Illinois, Mississippi, and Ohio Rivers - September - October 2006
This part of our trip took us from Chicago, down the Illinois, Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Paducah, Kentucky.
Leaving Chicago, we entered the Chicago River and Sanitary Canal which quickly joins the Illinois River. We followed the Illinois River (shown in red on the map) to Grafton, Illinois where it joins the Mississippi river. We entered the Mississippi (shown in blue on the map) and followed it south to Cairo, Illinois where we turned onto the Ohio river. We took the Ohio river (shown in yellow on the map) to Paducah, Kentucky where we will soon be entering the Tennessee River to continue south.
Traveling up the Chicago river is thrilling as you pass through the very heart of this great city. The first picture below was taken as we were entering the Chicago river after passing through the Chicago lock. The second photo was taken of the right bank of the Chicago river as we passed by. If you look closely at this photo, you can see a triangle towards the center of the photo at the base of the fountain. Every hour and lasting for 10 minutes, the fountain shoots a fire-hydrant sized spray of water out of the center of the triangle across the river. If you happen to be passing by in your boat at that time, you get soaked. We were lucky and somehow managed to pass through between eruptions.
This is a picture of our sister ship 'Mer Sea' as she passed under the Michigan Avenue bridge. Mer Sea traveled with us as we left Chicago and headed for Joliet.
Another photo as we made our way through downtown Chicago. There are lots and lots of bridges crossing over the Chicago river in the city. All of the bridges in the city will open if needed, but fortunately we were low enough to be able to pass underneath without requesting an opening. The second picture is Mer Sea passing under the Lyric Opera Bridge. You can see the Chicago Sun Times building in the background.
This is a picture of the Roosevelt Bridge
Japanese temple along the Chicago river just outside of the city.
The Chicago river branches off onto the Chicago Sanitary Canal. It got it's name when they added the locks at the entrance to the Chicago river which changed the direction of the Chicago river so that it now flushes toward the Illinois river rather than towards lake Michigan.
Leaving the city of Chicago behind and entering the Sanitary Canal, we started to see a lot more commercial barge traffic. This is a 3x5 tow coming towards us along the canal. The tow has 15 barges strung together 3 wide by 5 long. Each barge is about 100 feet long and about 30 feet wide pushed by a tow that's about 100 feet long. You can just about make out the top of the tow boat under the bridge in the right hand side of the picture. Trust me - you don't want to tangle with something 90' wide, 600' long, and loaded with gravel!
The locks in the US that handle commercial traffic have a strict order of priority as dictated by federal law. U.S. government vessels get first priority, followed by commercial passenger vessels operating on a published schedule, commercial cargo tows and finally pleasure craft (which is where we fall). That means that if there is any other type of vessel waiting to go through the lock, we wait and we wait and we wait - until everyone else is through and then they let us go through. Fortunately, there is also a federal law that dictates that pleasure craft get to go through on at least every third lockage. In addition, if a tow is going through the lock without any hazardous cargo - and if all parties agree (the lock master, the tow captain, and the pleasure craft) - then you can lock through with the tow. The picture below are of us locking through tied to barges in a tow. Lots of fenders - but no waiting - sounds good to us!
We spent the first night on the Illinois river at the town of Joliet - probably best known for the federal penitentiary there. Fortunately, when we said we were going 'up the river to Joliet' - it was just to pass through the lovely little town for one night. The town has a great free town dock complete with electricity. There was also a party that night in the park where we tied up - another celebration of Mexican Independence.
Leaving Joliet, we continued down the river to the town of Ottawa. No, not Ottawa Canada - but Ottawa Illinois. This town is also very friendly to cruisers, providing free town docks. In addition, the owner of the local grocery store came down by the docks offering rides to and from the grocery for anyone that needed one. The driver was the owner's father, who also took us on a short tour of town on the way back to the docks. The town center proudly displays some excellent historical murals including this one of the civil war shown below.
As of now, we've been through well over 100 locks - each one presenting its own special challenge. This one on the Illinois was especially interesting because when we got there, they were in the process of lifting a portion of a really large tow that they had to partially take apart in order to get it into the lock. They raised up the first part, pulled it out of the lock and then asked us to go into the lock to go down. The first picture below show what we saw when the barge was pulled out of the lock. The barge is circled in blue. The lockmaster told us to 'go into the lock through the slot that was opened up when the barge was pushed out of the lock'. It took us all awhile to figure out what slot he meant, but fortunately Mer Sea was in front and we followed them in. The slot is circled in red in both photos. Bit of a tight fit, but we all got in. It was really confusing, since we would normally enter a lock from the front which is where the barge is.
Another new and interesting adventure along the Illinois River was getting diesel fuel from a truck. We called the truck driver when we were about an hour from our 'rendezvous' point. He drove the truck down and proceeded to fill us all up. By the way, the company is pronounced 'Tee-ter' - not 'Toad-ter' as I thought when I saw the name on the truck.
Passing through Peoria, Illinois.
Another tow on the river. The second picture is of the tow boat at the end. Our code phrase when we see one coming down the river towards us is 'big big BIG'. An interesting fact about the tows is that would take 16 eighteen-wheeler trailers to hold the contents of a single barge. Considering the fact that many of these tows are pushing 36 barges (6 wide x 6 long), that's the same as 576 eighteen-wheelers heading down the road.
There are two locks that we needed to pass through on the Mississippi river - both of which next to wicket dams. A wicket dam is a dam that can be raised or lowered depending on the height of the river. If the wickets are down, you can run your boat over the top of them and keep going. If the wickets are up, you need to proceed through the lock. We got lucky on the first wicket dam on the Mississippi and arrived while the wickets were down - so we ran over the top of the dam and kept going. It was a bit unnerving running over a dam, as the current was quite swift and you had to trust that there was enough depth over the top of the dam for the boat.
We were not quite so lucky with the second lock on the Mississippi. We heard our friends, who were only a few miles in front of us call the lock as they approached. The lockmaster told them he was in the process of raising the wickets, but it was still safe for them to proceed over the dam. By the time we got there, he said we would have to wait while they finished raising the wickets and then he would lock us down. What we didn't realize was that it would take him over an hour to finish raising the wickets. So we circled, and circled and waited and waited until he finally opened the lock and let us through.
We spent the night at the Illinois Riverdock Restaurant dock. The dock was made up of 3 old barges strung together. We had dinner there where Jeremy had the biggest pork chop he's ever eaten. Leaving the dock, we spotted a flock of white pelicans on the shoreline.
We stopped off at Grafton for a couple of weeks and took a side trip to Seattle to attend an American Tug rendezvous. Grafton is a tiny town located on the Illinois River just above the point where it joins the Mississippi. Our flight was out of St. Louis but since there are no recreational marina facilities there, we opted to leave our boat in Grafton during our trip. Grafton boasts a population of just 690, but if the folks we met were any indication, it's a very friendly 690. There is a brand new marina that just opened in April and they staff could not do enough to help us.
We had dinner one night at the old Ruebel hotel in town. The meal excellent and was accompanied by a talented pianist and singer who serenaded us through dinner. The Ruebel has quite a history. The hotel was built by Michael Ruebel in 1884. When it opened, it was the largest commercial hotel in Jersey County. The hotel also boasted the finest bar and saloon in town. The hotel thrived until 1912, when it was damaged by fire. The beautiful long bar was saved from the fire and the hotel was quickly rebuilt. After two World Wars, the Great Depression, floods, the end of the steamboat era and the closing of the local rail lines, the town of Grafton slowly withered - and the Ruebel Hotel closed down. By the 1980’s, the building had become an abandoned derelict. In 1996, the hotel was purchased by the Jeff Lorton family, who completely restored it and opened for business in spring of 1997.
The hotel also has a reputation of being haunted. Shortly after the Ruebel was re-opened, three guests and a hotel housekeeper reported encountering a ghost in the building. They told the owners the next morning they had spoken to the ghost of a little girl named “Abigail”. Since then, a number of other folks who have spent the night in the hotel say they too have seen the young girl in the upstairs hallway and at the top of the stairway to the second floor.
The town was flooded and almost wiped out in 1993 when the Mississippi and Illinois rivers flooded. The picture below shows the high water mark of 38.2 feet on one of the buildings along Main street in town.
Fall is on it's way - the leaves are changing and the town folk are getting ready for the ghosts and goblins to come and celebrate Halloween.
We rented a car and spent a day visiting St. Louis while we were in Grafton. Jeremy has spent many a week in St. Louis doing classes for SBC over the last few years, so he was able to play tour guide around town. We went to the old train station, which has been converted to, what else, a mall. At least they still left the old main terminal passenger waiting area as it was in the grand old days. The picture below is of the massive stained glass window that graces the entry way.
These are pictures of the main passenger waiting hall with a close-up of the arched window on the far wall.
Two pictures of the famous St. Louis arch. The arch is 630 feet tall and has a viewing area at the top. You can just about make out the row of tiny windows along the top of the arch in the first picture below.
We took the ride to the top of the arch. This trip up is inside one of the tiny round cars shown in the pictures below. Each car has 5 seats - but fortunately it was just the two of us on the way up. These cars are NOT for the claustrophobic. The system used to transport the cars up and down is an engineering marvel. The car is swung from one pulley system to the next as the car follows the curve of the arch to the top.
View from the top - looking out over the city and out over the Mississippi River. The stately looking building in the center of the first picture is the old St. Louis courthouse. This is the courthouse where Dred and Harriet Scott first sued for freedom in 1846. The Scotts lost their case, but with the support of anti-slavery lawyers they were able to continue their appeals to the US Supreme Court. The case was heard in 1857, where the famous 'Dred Scott Decision' was rendered - the Court stating that 'Scott should remain a slave, that as a slave he is not a citizen of the U.S. and thus not eligible to bring suit in a federal court, and that as a slave he is personal property and thus has never been free.' This decision served to further divide the country on the issue of slavery. The newly-formed Republican Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery, vigorously criticized the decision and the court. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, was elected president in a political contest dominated by the discussion of slavery. South Carolina seceded from the Union after the election, igniting the Civil War.
Despite the decision, Dred Scott died in 1858 a free man. Mrs. Emerson, the owner of the Scotts after her husband died in 1843, remarried in 1857. Her new husband opposed slavery and returned Dred Scott and his family to the Blow family, who were his original owners. The Blow family granted the Scotts their freedom.
This is what it looks like inside the top of the arch.
This statue of Lewis and Clark and their trusty Newfoundland dog 'Seaman' on the banks of the Mississippi commemorates their return to St. Louis after their successful expedition up the Missouri river and out west down the Snake and Columbia rivers to the Pacific ocean. This is the 200th anniversary of their trip - they returned September 23, 1806.
While we were in the St. Louis area, we left out boat at the Grafton marina and headed up to Seattle for an American Tug Rendezvous. Our good friends, David and Kate, recently trucked their boat Troubadour from the east coast back to the west coast and now have her docked in Olympia. We were able to spend a couple of days with them in Olympia before heading up to the rendezvous. These are pictures of David and Kate and their wonderful dog Diva taken while we were out on their boat.
We were able to help them with some new equipment on their boat. This is photographic evidence of Jeremy reading a manual trying to figure out how to set up Troubadour's new GPS.
There were lots and lots of tugs at the American Tug rendezvous in La Conner - north of Seattle in Washington. We had a great time seeing the other tugs and meeting all of the other owners. The rendezvous was at the factory, so we also got to spend lots of time talking to the people who built our floating home.
I took this picture outside of a church in La Conner. Some turkeys going to church - good timing considering Thanksgiving is not too far away!!
Getting back to our boat in Grafton was an interesting trip involving cars, planes, and a ferry at the end. The Grafton ferry runs from St. Charles across the Illinois river to Grafton. The ferry is interesting since it one of the type that has a small tug attached to the side of the car barge that pivots depending on the direction of the ferry. The first picture shows the tow pushing alongside the car barge. The second picture shows the pivot point where the tug is attached to the barge. When the ferry needs to turn around to go bach, the tug swings around on the pivot point so that he can then push it forward in the new direction.
Leaving Grafton, we passed from the Illinois river onto the Mississippi. The banks of the Mississippi river are lined with large limestone bluffs on this portion of the river.
The "Our Lady of the Rivers" shrine was erected after the 1951 flood in gratitude for the waters stopping just short of the village of Portage des Sioux. The blessing of the fleet is held each year in July in front of the shrine.
We saw this old riverboat when traveling along the Mississippi river. It looks like they may be working to restore her to her previous glory. We hope so - there aren't too many of these big old river boats still on the waters of the Mississippi. Most of the 'paddle-wheelers' we've seen are much smaller and have fake paddle wheels on the stern.
Traveling down the Mississippi towards St. Louis, we came to a 'fork in the road' - so to speak. To the left is the Chain of Rocks canal and to the right is the Chain of Rocks rapids. Fortunately, there is a big sign on the island directing all boats to go to the left. If we'd gone the other way, it would have been a series of 'bump.. ouch...bump...ouch...crunch...OUCH......' Well, you get the drift...
Approaching St. Louis from the water, we saw several casino boats. Gambling is allowed in Missouri as long as it's on the water.
We soon saw the famous arch from a distance as we approached St. Louis.
A picture of the arch as we cruised down the river past the city.
This was the biggest tow we've seen yet - it's a 6x6 - 6 barges wide by 6 barges long - all being pushed by a big tow boat. This tow boat had 3 engines which was the largest one of those we'd seen as well.
Hoppies is a great little marina run by Fern and Charles Hopkins on the Mississippi. Fern and Charles grew up on this river and know more about it than most of the tug boat captains - and that's saying something. Fern takes the time each evening to sit down with any interested cruisers and reviews the charts to point out potential anchorages along the way as well as potential problem spots.
Full moonrise over the Mississippi at Hoppies marina.
In the morning, as we were preparing to leave, we noticed a misty fog hanging over the river. Fern suggested that we wait until it lifted to get underway. She said that the tows don't even like to run in the fog - and if they won't do it, we shouldn't either.
I took this as the sun was coming up and starting to burn off the mist.
We spent the next night tied to the wall of the Kaskaskia lock. There are no marinas for pleasure craft on the upper Mississippi once you leave Hoppies. Since the Kaskaskia lock is lightly used (it leads onto the Kaskaskia river and a state park and is mostly used by small fishing boats), the lockmaster often allows pleasure boats traveling down the Mississippi to tie up to the lock wall overnight. That was the good news. The bad news was the heavy fog we had at the lock the next morning. We waited until almost 10AM until the fog had burned off enough for us to get underway again.
Leaving the Kaskaskia lock, we made our way down the Mississippi and anchored in a tiny canal cut off of the river. It's a popular spot for pleasure craft to anchor for the night and we were joined by 2 other boats that night. We left in the morning and headed on towards the Ohio river.
Turning onto the Ohio was a rude awakening. We had been enjoying a 3 knot push from the current while traveling downstream on the Mississippi river. Turning up onto the Ohio meant that we were now traveling against a 3 know current, which netted us a loss of 6 knots in speed over ground. Not good when you are trying to make distance. On top of that, there is a LOT of commercial traffic on the Ohio - much more than on the Mississippi. The shot below shows the traffic on the river as we made the turn.
We saw lots of tows 'fleeting' along the Ohio as we turned onto it from the Mississippi. Fleeting is the process of moving the barges around either into a larger 'tow' or breaking the barges apart. Fleeting tugs are generally much smaller than the pusher tugs. The first photo below is of a pusher tug. The second is of a fleeting tug. What's also interesting is that the tug captains refer to all of the tugs as 'boats' - regardless of their size. The 'tow' is the term for the set of barges that they are pushing.
The Ohio portion of the Ohio that we passed through has two locks - both of which have wicket dams. We were very lucky that the wickets were down for both locks when we went through, so we had no delays at either lock.
We spent our last night on the Ohio anchored off to the side in a wide part of the river - well away from the main channel. We saw and heard many tow boats come by in the night - but fortunately none came near to where we were. Anchoring in the strong current was a bit tricky, and we had some issues with debris getting caught between the anchor chain and our boat overnight - but nothing serious. Needless to say, we were very happy the next morning to raise the anchor and head off of the Ohio and into the beautiful marina of Green Turtle Bay the next day.
The shot below was taken at sunset our last night on the Ohio river.
At last - we arrived at Green Turtle Bay - a wonderful marina and resort on the Kentucky Lake.
I was never so happy to see a marina. To celebrate, I wrote this song as we were passing over the last wicket on the Ohio river. It's sung to the tune of 'Over the River and Through the Woods'
Over the wickets and thru the river
To Green Turtle Bay we go!
The boat knows the way
So let's not delay
As we as we fight our way upstream, Oh!
Over the wickets and thru the fog
Oh watch out for that log!
We battle the current
But that's no deterrent
As over the wickets we go!
Updated October 12, 2006