Thursday August 17, 2017
Up the Illinois
Underway this morning at 0705 and anchored at mile 57.5 just
outside the red buoys marking the eastern side of this north-south running
river. We have only a couple of feet of
water under us. We are just south of Big
Blue Island with the current keeping us pointed up stream. We are three hours away from the infamous La
Grange Lock where all sorts of tows are stacked up awaiting transit of the lock
both northbound and southbound.
We will begin seeing southbound tows let through the lock
beginning at 1700 around 2100-2200 and then one about every hour.
We have had a pretty good day weather wise with southerly winds at
ten or more MPH pushing us along. With
the muggy air just sitting here not cooling us, we elected to run the generator
all day and enjoy the air conditioning.
It has gone from overcast to partly cloudy.
Mary is not perfectly happy with no internet on her cell phone,
but she does have “talking” bars and has made one call already. Farther complicating her life is the fact
that we can get no TV stations via the boat’s TV antenna. Such are the vicissitudes of modern inland
river travel.
