town to Pappy’s Smokehouse, one of the top BBQ places in St. Louis. We got in line about 12:30 at the back entrance of the door. Pretty soon we were inside the building in another line that snaked down a back hallway. Then we got to a doorway that led into the restaurant, and yet another line. It’s clear that Pappy’s has taken a page from the Disney crowd control playbook. But, like Disney, the lines did keep moving.

At the counter we ordered our lunches and a full slab of ribs to go for later on. We easily found seats and within minutes a waitress was bringing our food out to us. The entire time from car to food was about an hour.

But the food was great. Susan had the beef brisket and burnt ends. The brisket was tender and had the great smoked flavor we were looking for. The burnt ends were juicy and crispy, the caramelized sauces were wonderful. I also had the ends but my other side was smoked chicken. I had a combination of white and dark meat, the smoke flavor was all through the meat. The sides were great, it was a wonderful lunch (and dinners to come!)

Back to the car to go to the famous St. Louis Arch. It was good that we had a GPS, because there was a ton of construction work along the east side of St. Louis. They are in the process of revamping and rebuilding the entire park area. After lots of twists and turns and a four block ride down a cobblestone street we arrived at the Arch.

I had been to the Arch before, but time had eroded the memories of how tall it really was. It’s simple design soaring into the sky is truly amazing. With almost no crowd, we were soon lined up to take the ride up. This part I did remember, small cramped cages/pods that barely held 5 people. The ride feels like a Ferris wheel, you sweep up and around from below the base up into the legs and then into the top. We got out and took the last 3 dozen steps to the observation area.

We stared out the tiny windows on both the East and West sides taking in the vistas. From the top you can see 40 miles on a clear day. We took pictures and one of the Park Rangers was nice enough to take a picture of both of us.

Down in the base we watched a movie about Lewis and Clark and their expedition up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and across the Rockies to the west coast. Time had again eroded memories from High School History class. Since it was an Imax movie, the scenery was breathtaking. I can’t imagine making a trip like that. While the Loop is pretty cool, we are never more than a mile away from civilization.

The other movie was about the construction of the Arch in the 1960′s. What an engineering feat! They had limited computers back then (early mainframe days) and the drawings were hand done. They showed the construction of the “slices” that were bolted together and then filled with concrete to add extra stiffness. It was impressive that the legs could support themselves up to the 500′ level when they were able to put a bridge across to help with the loads. At the top the two ends met exactly on line, remember this is a time well before laser sights and distance measurements. The movie shows the use of transits and 100′ measurement tapes.

There is also a museum in the base that talks about Lewis and Clark and life of the early explorers and settlers.

Back to the car to the second most important place of the day, “Ted Drewes Frozen Custard”, to get a “concrete”. A concrete is frozen custard that has some additional item (like Oreo Cookies) mixed in. But unlike ice cream the resulting concoction is hard, you can turn it upside down and it will stay in the cup.

Back across town to Ted’s. To find it closed for the season. Oh Noes!! Susan to the rescue, she knew there was more than one. A call to the second one to find that they were open until 11.

A 20 minute drive later (actually 40 minutes since we did a quick grocery stop) we were there. It’s about twice the size of our local Brewster’s with a huge crowd of people outside. I lucked out and found a spot. Unlike Brewster’s they had 8 lines going and we soon were back in the car with our concretes. I drove while Susan dived into her “Turtle” a concrete with hot fudge, caramel, and pecans. About 10 minutes later we stopped for gas and switched drivers, and I ate my simpler chocolate with fudge and Oreo cookies. They were very good and made the perfect end to the day.

We boarded the Quo Vadimus at 8:30 PM. A longer day that we had planned but one of the best sightseeing days we’ve had, but we both had fun.

We are taking a day break here in Grafton and then a day trip to St. Louis on Sunday via a rental car. So step one was getting the rental.

The Enterprise agent picked us up and we got Alton around noon. We were on the hunt for lunch, transmission fluid and Spray 9 cleaner.

Quo Vadimus is 21 years old so it has older technology in it. Trying to find transmission fluid was hard. Our fourth place, Car Quest had it, and more importantly had it in 5 quart containers. Each side holds just under 4 quarts and the transmission cooler holds another quart. So I picked up 3 containers (so I have some to top off with) and we were off….

To WHITE CASTLE!!! Yay us! It’s been quite a while since either one of us have had “Belly Bombs”. Since there was one only a mile away, we were there in a flash. Susan stuck with the more traditional sack of 5. Since I was last there White Castle has branched off to have two kinds of cheese, bacon, plain chicken and an Italian chicken with sauce. Being adventuresome, I tried all 5. Not sure what I was thinking. Chicken sandwich is a chicken sandwich, you go to White Castle for the steamed burgers and the onions. Kudos to the Castle for trying to branch out, but on my next visit I’ll stick with the classics. In any case, lunch was good and it was a pleasant surprise.

At the next table there was discussion about a combined Car and Air show at the St. Louis Regional Airport. We talked it over and agreed to go for a short time. Neither one of us had thought to bring hats and Susan had flip flops on, not the best thing to walk long distances in. Luck for us, to get to the air planes you needed to walk through the fire station. It was cool inside and Susan opted to stay there in the shade rather than walk the hot tarmac.

Lots of plane, most of them private. Lots and lots of experimental / home built aircraft. Only a few military and they were of the training style. There was one called the “Teeny Two” that was 10 feet long and had a 16 foot wingspan and sat just 24” off the runway. The owner / builder called it “a sky go-cart”. It took him just over a year to build in his two car garage.

There was also section with about 50 model planes. They were flying a few at a time. As we were leaving the airfield, one of the larger ones started doing stunt flying.

The grass for the auto show was a little easier to manage, but it was super hot out. We managed about three rows before we called it a day. Older cars was the norm, but some really nice chopped hot-rods and 3 DeLorians! My favorite was an open wheel touring car, it had the most amazing paint job.

We got back and decided to do a load of laundry while we waited for the “Parking Lot Party” to start. We were walking up when Susan got a call from the Admiral of Pier Pressure. Yay! We have been trying to meet up since we were in the Delaware Bay. We’ve traded emails back and forth for months. She was HERE!

We met up with her and had an amazing time, it’s like we have know each other for years. She was very gracious, ignoring our manners faux pas while we moved laundry around and folded things. We talked about a huge amount of stuff it was a great three hours. We hope to see her and the Captain farther down the loop.

After dinner and conversation we headed back to the boat. We paused briefly to listen to the band at “The Parking Lot Party”. They were good, but we were tired, so it was off to bed.

Sunday is our big day doing St. Louis.

On our way to breakfast we said goodbye to the crew of Saylors Delight, they were off to make some big jumps of over a 100 miles a day. We wished them well on their voyage.

At the “Riverdock” we had a huge hot breakfast. With our last five days of getting up pre-dawn and heading out it was very relaxing to eat breakfast at 7:30AM

Keeping an eye out for Asian carp we pushed off into the Illinois River. There was still a pretty decent current going so we made good time. We didn’t see much traffic either way, but we did see lots of barges waiting to be filled at the grain silos. I continue to hope that we are in the window before the harvest on the Illinois and Mississippi and after the harvest on the Tennessee.

The Brussels car ferry was interesting, it’s on a call basis and their appears to be two of them shuttling back and forth. It looks like the small push tug swivels on the side so it is always pushing the boat forward.

We got into the Grafton marina after what had been a pretty short day, just over two hours. We did the hour long fuel dock thing of 192 gallons of diesel and a pump out. Pretty excited, we did the 360 miles from Chicago to Grafton in 9 days, an average of 40 miles a day. But we are pretty tired here, looking forward to some time off the water.

Home is under a covered dock! We have one at Bohemia Bay Yacht Harbor and it will nice to be under one here with the temps going into the mid 80′s. The difference between this dock and home is that the dock and roof are tied together and they float. So as the river rises, so does the roof. A pretty clever design.

But we soon learned there is a flaw. The Asian Carp that leap out of the water sometimes leap and get caught between the floats and the deck. They get trapped inside the space and die. And rot. And start smelling really bad. The dock mate pulled 5 fish from the finger piers next to us. Uggg.

Taking advantage of the shade we cleaned the boat inside and outside. Between the spiders and general dirt the Quo Vadimus was a mess. We unloaded the cockpit of the bikes and rack to allow the deck to be scrubbed down. About 2 hours later we were done and everything looked much better.

I knew that the Chesapeake and the Andiamo had docked a few hours after us. I wandered over to see how their trip went and what their plans were. They were out in the far corner of the marina in and they were only staying the one night and then heading down to Alton.

When I got back to our dock we helped the crew of Fiddlin’ Around dock. It’s a boat with 4 musician friends cruising around from Chicago. Once they got settled in, they played a few songs on the dock. They were going to play at the marina bar later that evening. They were very good, we will make an effort to see them later.

We went to the “Piasa Winery and Pub”. They had a great selection of beers to choose from and Susan was happy with her choice. Their special was either a “Batman” (beef patty) or “Robin” (chicken patty) served between two grilled cheese sandwiches. Which in theory sounds really good, in practice there are four pieces of bread. Maybe if it had been only three pieces (a patty served on top of a grilled cheese?) it would have been better.

On the weekends it appears that Grafton is the place to be. There was live music in the two places across the street. As we walked towards the marina we passed another singer playing folk songs.

We went to the marina’s bar to see if the crew from Fiddlin’ Around had shown up yet. We had a drink while we waited, but it started to become close to Looper Midnight so we headed back to the boat.

Our trip on the Illinois didn’t start off well, but the last 6 days were good. Very tired from the combo of the trip and cleaning, it’s nice that we don’t need to go anyplace on Saturday.

Our stay on the Logston barge was good. We woke to a wake once about 1:30AM but soon fell back to sleep.

When I got the tour of the tug Pin Oak they had said they work a 5 PM – 5AM shift. (Thanks for the tour!) But right at 5 AM, after crew change, they started working. We watched as they moved a barge that had pilings on it around us and back two barges. Then they grabbed the barge with the crane and moved that. It was impressive how they moved, how smooth the movements were and the general lack of crashing and crunching sounds. We had their VHF channel on and it was short commands and responses. It was great to watch professionals at work. By 6 AM they were back in their berth and shut down.

But we were now up and watching the Sun. Once it was up enough for us to be able to see trash in the river we headed out. (That would be 6:45 AM local time)

Once again the Illinois was calm. We had a good current that helped us move along, but the early morning was a very pretty time to be on the water. One of the Captains at Logston had said “Hours of boredom around minutes of terror”. With the river like this, I can see why he loves his job.

We slid by the LeGrange lock at 7:30 local time. The wickets were down and we had ripple free water to slide through. We listened to Cicadas going down the river, it’s amazing how they can overcome the drone of our engines. I can’t imagine how loud it is on shore.

Around 8 AM we passed the Spirt of Peoria one of the few authentic paddlewheel-driven boat that offers passage up and down the river. They take 3 days from Peoria to St. Louis and another 3 back. It made the morning better, and brought back what we both thought the river should be. It almost made me want to put on a white suit and a black bow tie.

The day warmed up, by 11 AM it was up to 71F from our starting point of 65F. We could not ask for better weather for this trip down the river. The blue skies, the lack of wind, the thump of the Asian Carp, what could be better?

Like yesterday the Captains and the bridge operators have been very nice. I call and ask what they want us to do, and they are willing to help. One Captain said they needed to make the corner and we fell in behind them and waited until they gave the go ahead. When they did, it looked like they had slowed some to get us by. Thanks!

Around 1 PM local time we pulled into Hardin, IL. About 6.5 hours and 58.8 miles since we left Beardsville. We could have kept going, but the trip is about fun.

We docked and moments later Compromise the Looper boat that we had met in Trenton Ontario about 10 decades ago pulled in behind us. (Actually it was 1 June) We had lunch with the crew at the “Riverdock” and exchanged our adventures. They wanted to get to Grafton for dinner and then head south, so they took off after eating. Compromise is from North Carolina, so we will meet up with them again.

Dinner (after naps) was back at the “Riverdock”. Wonderful smoked chicken and a brisket that had blackened ends that remided me of when I met Susan. A great dinner.

I know that we all look for bargains. So I asked at dinner “If you eat Lunch, Dinner and Breakfast here and leave a great tip is the dock is free?” The waitress came back and said, “Overnight is $15, but the tips need to be really good!” Alrighty we are in for that!

On the way out we met the crew of Saylors Delight. They started in Southern Virginia, so another crew we will met later on. We recommended what we had just eaten, but we gave them insider info that the thing to do is order pie first and dinner later. Or maybe pie followed by pie.

There is a pretty steep ramp that connects the dock to the shore. I was first and made it to the dock. Behind me I heard a splash and a thump and I thought “Susan has fallen”. I turned quickly to see an Asian Carp sliding across the dock inches away from my feet. It slid the entire width and splashed into the water at the other side. Pretty amazing!

The river is still calm and harvest is still a few days away, so we are hoping for a quiet ride to Grafton.

So it turns out I like the Illinois River after all.

But, like Alice, lets begin at the beginning.

The last two locks on the Illinois River have wicket gates. There is a lock at one end, and across the river are giant panels they can put into place to stop the flow of water. When the wickets are in the water level rises. In flood conditions, like 3 weeks ago, they pull the wickets out to allow water (and debris) to flow down river. River management is hard, as we found out on the Trent-Severn and Erie Canal systems.

Because the water level has dropped the last two weeks they are ready to put the wickets back in. Which means that boaters will not be able to pass over the dam that supports the wickets, but we will need to use the lock. At Peoria Lock, they would start putting the wickets in on Wednesday (today) morning. I really didn’t want to use the lock, so I wanted to be past the Peoria Lock by 8 AM.

We said goodbyes to the Captain of the Chesapeake at 6:30 AM CST (yes, just after sunrise) and headed south. Much to my surprise (and fuel budget delight) there was a 2-3 knot current running with us. Yay! So we were able to cruise at 10.5 knots on our regular RPM’s. We passed the Peoria Lock at 7:35AM, well before 8.

The river below Peoria is a little busy with tows for about 2 miles. Then it becomes mostly county. With no winds blowing, the river was like glass with us coasting down the middle of it. Mile after mile of pretty countryside, calm waters, and the occasional thump from the Asian Carp.

Around 11AM we crossed the 2,000 mile mark! So we’ve gone the first third of our trip in 5 months time. Which on paper doesn’t bode well for being home in May, but we are making some long jumps in the next 10 travel days.

With the current we kept up our 10+ knot speed and made some great progress. I slowed to No Wake speed for the few fishermen we ran into. We had two up-bound tows and the Captains were great about telling me where to go and we had great passes. From 10 miles south of Peoria, we didn’t see another moving boat.

Until Mile 107, where we saw a kayak heading South. I slowed to 5 knots and glided by. “Where did you come from?” “Joliet.” (mile 287) “Where are you going?” “New Orleans”. Wow. He had gone through 80 miles of the Illinois already. Very cool. I waved and we kept the 5 knots going for another mile so we wouldn’t swamp him and then put the Quo Vadimus back up to speed.

More flat calm river, some high banks to keep the Illinois in its course, lots of birds, and of course the carp. Very peaceful, very nice. Reminded us both of the parts of the Hudson that we really liked.

Seven hours after leaving Peoria, we swung around and tied off to the Logston Workbarge. Off of their wall they have a work barge that has a crane and parts along with crane items like scoops and claws, etc. I paid our fee of $1 a foot. I got a map of town. I asked about haircuts and got directed to Tyson’s Barber shop about 4 blocks away. So I headed over.

Mr Tyson is 86, has kids and grand kids and is the leader of a French-Indian War reactionary group that goes out and does recreations with about 30 other people. Knows all about the history of the area. Very cool guy to talk to. He seemed to like me, I got a free haircut and beard trim. And I look nice!! Go figure!

Being fully coiffed, I headed across to the Lincoln Museum it covers two floors in the old court-house / city hall. There was a big trial over a resident of Beardstown that was killed and the defendants’ Mom had asked Abraham Lincon to represent her son. There was an eye witness during the trial that said they had seen the murder in the light of a full moon. Our hero, Abraham Lincoln pulled out the Almanac that proved it was the first quarter, not that it was a full moon. Case closed! Yay Lincoln!. They have a room dedicated to Lincon, but none of the artifacts were his. The curator said all the good stuff is either in Springfield or at the Smithsonian.

The museum is full of other artifacts from the town history. They have the full dish set that the founder of Beardstown brought with him from England. Towns people have also donated their collections ranging from 1000′s of antique buttons to Mr. Blacks gun collection of 100+ long rifles and 50+ pistols from the French-Indian war to the 1950′s. It was well worth the hour that I spent there.

Two blocks away is the 88 Pub (named for being Mile 88 on the Illinois River). It was pretty nice with 20′ high stamped tin ceilings and a long polished bar. The food special for the evening was a basket of fried chicken livers and gizzards. The drink special was shots of Moonshine for $1.50. This pretty much confirms we are not in Canada any more.

I had a beer and a moonshine. They had flavored ones (cherry, pineapple, etc), but I opted for “White Lightning” which is plain. Super strong and a nasty taste (I sipped it rather than tossing it down). The barmaid was nice, she told me about the town and things to see an do. This coming weekend is their Fall Fest.

She said I should come back in August, that’s when the “Red Neck Fishing Tournament” is. They have a contest to see who can catch the most Asian Carp. At the end of the two days they had filled a tractor trailer with 1000′s of carp. She said the fish are “nasty, slimey and bloody”, but that everybody had a good time, but “there was lots of drinking involved.” Which made her happy since she works at a bar.

She said I should check out the “River Look”, the walk along the river. I had seen it coming into town. When I got there, a guy was walking up the staircase from the river, it was the guy in the kayak that we had passed hours ago.

His name is Scott and he’s going from Joliet, IL to New Orleans. He left Joliet on Tuesday the 16th hopes to be in NOLA by Thanksgiving. Today was his longest run, with the current it was easy, he was doing 5 miles an hour. We talked about why he was doing this. He said he was involved in an accident that messed up his right leg and pelvis. They put some bolts and screws in to hold it all together. Since he couldn’t walk well, he turned to kayaking as physical therapy. He’s build up his strength and decided to take this trip. The first set of locks he locked through with Coast Guard work boats but was happy to paddle past the next few.

He was on his way to dinner at the Dairy Queen a few blocks away. I offered my map, but he said he was using his car GPS, it was working out fine. I saw him about an hour later paddling past where we had tied up, he was on his way south to find some place safe to camp.

When I got back to the boat Susan was hard at work making dinner. One of the tow hands came over and asked if we could move the boat. I said sure, could we give Susan 10 minutes to finish cooking and then we could move. He said no problem. I then had an ispiration, I asked if I could see the inside of his tug boat. “Sure”. I grabbed my camera and headed with him. The tug Pin Oak is a short work tug for moving tow (the barges around).

It has a short front deck with to massive bumpers to push against the tow, and a set if stairs that go up ’20 to alllow access to empty tows. Inside is a small crew room with a refrigerator and microwave. They spend 12 hour shifts on the boat. They work 7 days and have 4 off. Just past the crews room and down is the engine room with two Caterpillar diesel engines that drive the boat. On either side of the crews room are two John Deere generators that power all of the lights and winches. From the front you go up three fights of stairs into the Pilot House.

I asked the Captain if I could come in and take some pictures. The area is pretty small (about 10′ square) and very spartan. There is a long bench along the back wall that would double as a bunk. His chair is pretty nice, lots of padding. The instrument panel is just the general information. He does have a nice Chartplotter / radar / AIS tracking system.

The controls are very different. On both sides of the wheel there are two vertical poles. At three levels there are three arms that come out towards the center. The top bar runs the motor direction and speed. The next two run the forward and backing rudders. The Captain said there were two rudders behind the propeller for direction when the boat is moving forward. There are two in front of the propeller that give direction when the boat is backing down. By using them in combination is how they are able to crab sideways an move the tow’s around. Very cool!!

I headed back down to move our boat. They wanted to use the crane barge early in the morning and rather than wake us, they wanted us to move tonight. No problem, 15 mins later we were tied one barge down.

Dinner of sausages, bolognese sauce with pork and zucchini noodles. I really love the zucchini noodles and the bolognese sauce made with the uncured bacon was really good.

There is no power while tied to a barge, so we ran the generator so Susan could cook dinner and run the AC. This is the first time since Canada (on July 2) that we’ve had to run it. Pretty amazing that we’ve had cool days for most of our trip.

I want to say thanks to the people at Logston Tug Services. We felt very welcome, got good tips on places to see, and for allowing me to see one of their boats. And I want to say good luck to Scott! If you read this, let us know how you made out.

And I miss you Dad.

Today is our last full day in Chicago. Places we are going today are closer, so we will bike along the waterfront.

Our first stop is the Field Museum. It’s more like your classical museum, but they are doing lots to make it kid friendly. It is home to “Sue” is the largest, best-preserved, and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found. Sue measures 42 feet long from snout to tail. She has the end of the hall right a the entrance. Very cool!! We watched a movie about Sue and how they dig fossils out of the ground and preserve them. Later in the day we saw museum staff doing the preservation process.

We went downstairs to an exhibit called “Underground Adventure”. You walk down a hallway that puts you through a “shrinking ray” (leftover disco lights) and you become half an inch tall. You then go through a tunnel system portraying what is going on underground in the soil. It was cute, well until we got to the 3′ spider. It was very icky and menacing.

From there we did a tour of their Egyptian artifacts. They have a mocked up tomb that you can go inside and see what it was like. In the same area they have a number of other mummies and things that you would normally find in a tomb. They also have a good display on what Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs would have been like.

On the upper level were their gem collection, broken down by the types of stones. For example, Jade is popular in China, not only did they have jewelry, but also plates and cups. In the area with fossils is “Sue’s” real skull, the one on the main floor is a replica. The real skull weighs around 400 pounds, it is too heavy to hang.

Our last exhibit was called “The Machine Inside”. It’s a great display of how we (people, animals, plants) work inside. Like how a giraffe heart is different from ours to be able to pump blood up the long neck. Or how cooling / heating systems work for different animals depending on the climates. I thought it was a fascinating spin on how to look at things around us.

From the Field Museum we went to the Adler Planetarium. It is your classic planetarium, with lots of great exhibits on telescopes, how early cultures viewed and tracked the stars, etc. They have a good section of space flight artifacts. The big movie there was “Discover the Solar System”. It was in their dome, you get on a rocket ship in 2097 and visit the Sun, Venus, Mars, the asteroids, etc. Back when it was made in 2007 it was most likely cutting edge, but with the new Cosmos TV show and the stunning pictures we’ve gotten, it looked a little dated.

We also got to see the original sky show. It is literally a 15′ metal sphere that has holes of the right size and location to represent the stars. You sit inside of it and the sphere spins around you. A very simple solution.

We biked home to rest for an hour. We are finding that all of this running around is pretty hard work we are both sore from all the walking.

The Navy Pier is a few blocks north of the Marina and has pretty good security so we felt safe taking our bikes there. We walked the length of the pier, there are about a dozen places to eat in the center section and a ton of places offering tours, dinner cruises, etc. along the dock walls.

The Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows is a permanent exhibition which opened in February 2000 on the Navy Pier. There are over a hundred different windows on display, lots and lots of Tiffany windows. They are set up with lights that go on and off behind them, so you can see the differences.

We stopped for a drink at the “Billy Goat Tavern”, for our older readers it’s the source of the old Saturday Night Live skits about “Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger, no Coke Pepsi, No Fries Chips” There is one downtown that I’ve been to, this is a spin off to attract the tourists that don’t want to go to Lower Wacker Ave. It’s serving as our Chicago dive bar.

Dinner was at “Bubba Gump’s”. Yes it’s a chain, but it was there and it had seafood. We had a good time, the food was good and the beer was cold.

From dinner we walked into the shopping arcade and up into the glass atrium. It’s full of palm trees and has lots of fountains. A few are the smooth water fountains that arc overhead. A few more are the ones that send a chunk of water up and over.

Next to the atrium is a huge sky wheel. From the top you get a great view of the city and along the waterfront in both directions. It moved very slowly and there is a good narration on what you are looking at and some of the history of Chicago. We decided that the night time view was a much better choice.

After our ride we collected our bikes and when home. This makes the third night in a row that we are coming in after Looper Midnight (9PM)

Tomorrow starts our trip to Hammond Indiana and our 9 day trek down the Illinois river.

Tuesday got us off to a slow start getting off the boat to go on our next set of adventures. We walked a few blocks to Eggy’s. It was a great breakfast and for being in the middle of Chicago it was very reasonably priced.

We then walked 4 blocks to the “El” and took a train 50 blocks south. Our destination was the “Museum of Science and Industry”. We got a little lost walking, and ended up walking through the campus of the “University of Chicago”. It’s a very pretty campus and I loved the medieval styled buildings.

We got to the Museum of Science and Industry and found that it is huge. You could easily spend two or three days here looking at everything. So we focused on things we really wanted to see and their special exhibits.

First was the Disney “D23” collection. They have the history of Disney from his very early days of cartooning (age 16), through his first cartoons, the Mickey years and then all of the amazing pictures and TV shows. They have a mock up of the “multi-plane camera” that they designed to allow them to zoom into the cartoon and make it look realistic. We also saw how they did some of the special effects for movies like Mary Poppins (spoiler alert, they used green screens and she moved around on wires that they edited out)

There is a giant model train outside the Disney area. It shows the area in and around Chicago, but also as an area that is Seattle Washington to show the long freight trains in action. It was very fun to watch, there were over a dozen trains moving a one time.

From there it was off to the technology section with a giant Tesla coil that put out 300,000 volts. It was mounted up inside the ceiling, so only the main electrode an the 40′ grounding ring was outside. It threw off amazing bolts of “lightning” and made a huge crackeling sound.

We looked at some exhibits and then it was time to head over to the Imax movie about the Monarch Butterfly Migration. It was the story of the lepidopterist that spent most of his life around the Monarch and their migration patterns. Since it was Imax, the video was about following them both on the ground and in the air. It was really well done.

(If you don’t know the story, all the Monarchs in North America spend the winter in a 10 square mile area in Mexico. In the spring they hop north laying eggs in Milkweed plants. There are 3 generations of Monarchs across the summer. The third generation is special, it has the ability to fly back from as far as Canada back to the spot in Mexico. And of course we are killing them off in the US by reducing the amount of milkweed plants. At least Mexico has it’s act together, they have protected the winter area from any cutting, building, etc.

From the Musuem it was off to the Chicago river for our “River Architecture Tour”. The Quo is too tall to make it under one of the bridges in Chicago, so we opted to get a tour. Susan booked us on a longer 90 minute tour. Our guide was great, he talked about almost every building we went past. He described the architecture, who designed it, when it was built, etc. Just a great job.

We were lucky to score seats along the bow on the upper level so we were able to get millions of pictures. There are some amazing buildings and there were some great stories. Some of the buildings don’t have windows so the employees can’t look out and be distracted by all the activity on the water. The Mayor of Chicago asked Donald Trump to take the giant TRUMP off the building and “The Donald” told him no. A set of 50 condos on the waterfront sold in 4 weekends in a set of lotteries. If you are in Chicago, you should really do the boat tour!

From the tour dock we got a taxi to the pharmacy. We needed a reload on Belle’s meds and the vets in town don’t stock it. Susan via the magic of Google was able to find a compounding pharmecy that had Belle’s meds in stock.

Since we are urban tourists, we grabbed the next bus going to the city. Transfering to the train 10 blocks later we were soon at our food destination, “The Purple Pig”. We had about a 55 minute wait, but they served beer and wine on the deck so waiting worked out. “The Purple Pig” is a small plates place with most Mediterranean style dishes.

We had fried olives, calamari salad, gryos, deep fried deviled egg, meat balls, and chicken thighs bbq on a skewer. It was all very good. It came a few dishes at a time which was very fun.

By the time we finished and it was dark out. While only an 8 block back to the boat, we opted to get a taxi home to the boat.