Chapter 77: Back Home Again.

Log 77
Back Home Again

6:10 AM
Sunday, August 06, 2000
Starved Rock Marina
Ottawa, IL.

As you notice, there is no day number on this log. I stop counting now, because we are home. Done. We made it!

Yesterday…

When I got up real early I started to monitor 3 channels on the VHF radio. I monitor 14 because that is the channel the locks are on (and we were close enough to the Dresden Lock to be able to hear them), and I monitor 13 & 16 because that's the channels the barges are on. If you do this, you fairly quickly get an idea of what is happening, and how long of a wait you may have at any given lock. Well, as I listened yesterday, I didn’t like what I was hearing. First of all at about 5:30 a northbound barge went by (Winchester) and I called him to ask him how things were going down (we were headed southbound) at the Dresden Lock. He said there were 3 waiting to get through. A single, and a double. If they were to take all of them through before us, it could take 6 to 8 hours, or longer. Things didn’t look good.
At about 6:30 I called the lockmaster on the VHF, and ask him the status of us coming through. He told me about all of the southbound traffic, and “It could be a while”. “How long is a while”, I asked, and he told me a minimum of 2 hours, but he would have to wait and see.
Normally in the morning we have a piece of toast or something for breakfast, but this morning we had plenty of time, and so the girls fixed sausage, potatoes, and eggs. It was great food, but I was getting antsy, so as soon as we were done (8:30) we fired up the generator, untied the lines, and left Harborside Marina and made the 1-mile run to Dresden Lock. I knew we couldn’t get through right away, but I wanted to be down there and let them know we were ready to go. As it turned out there was a southbound double just getting ready to enter the locks, and so I ask the lockmaster if we could lock down with his second cut. After he talked to the barge captain he said we could, so at least we knew what the plan was. It would take a while, but we had a plan.
It was about 11:30 before we got out of the Dresden Lock. Not only that, but the weather was getting darker by the minute, (so much for the rain coming late that night) and so we had to plan on getting ready to drive from the lower station. By the time we got to Morris, the rain had started, and we all went below. The bad news was it was raining, so we had to be inside. The good news was, that this is where the TV is, and there was a NASCAR race on, so we fired up the satellite, and watched the race as we drove in the rain.
We drove 24 miles, and got to the Marseilles Lock at about 1:30. They were just letting down the first half of a southbound double, so we had to wait again. They estimated the time before we got in the lock to be 1 hour and 15 minutes. We watched some of the race, but there were to many trees around, and it was blocking the signal, so we just sat and waited. While we were doing so, we figured out that in the last 2 weeks since we left Oneida Lake, near Syracuse NY, till now, we have gone through 54 locks, (We will have gone through 97 in the entire trip) The waiting time to get through the 4 locks in Illinois was longer than the total combined waiting time it took us to get through the other 50.

On the other side of the lock was Ottawa, and our homeport. We also knew that Deb’s sister Annie, and her husband Les (along with several other people) were waiting on their boat (Rainman). At our dock at Starved Rock Marina, Deb’s Mom, Uncle Bill, Aunt Marylynne, and Aunt Betty were waiting for us, and we had a bottle of champagne to pop open, celebrate our successful journey. The trip was nearly over, and we wanted to get through this last lock……which we finally did, at about 4PM.

I’ll not soon forget the feeling I had when they opened the lock doors. (I probably shouldn’t tell anyone this, but as I write this, tears are running down my cheek…..hey I shared everything else along the way…why stop now…..ok, I’m back to normal now) As I said, we had been through 97 locks on this journey, but when the doors opened on this one… it was different. (I could write a bunch of stuff here, but you can fill in the blanks)

Just like we had planned long ago, when we came out of the lock, Rainman was there to greet us. They had a full boat, with Donnie and Mooie (Deb’s sister and brother in law), Rome and Theresa, (our friends from Bourbonnais), and Jenny, (Les &Annie’s daughter) along with Jake, her son. They were tooting the horn, and waving signs to welcome us home. We were also tooting our horn, and popping campaign on the bow of the boat. We had at least made it back to our “home pool”, as they call it on the waterway. All we had to do now was go 14 miles, and tie up the boat at our slip, and we would be done.

The last mile before reaching Starved Rock Marina I slowed down to an idle. The wind was really whipping (but the rain had stopped, and the sky was trying to brighten) and the spray was coming over the back of the boat. I also wanted to just enjoy the final mile. (You understand) As we got close, I could see someone standing at the point where you enter the channel to the marina, and it turned out to be Barb, Bill, Marylynne, and Betty. They were waving balloons, and holding a sign that said “Welcome Back HQ”.

Side Note: Barb (Deb’s Mom) has been keeping a journal of the entire trip. She has been taking my logs, and then matching them up with maps of the travels. I haven’t seen it, but she says it’s a couple of inches thick. Anyway…Barb decides that she would tell the local newspaper about the fact that we were coming home, and maybe they could put a note in the paper. Well I don’t know who said what to whom, all I know is I got a call from two people. The first one was from a journalist, who called me on my cell phone to ask if they could come and interview Deb and I, so we could tell them about our travels. The second one was several calls from Art (a photographer from the newspaper) who wanted to coordinate our arrival, and meet us at the dock, to get our picture for the paper. Barb’s answer to what happened was “Bobby, I just never imagined this editor would take to this thing the way he did. Why he just took my journal, and got all excited. I think I may have even given him your cell phone number”. Ya gotta love her!

When we got to our dock, it was quite a spectacle. The first thing that happen was as we were coming in the harbor, three swans got in front of us, and led us along the channel. The people waiting couldn’t see us yet, and as we came around a boat at the end of the dock, and getting ready to turn into our slip, they could first see the swans, and then us, following these swans to our slip. Our dock was full of people. Our friends and relatives, as well as others from the marina, and Art (the photographer) Signs were up, and balloons flying (they said “Happy Birthday” on them…it seems Annie couldn’t find any others at the last minute…I don’t know?) Somehow during all of this, I managed (with a lot of help) to get Headquarters docked, and safely tied to our slip. The one we had left 11 months ago.
The rest of the afternoon was spent laughing and recounting some of the details of our journey. (Which is something I’m sure we will do for some time) Everyone left around 8:30, and Deb and I looked at one another and said, “I’m tired…Let’s go to bed”
End of the day…end of the trip.

Today…
Not much to report here. It’s 75 degrees and sticky out. I’m getting ready to take a cup of coffee and walk the docks to get the feeling of being home again. Deb and I plan on cleaning up the boat a little, and then heading home about 11. Our daughter, and granddaughter are coming over tonight for Pizza, and we’re looking forward to that.
It looks like things are back to normal already.

PS…After I have had time to gather my thoughts, I will be putting together a “Final Chapter”. It’s something I want to do for me. I’m not sure it will be worth reading for anyone else, but I’ll send it, and you can decide.

BK