WEEK 27 AND 28 - Hammond, Indiana to Peoria, Illinois

This last week, after cooling our heels waiting for the Illinois River locks to open back up, they finally did, and we started our trip back down south (and just in time….it’s starting to get a bit nippy up here for us Floridians). Our stops along the way were Monroe Harbor (mooring, 2 nights), DuSable Marina (5 nights), and then, going down the Illinois River, the Joliet free wall (2 nights), Seneca (marina), Ottawa (marina) and finally to Peoria (free wall, 2 nights).

 

We left Hammond for the big city and after an easy 14 mile trip stayed 2 nights on a mooring ball in sprawling Monroe Harbor right on the downtown waterfront. There are at least 1000 boats in this mooring field, mostly local sailboats with just a smattering of cruisers. It’s a little rolly and surgey, but for just a buck a foot per night you get a front-row seat to the city skyline and a tender service that picks you up and drops you off at your boat. Oh, and walking distance to the best natural history museum ever!

Monroe Harbor mooring ball in Chicago

Chicago Field Museum

The main hall in the field museum

The skeleton of famous t-rex dinosaur, Sue

Bringing Sue to life!

Such a gorgeous view at night of the Chicago skyline

We then moved all of 200 yards from the mooring field into the adjacent DuSable Marina, where it would be more convenient for the big herd of guests and visitors who came to see us. We had a great time wining and dining and shopping and visiting with our old friends. Almost everything you could want or need is within walking or biking distance, including an upscale grocery and gourmet store named Mariano’s (the first grocery store I’ve ever seen with a bar and a baby grand piano in it). We wound up staying here 5 nights.

MingHin Cuisine - awesome Chinese restaurant just a short walk from the boat.
The Chinese restaurants in Canada were meh.

Mariano's Grocery just a short walk from the boat

An amazing dinner with Melissa & Holde at North Pond,  a 2019 Michelin Star
and 2002 James Beard Winner. Such a great evening!

We had the 5 course tasting menu which was delectable and elegant! I fancy myself a foodie
but it wasn't until the next day after a Google search that I realized I ate baby pigeon 😝. 
Admittedly, it was delicious

Top: John and Stacy stopped by for some cheer on their way through Chicago

Bottom: Allison stayed on the boat with us and Cindy, Katie and Melissa joined 

us for a river cruise and some city fun.

Architecture Tour of the Chicago River.

Some sights around the city of Chicago

At long last, we got the word that the Marseilles and Starved Rock locks on the Illinois were getting ready to reopen on October 12, so on the 8th we left Chicago and started downriver. One of the highlights of the whole trip for most loopers is the first few miles of the trip down the Chicago River right through the concrete canyons of downtown and under what seems like a hundred bridges. Soon after that the waterway becomes much more industrial and way less scenic, because we are now in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which is just as romantic as it sounds. Industrial facilities fronted by hundreds of old rusty barges line both banks. It doesn’t get any prettier after the confluence with the Cal-Sag waterway, whence begins the aptly named “twelve miles of hell" featuring some of the heaviest barge traffic in the world, and not a lot of maneuvering room. Shortly thereafter, we got to the first of the seven locks on the 326 miles of the Illinois River, the Lockport Lock. Lockport was not one of the locks getting repaired, but it was still very busy and we waited with our buddy boat Explorer for about three hours to lock through. On all these inland river locks, recreational vessels have low priority. The locks were built for the benefit of commercial shipping, and they always go first. Some lockmasters are better than others, but cruisers generally rank somewhere between an afterthought and a nuisance. It was late in the afternoon when we got to our stop for the night, a free wall (with free electric!) in the town of Joliet. We went to a terrific Mexican supermarket and had a pile of $1 tacos for lunch and bought some chili rellenos and tamales for dinner. 

Panoramic of the sky line as we leave Monroe Harbor on our way to the Chicago River

Locking down the Chicago lock and into the river. First lock since the 100+ in Canada

Shot of BellaGatto going through downtown Chicago. Photo Credit: Explorer

Railroad lift bridge, electric carp barrier, and Lockport lock

Authentic Mexican cuisine is not smothered in cheese. A memorable stop!

 By this time, the Marseilles Lock was just getting re-opened and trying to deal with the backlog of barge traffic that had been building up for the last 3 weeks. To make life easier for them, they requested that the recreational vessels form a pack and come through all at once in one locking rather than come in singles and pairs. We joined a group of a dozen or so loopers in Seneca at the Spring Brook Marina waiting for the official opening. Our friend Allison and her two tween sons joined us to experience life aboard and a lock through. We got the green light from the lock to come on down the next morning at 9:00. Our group of 10 boats got there promptly at 9:00 but had to wait 3 ½ hours while the lock crew dealt with an oversize tow that had to split into two separate loads, lock those loads through one at a time, and then re-assemble the tow. By the time we all got through at about 1:30, it was feeling like a pretty long day already, so we split off and went to Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa, only another 8 miles or so downriver from Marseilles. This is a really nice new facility, but still charges just $1 a foot for loopers. The marina manger, who grew up on the river, gave us all a detailed briefing on the next couple of hundred miles of river and what to expect. We borrowed the marina’s courtesy car (a brand-new Buick SUV) and made a fruitless trip to Wal-Mart to try to find a replacement portable propane heater for our pilothouse. We really do not like Wal-Mart.

Station keeping while awaiting the Marsailles opening

All ready to lock down

Down we go! Life jackets for all

Extra crew for the Marsailles lockdown

The next morning, we left with the Fish Vicious to try to get through Starved Rock Lock. We got there at 9:00 and tied up to a mooring cell (not easy) and waited for the lock to finish with a northbound barge. From there we had a great view of Starved Rock itself, named after a long-ago battle between two Indian tribes. In that battle, one tribe was forced to retreat up a steep rock face, and rather than attacking, the other tribe laid siege to the rock until all the defenders starved to death. The northbound barge was another one of those 2 part split loads again, but rather than making us wait the whole time the lockmaster told us if we could squeak around the first load of barges after it had been pushed out of the lock, he would lock us down and we could then squeak past the second half of the load as it was waiting to go up and join the first half. This would save at least a couple of hours, so squeak we did, with just a couple of feet between the back corner of the last barge and the cement lock wall. We were out of the lock by a little after 10:00, with nothing between us and Peoria except 70 miles of wide open river, we put the hammer down and with a little help from the current got to the free dock in downtown Peoria by 5:00.

Starved Rock

So happy to see white pelicans again!

Into Starved Rock lock we go

BellaGatto with Fish Vicious in the background

Heading down the Illinois river, dappled with fall colors, towards Peoria. 

Our plan is to stay here for two days (hey, it’s a free dock with electric) and then start making some serious tracks south. We’ll stop again for a while when we can go back to shorts and t-shirts.