20 September 2014

“Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure” – Reunion – Looper Class of 2014.

Yesterday was a hard day. While we had boat karma going on (thank you to the unnamed tow that let us tie to your barges, and to the to tow that let us come through the lock with them), it was long and pretty stressful. We talked across dinner (I had a PB&J since I wasn’t interested in food) about what we were doing. Had the “Boat Transport Fairy” shown up, we would have shipped the Quo Vadimis to Florida and done a trip reset.

Saturday dawned a beautiful day. We were able to check the boat out and where we thought we had crunched, there were no marks, so yay! us. The marina we were in is very nice, it has lots of those little house – houseboats. They stay in the water year round, they bubble them to keep them from freezing in. Most of them have pontoon boats to go out on the river.

We got a load of fuel (they were $4.24 a gallon, which looks like the cheapest until we get to the Tenn-Tom, saving $90 in fuel costs is great!). We had seen a tow go down about 7AM, when we called they were almost done and we were good to head down. We pushed off at (9:50 CT, 10:50ET) (We are keeping Eastern Time on the Quo Vadimus since the GPS for some reason does not want to switch over. )

The Dresden lock was ready for us, they do a lot of “Pleasure Craft” boats, so they were happy to lock us through. It went pretty smoothly and Susan was able to fit out a Loopers Loop, the lock line goes through a plastic tube to make a big 18” circle so it fit over the floating pins.

The prior post didn’t say it, but like yesterday there were some really pretty parts of the river. The bird life (mud duck, regular duck, herons, etc) are in full abundance. Lots of nice things to see, not all barges hanging by the waterfront.

The section of the river “down bound” of Dresden was full of “Pleasure Craft”. There was over a dozen boats running up and down. We saw a group of 8 wave runners working the wakes. Along the way is a sand bar and it had 10 boats pulled up on the beach. So fun boating on this section of the Illinois is alive and well.

We pulled into Spring Brook Marina about 3.5 hours after we left the dock. About 6 people showed up to help us dock. We did our normal bow in, but ¼ of the boat was hanging out. So we backed out, spun around and backed in. (People ask, why bow in? Since most marinas are piers out, if you back in we look from out salon, across the dock to the other boat. Bow in we normally have a great view of the river) We were tied up and power on, good to go!

Matt from the next boat over asked if we needed to go to town. YES! So he zipped me to the ACE Hardware and the marina across town where I picked up what I needed. Meanwhile, it had started to pour, so the decision to stay here was validated as a good one. (And as I type this a second wave of the storm is coming in)

During our trip I asked Matt about the boats in the area. He talked that this was one of the larger “pools” between locks. Seneca is a small town, but there is a nice grocery, hardware store and the Spring Brook Marina is known for their service department. Locks on either side are “Pleasure Craft” friendly, so it’s easy to get up or down to the next pool. (Pool is a river term for the river between two locks) So we continue our “we meet the nicest people”

Susan also fixed the “ship oil to the marina and not get it problem”, we got them a new label and will get it in Grafton in about 10 days.

Zack from the marina office came down to check us in (the second time this has happened, yay! Spring Brook Customer Service! (Zack also came up with what I was looking for, so Spring Brooks is a fully stocked center. I just need to learn how to wait better)) With a rest afternoon underway and Sunday looking like an OK day to do our next lock, we are feeling much better. We will both nap and get caught up on some relax time.

Update:
Napping went well. For dinner Susan made salmon stuffed with seafood, rice and asparagus. It was good and made a great end to a much better day.

“Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure” – We are back on an adventure!