This blog takes us from where we left off in Peoria Heights to Grafton, Illinois, which marks the end of the Illinois River and the start of the Mississippi. It covers four back to back travel days from Peoria Heights to Quiver Island, Quiver Island to Beardstown, Beardstown to Hardin, and Hardin to Grafton, all in Illinois. Below, Cam is standing at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.
Peoria Heights to Quiver Island
We woke to pouring rain and once again thought our departure would be delayed because of the weather. One of the boats travelling with us called the Peoria Lock and got no answer, but we soon heard on our VHF radio that some boats were heading out and the lock was open and waiting! We had a 10 mile run to the lock and we were the second last boat in the lock. We were so glad they waited for us and felt badly about making the other boats wait. There were 17 boats in the lock and the lock staff decided that must be a record! Exiting the lock we had 17 boats all jumbled close together in the river vying for position and it probably took an hour of slow passes for us all to get in a comfortable order for speed. This is because boats generally travel at the speed that works best for their hull. For some, that's 6 knots and others it is 10 knots or somewhere in between so the faster boats need to get out in front.
We arrived at Quiver Island, our first anchorage on the rivers. It was very protected in the anchorage. We dinghied around to check the depths and it was 6 to 6.5 feet about two thirds of the way back so there was lots of room for other boats. We had settled over our anchor a little too close to shore so we re-anchored. By the end of the day there were 13 boats anchored. We dinghied a short run to Havana, Illinois with Bob and Pam from Out of the Blue. We tied up at a very cute marina and walked into an almost deserted town. There were a couple of old tree stumps that had been carved and painted like lighthouses. So cute! We found a place that sold flavoured ice chips with lots of neat flavours. That was the perfect treat for us as it was super hot out with no air movement. We headed back to the anchorage and then hosted docktails on our boat with Out of the Blue, Off Leash, and See Life. It was crowded and hot, but fun.
We enjoyed a quiet evening and had a long video call with family back home. We were woken three times in the night with storms and heavy rain. Fortunately, we were well protected from the winds, but we're pretty sure we turned a full 360 degrees in the night!
Quiver Island to Beardstown
We got to sleep in until almost 7 AM this morning! We hauled anchor and started down the river again. There were no locks or low bridges on our route, which was a nice break for a change. We crossed the 1000 nautical mile mark on our Great Loop! After meeting so many Loopers who had done 2-3000 miles, this felt like a significant accomplishment and we were making great progress on our loop. We pulled into the Logsdon Tug Services and tied up to a barge before lunch. There were definitely NO amenities! No power, no water, no washrooms, or showers. This was just for the experience. Fortunately, there was staff there to catch our lines. You had to be very careful walking around the barge and climbing up the iron staircase to go to shore. The high stairs are necessary because there can be such changes in water levels at different times of the year, or after a rain, so the dock floats up or down and the ramp meets the stairs while the lower part of the staircase just submerges. We went to lunch with Off Leash to a diner for a late lunch - more like "dunch", and celebrated our 1000 nautical miles.
We took a walk through town and passed a building erected in 1844 that the town's women had dedicated to Abraham Lincoln "who for the sake of a mother in distress, cleared her son, Duff Armstrong, of the charge of murder in this hall of justice, May 7, 1858". This was two years before he was elected president. Armstrong's father had been very helpful to Lincoln as he studied to be a lawyer. When Lincoln heard of the charges against Armstrong, he found it hard to believe that he could be capable of murder and offered his legal services pro bono.
On the way back to the boat, we stopped to pick up a few things at the Save-a-lot. Sometimes there's not a lot of options when it comes to buying groceries along the way. Docktails was on a wooden deck on the barge in the shade of the crane with Off Leash and Barefoot. With such a big late lunch, and then docktails, we didn't even have supper! The heat really was stiffling so we had to run our generator to run the air conditioning for a while before bed. Early to bed for an early and long day ahead!
Beardstown to Hardin
We were up early with plans to pull away at 6:30 for a 7:30 lock. Our power failed twice, likely due to the battery getting false information about load when we attempted to use the toaster. This ended up being part of the power issues that we resolved in this video. We got away and arrived at the LaGrange Lock, where we waited about 1.5 hours. This was our last lock on the Illinois River, and our 8th lock so far. Once through, Sea Clef was in the lead of about 8 or 9 boats. It was a very long and hot day on the water. Most of the other boats fell back and in the last hour Lady M took the lead. It was 36C (or 97 Farenheit), and even the wind was hot! Ugh! After about 9 hours, we arrived at Mel's Illinois Riverdock Restaurant. This was another stop just for the experience, with no amenities, and this time there was no one to catch our lines. Cam came into the "dock" very slowly and expertly and Heather lassooed the cleat! She was pretty pleased with herself and there might have been a "happy dance"! The "dock" is just a couple of barges attached together with a ramp to shore. There's a restaurant on shore where you pay your docking fee and enjoy a meal. After that, it was all about staying cool. It was tough to cool our boat when our engines were so hot. Our bed is also right over the engines which makes for very warm sleeping after a long run. We had docktails on the fly bridge of Off Leash, which was cool in the shade with a breeze.
We called it a night at Looper Midnight, which loosely translates to 9 PM. It's getting easier to go to bed early and get up early!
Hardin to Grafton
After another great sleep in to 7 AM, we enjoyed breakfast at the Riverdock Restaurant. There was lots of food that was "super-sized". Cam ordered a sticky bun to go and it was at least the size of four sticky buns and lasted several days! We slipped away from the dock for a short 21 mile trip to Grafton, Illinois. That's at mile zero of the Illinois River, or mile 218 of the Mississippi River. We had been moving for eight days straight since Chicago and we knew we would be due for a rest so we booked four days at the Grafton Marina. After getting settled, we hit the pool and enjoyed some Vodka freezies there with lots of other Loopers as the temperature was still around 35C. Later, we joined See Life and Out of the Blue at a bar for drinks and a lame dinner.
We had a slow and restful morning on Thursday and made plans to go to lunch. This wasn't just any restaurant for lunch. There is a chair lift called Sky Tour in Grafton and we rode the chair lift to the top of the bluff with Off Leash and Out of the Blue. We took in the view on the way up including some deer! From there we enjoyed our lunch at the Arie Winery and Heather got to have a gluten and dairy free pizza. Yummy! We really enjoyed the view and borrowed a set of binoculars from the restaurant. With a lot of effort and a little imagination, you could see the Saint Louis Arch in the distance. After we went back down on the Sky Tour, we explored the town. There were lots of little shops in town where we did a little Christmas shopping and just enjoyed the "retail therapy". One of the stores sold live edge wood that could be made into just about anything and we really enjoyed talking to the owner and exploring his shop. There was also a market on Saturday with lots of vendors. We bought a bunch of old DVDs and a potato masher - exciting! We also enjoyed a walk along the shoreline where we could see the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. There was a lighthouse there along with some unique stone sculptures of fish and a huge turtle. We saw the smallest car ferry ever running cars back and forth with a tow and a barge. We went for a bike ride as well but we had to cut it short as Heather's bike started having battery issues.
While in Grafton, we borrowed a courtesy car from the marina to go to Jerseyville where there is a Walmart. We've never been so excited to go to a Walmart in our lives! It was our first Walmart in over 1000 nautical miles, which meant decent provisioning, getting some of those extras like side mirrors for our bikes, and getting cheap oil for an oil change. The price on the oil was too good to believe so Cam checked in with his friend Dave who said "Buy it all!"
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