Wednesday was going to be our last day in Chicago so we made it count. First up (literally) was the Chicago Sky Deck. Inside the Willis Tower, formerly the Sears Tower, you take an express elevator 1,353 feet to the top. With incredible 360° views of the city and of course the glass lookout boxes.

From there we divided and concered. Don went to the Museum of Science and Industry, where he saw a WWll captured German submarine. They actually built the building around it. There were also some famous sculptures…in Legos.

While he did that, I took the opportunity of being in major civilization and went to Target and then over to China Town. Got some of the best Chinese food! I also made the attempt to pick up the package we had sent general delivery. PSA, not all Post Offices accept general delivery. So when my package arrived, they returned it to sender.

Luckily the sender was my dad so as long as it made it back we can get it eventually. After that debacle, I dropped my leftovers at the boat and sought out a grocery store. Though the one I found was somewhat far, it was the Illinois version of Wegmans. Having gone by myself and was walking, it required some restraint not to overload with extras and just get the necessities. Garlic stuffed green olives, apple fritter and salt and vinegar chips and blueberries count as necessities right? When I got back to the boat again, Tug Bussle had arrived and was docked right across from us. Having made plans to go to dinner with Rival and Shandie, we invited them to join us as well.

When in Chicago of course we had to go for deep dish pizza. This was Rivals third pizza place so they warned us it takes about 40 minutes to make! We split a meat lovers deep dish and a regular crust. Both were very good but the deep dish was a little to much cheese for me. Once again we left with leftovers 😋.

Thursday we got up and set off early. We wanted to be at the Chicago lock right when it opened. Well, we were late and had to wait for the group ahead to get through. It didn’t take long though and then we were on our way through the city. It was very cool to see the city from a different perspective. As we were going along someone saw us on Nebo (the tracking app), got pictures of us going down the river through the city and sent them to us!

Once out of the city the canal was all industrial. Factories lined the waters edge and big ugly barges were going by. It was less then picturesque. Though the heron, pelican and eagles seem to love this area. We have been seeing them the whole way along the river.

It was also in this section of river they have a submerged electrical barrier to try and stop the migration of Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan. We came to the second lock of the day, ironically called the Lockport lock. We had to wait about 45 minutes for a barge to go through. By the time we were allowed in there were 12 looper boats waiting. After getting through we all tied up on the free city wall in Joliet.

Friday morning Don called the next lock to see when we’d be able to get through. They said about 9:45. So we all set off to get there at that time, but when we did an up bound barge had beat us so we had to wait again for them to come up the lock. Once inside we rafted to a new boat we hadn’t met yet, Let Time Go Lightly. Further down the river the lead boat radioed the next lock to see what the situation was. They had a double barge coming through so it would be about a 3 hour wait! So everyone anchored off to the side and we rafted to our new friends to hang out. It ended up only being about a 2 hour wait till we were all able to lock through. Most of us went to Heritage Harbor. Superior customer service, the woman on the radio guided each of us right to our slips where dock hands were waiting to help us tie up.

We were only going to stay the one night and then go to Starved Rock marina the next day to go to the park. A local in the slip behind us advised we stay at Heritage as the quality was way better. Turned out this marina had a courtesy car and would let us take it as long as we wanted.

So Saturday morning we did exactly that. First we took the car to Starved Rock State Park. It was a beautiful spot, with lookouts over the river and damn.

All of the waterfalls were dried up but at the one spot there was a slight trickle and it was still a cool rock formation.

Afterwards we stopped at Walmart and taking advantage of having a car, we got the heavy stuff. Dog food, soup, drinks, etc. Summer was trying to make a comeback and it was a quite hot day. Luckily the marina had a nice pool, so when we got back we went and chilled out there a bit. The harbor master also does a nightly briefing for the Loopers. He guided us all the way to Kentucky. Giving us all the good stopping points, mile markers and things to look out for. It was very informative and helpful.

Sunday was another hot one. Don set himself up to watch the Dolphins game and I set myself up at the pool. After a lounging day for a change, we went to dinner with a few of the other Loopers at the marina restaurant.

Monday was another early day to get through Starved Rock lock. This time there were ten of us and the lock was ready for us right when we got there. Some boats opted for a shorter day and stopped at a closer harbor. We pushed on about 75 miles to the much talked about Illinois Valley Yacht Club (IVY) in Peoria. They had set us in a covered slip, which sounds fancy…but it was not. The dock was rickety at best and the covering was a spider warehouse! Still, there was power which gave us much needed air conditioning. The clubhouse itself was very nice, and the woman’s bathroom smelled like apples. Bring on Fall! 😄🍎🍂. We packed sparingly on the boat, but you know I’m going to have to get a Fall candle…and maybe a pillow…or leaf garland. Docktails that night introduced us to a few new Loopers and reunited us with some we haven’t seen in a bit.

Today…sigh. Today was less than stellar. The next lock we had to pass through was undergoing maintenance of some sort and would not be open until 3pm. So we decided to do laundry before we left. Well so did everyone else apparently, with the marina only having one set of machines. So it was a bit of a wait for our turn. A couple we knew was right ahead of us and watching her angst with the dryer, when we finally got our clothes in I was not optimistic. Having waited most of the day and then the dryer taking forever by the time it was “done” we had to untie and head to the lock. Done however were not our clothes. I came back with basically soaking wet laundry. Using ever hanger and clothes pin we had we hung up everything all around the back deck and hoped it wouldn’t blow overboard while we traveled. Today it was 96°! Going along it was like being in a greenhouse. And of course when we got to the lock, a barge was coming up so we had to wait for it to clear. They just move so slow! After we made it through we had talked about trying one of the anchoring spots but it was too bloody hot! So we came to Tall Timbers marina. It was a tight squeeze getting in here as the edges of the river are quite shallow, but here we sit happily with air conditioning.

Here’s hoping mother nature realizes it’s mid September and chills the frick out. Literally!