Log 15; Day 91; August 20, 2008; Heritage Harbor, Ottawa, IL

Log 15
Day 91
Wednesday, August 20, 2008

5:50 AM CDT
Location: Heritage Harbor, Ottawa, IL.
Weather: 67* with 72% humidity...going up to about 86 today.

After 78 days we are leaving Heritage Harbor (Ottawa, IL) today. It is certainly a little bitter sweet. The harbor is great...and they have been soooo good to Deb and me. In addition,...we have spent a lot of time with friends and family and had such a great summer. But the fact is we are ready to keep cruising and looking forward to traveling down the rivers and getting to Kentucky Lake.

The last week...has been very busy and lots of fun as well. Last weekend the harbor hosted a large weekend party (billed as Jimmy Buffet weekend...but he was not here) with bands; food; and lots of boats from other harbors. Our dock became a large group of folks sitting together and (much to my dismay) lots of people going in and out of our boat looking for tours. Thank God for Debbie’s patience because I would not have been near as cordial when people just walked up and said, “Can I see your boat?” They were nice about it...but it was very weird. In between, all of this Beccah and Samantha (daughter and granddaughter) also visited and we had a great time. I also had a chance to go fishing with a friend here and had a blast catching lots of bass (he says we caught 21...but I don’t think it was that many. But it was a bunch. There was also lots of work to prepare to leave. Deb made several trips to the store because getting groceries for a couple of weeks will be difficult to impossible. The trip to the liquor store was quite an event (I think they will be adding a wing on the store). And then there was all the work to get the Whaler and truck ready to store and take them to Peoria and put them in a warehouse (that was weird wondering when we would be coming back to get them). But all of that is behind us now and we are ready to cast off the lines and continue our journey.

Today...it looks to be another nice day...and we have had about 2 to 3 weeks of no rain and sunny weather. Just beautiful. I did not sleep well last night because I was really looking forward to getting up and preparing for cruising today (like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning). The plan is to leave the dock about 8:30 and go 9 miles down river to Starved Rock Marina and pull the boat to power wash the bottom...we want it clean and “slick” as we head down stream. I assume that will take a couple of hours so I am planning on the boat floating again by 1 PM. From there it is only a couple of miles to the next lock (Starved Rock Lock) where we will drop down about 20 feet to the Peoria pool (the name of the body of water between the Starved Rock Lock and the Peoria Lock). Our plan for tonight is to stop at Spring Valley Boat Club (Mile 219 in Spring Valley, IL.) where we have a friend who will meet us for dinner and we will spend the evening at their fuel dock. The plan is also for Les and Annie, and Darrell and Donna to drive over for dinner. Easy day of cruising.

Then what...the next few days we’ll be in a different harbor each night, and plan to be in Grafton, IL (where the Illinois River joins the Mississippi River) by Sunday evening...240.3 miles from where we are sitting this morning.

The sun is just now coming over the trees at the harbor so that is my cue to end this log and get started preparing for today’s adventure. I’ll keep you posted.


BK.