Grafton and Alton

Grafton Marina - our last stop on the Illinois River.

• We were delighted to see this marina, it's new, well protected and has beautiful accommodations. Funny, when we go to a marina Mike looks for a good restaurant and I look for clean showers. We went to a restaurant in town called "Fins". In the wall at each table they have a fish tank. Each tank is a little different, a mini aquarium. It's a fish place more than any other food. So while you eat a fish, a fish watches you!
• In the ad for Grafton Marina is a "pool, hot tub, restaurant on site and lots more." The ad was in a 2 year old book. On the property is a fiberglass pool waiting to be installed as is the hot tub. The owner said he was waiting for the town to approve his plans. The forms are sitting on someone's desk. Karen and Rich, sound familiar? The restaurant is only open on weekends; today is Monday.
• Heading down the river there is a 50' shrine called Our Lady of the Rivers. In 1951, a disastrous flood stopped just short of flooding the village of Portage des Sioux. The shrine was built in gratitude and each year the blessing of the fleet is held here.
• Next stop - Alton, Ill. This is a good marina to stop at if you want to go to St Louis, Missouri. There is not one place to anchor or dock for us in St Louis. We decided to rent a car and spend 3 days seeing it all. We're gonna breathe it ALL in. Too often we fly through an area and miss most of the sights.
• The first restaurant we went to is called Fast Eddies. At one time it was an Anheuser-Bush brewery that was also a saloon. The law was changed and a brewery could no longer be a saloon. So Fast Eddie opened a restaurant. The first thing I noticed was a sign that said "No children"; we all got a kick out of that. The waitress only serves the alcohol, if you want food you have to go get it yourself. Steak on a stick with peppers, hamburgers, shrimp by the piece ($.25) and french fries. A very limited menu and very inexpensive. Picture an old time saloon in the cowboy movies you saw as a child, that's Fast Eddies. There were about 10 couples and we had a real good time. This place has the largest consumption of beer in the state of Illinois and we helped.
• After eating, it was just too early to go back to the boat. Within walking distance is the Argosy Casino Boat, we were just going to look around. I am now as bad a Mike when it comes to going to the casino; I really enjoy it. I took my $30 (the amount I was willing to lose) and lost it in 2 hours. I scouted around for Mike and found him with a nice pile in front of him. He immediately gave me $200 and I took off with it. About 1 hour later I made the mistake of going to check him out and he asked for the $200 back. To make a short story shorter, we lost.
• Up early the next morning to do some laundry and get some groceries. Now we're off to St. Louis. Only a half-hour ride and you can see the Arch. What a sight!! After always seeing it on TV when the St Louis Rams play, this is the real thing. We put the car in a garage; just like N.Y. it's very difficult to find a parking spot. We walked to a beautiful park to the arch. You look up so far and you start to topple over, your neck hurts, the sun is shinning, the arch gleams so much you have to squint. You have to go a little below ground to get in, but first you have to go through security. Just like at the airports, shoes, belts and bags are put in a bin.
• The ride to the top is only 4 minutes. The arch is 630 feet. You climb through a porthole, like the ones in a submarine, into a little cage. Similar to the ones in an amusement park ride, only you can't see out of this one, it's all enclosed. Five people sit with their feet on top of one another's and your knees are touching. The car starts to move and you rock; you hear all kinds of squeaks. The noise makes you think it's about to come apart. Finally you're at the top. The little porthole opens and you crawl out. You're on a narrow staircase with people standing to one side of it waiting to go down. You go single file up the staircase to a room that is long and narrow. Maybe 15 feet wide and 40 feet long with 6 little windows on each side. On one side you have the city and the other is the Mississippi River. I start to sweat and get real clammy, my face turns pure white...Mike says, "Is something wrong?" Are you kidding?! I'm about to pass out, I swear this thing is coming down; I can feel it swaying, I know it's going back and forth.....get me out of here...We had to wait our turn on the narrow staircase for the next group of little cars to come up. Crawl back into this little cubbyhole that a mouse wouldn't be happy in and listen to the god awful squawk of the chains bringing me down to safety. When we get to the bottom, Mike says, "Well that's an hour and a half of my life I won't get back." It's all about him!!!!
• A tour of the lower part of the arch was wonderful. With my feet planted on the ground I enjoyed the museum and the history of Lewis and Clark.
• It's now dark and time for us to go back to the den of degradation. The casino was once again calling us. We went with a positive approach. In Missouri you have to buy your own drinks, unlike Atlantic City where it's free as long as you are playing. I won back the $30 I lost last night plus $10 more. I was happy. I will not talk about my honey, "Chris Money Maker."
• Our next trip to St. Louis starts at a little sidewalk bistro for lunch. Then a walk to the Cathedral Basilica. Unbelievable, it's amazing, 83,000 square feet of mosaic artwork. It's a lesson in faith and history. The mosaic tells the story of the Catholic faith from Creation to the Last Judgment. It has scenes from both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. The eyes follow you in a lot of the scenes.
• If you believe in ghosts, Alton is the place to visit. If you don't believe--you might by the time you leave Alton. It's considered the most haunted town in America. There are still tunnels beneath the streets as Alton was a major stop along the underground railroad. Slaves hid in caves, barns and basements. You can hear the slaves' tales and feel their fear. (It's like being at the top of the arch all over again.)

IVY - Illinois Valley Yacht Club

• While we were home two weeks ago, there was all kinds of flooding in Illinois. Now the problem is it's shallow everywhere. We pulled into IVY and had just about 4', we stirred up all kinds of mud. The building had a water mark on the side of it, at least 9' high. They were still cleaning up the mud from all around the clubhouse. The ladies room was as big as our entire mansion, the clubhouse was about the size of the SHYC property. We just had a relaxing afternoon, one of us washed the boat and the other washed the clothing. We were only spending 1 night there so we decided to eat in the dining room. So glad we did, there were 6 of us - Linda and Ray, Ruth and Dennis and the two of us. The food was great; Mike had a whole catfish. We left early the next morning.
• Many of you who have known Mike for a while are used to saying "What'd he say?" Well he has met his match. The tugboat captains are all very nice. They have a lingo of their own. Here's the kicker, they understand Mike and he understands them!!!! We also learned that when they don't respond, you let a woman speak and they answer immediately. Also we went from saying "Eh", in Canada, to saying "Y'all" along the rivers. Jo, every restaurant at breakfast says "Y'all want biscuits and gravy with that?"
• Every time I'm getting dressed to go out I have to iron my clothes. There just isn't enough closet space. Do you remember the movie Overboard? When we pulled into the marina, Tall Timbers, my Dean Proffett, Mike, went into town to see what he could do about giving me more space to hang my clothes. He really is happiest when he's building. Since I can't have him put an extention on the boat, I can have him make the extra room into a closet. He put another pole up and now I have to buy more clothes and hangers.
• We just heard from some couples behind us the IVY is closed. No boats can get in or out because the water is so low. Glad we left when we did.
• This is the best yet. We had to dock at a barge. No water, no electric, no showers; just a barge. We paid $1.00 a foot to just tie up. Now I know we're nuts. We are at Beardstown, Ill. We tied up to a Logdon Barge because there is plenty of turbulence from passing traffic. We were already tied up when we found out how much it cost. We felt we were safe. The best is they would only take cash. I hope it really was the barge owner!
• We walked into town and found a nice bar. The football game was on; not the Jets, but a football game - Colts and Titans. Dennis is a big Colt fan. The 4 of us sat at a table, drank beer, had some ribs, pulled pork, meatballs and spaghetti. Just what we would be doing if we were at home.

DOWN THE RIVER

• It is a relief to be out of Lake Michigan and on our way down the river to the Gulf of Mexico. The rivers all flow down, so we should be able to gain some time and save a little money on fuel. From Chicago we had a choice of two routes to go down the river. First choice is to go right through the heart of the city. The only problem is that the bridge height is less than 17'. So the decision was made for us. We will go the Calumet Sag Canal. It's a little longer and much more commercial, but has more clearance.
• We went through a dozen bascule bridges and our first lock is the Thomas S. O'Brien lock. When we approached the lock we saw a boat tied up to the outside lock wall. We pulled up behind the boat and they took our lines for us. We called the lock and found out we had to wait while a barge came out. We started talking to Ruth and Dennis, they were also loopers. We told them we were hoping to get to Joliet by the end of the day. It was their plan also. About an hour later a tow pushing 9 barges came out of the lock and it was our turn. After the Welland Canal this was a piece of cake.
• We passed a sign that said "Caution, no fishing, no swimming, no contact with the human body." Really makes you think. We are on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The reason it's called the Sanitary canal is they raised the river so that all the sewage from Chicago can not enter the Great Lakes. It forces all the waste to go down the river to the Gulf. How ironic is that...we spend $5. to $10. to pump out our 40 gallon holding tank.
• In the Des Plaines River it was so narrow that you had to pay attention every minute. Mike gave Dennis plenty of room in case he needed extra space to move around. On the side there were barges tied up, this made the narrow passage even more tricky. There was a barge in front of Dennis, he followed the barge until it was clear to pass. Now it's our turn. Mike asked permission to pass, the captain said he could pass on the two whistle, which means to overtake him on our starboard, his port. When we were almost passed we looked ahead and saw another tow and barge heading toward us. Mike raced passed the first barge and pulled in front of him. Then he changed his underwear. That's a joke, Mike doesn't wear underwear. Too much information.
• The next sign we came to said "Danger, Electric Current. Must wear a Life Jacket, No stopping, Danger, Danger." We found out it was because of the Asian Carp. The Federal Government has spent millions of dollars trying to keep the Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes. I found this in one of the books. Asian Carp that jump out of the water and can not only hit boaters but injure them is not a joke on the Illinois river. They become stimulated by an engine's vibration and leap well out of the water. The ones that end up in boats average eight to ten pounds. If you stay in the channel, they generally are not a problem. Locals say that if you venture close to shore where they gather, you will definitely find them.
• The Redneck Fishing Tournament is held in Bath, Illinois on a backwater and the winner is the boat with the most Asian Carp in the boat at the end of the three hour contest. In 2006, 78 boats brought in 1,840 fish. The only gear allowed are hand-held deep nets. Protective gear like football helmets, baseball bats and rain gear for slime protection are optional. Injuries requiring stitches from getting hit by the fish have occurred. Bow hunting for Asian Carp is also a growing sport and archers now come from all over the country. Ray, I think this beats frog whopping! If anyone would like information on this, give me a call, I get it for you.
• The wait at the locks had its toll on us. It took us 9 hours to go 44 miles. We tied up at Joliet with about 9 other loopers. Dennis said it was the toughest day he has had since he started the trip. The dock was across the river from Harrah's, we were too tired to even make a deposit.
• The next day we traveled 6 hours and did 36 miles to Hidden Cove Marina. Again the long hours are due to waiting at the locks. Very quiet until the couple next to us, Linda and Ray from Old Saybrook, Conn., had to vacate their slip because a very nasty blowhard started cursing at them to get out of his slip. It appears that the marina owner did not expect him back and rented out his slip. We had dinner on board and watched a movie.
• On to Henry Marina, this time it was 56 miles in 6 hours, that was better. We did a little shopping and a group of us ate dinner at the Henry Restaurant. The good thing about Henry was that the barmaid did not know how to make a martini. Mike told her to put 5 oz of Bombay Sapphire Gin and 1 oz of dry vermouth stir over ice and strain, add 3 large olives and serve. She only charged $4.50, the same as my rum and coke. This might seem boring, but the only way we can get to the Gulf is to go down the river.

Chicago

• We left St. Joseph, Michigan with lots of enthusiasm because the lake is quiet. We decided to go straight across to Chicago. The view from the lake is spectacular, like all big cities it just appears and starts to get bigger and bigger. We called the Chicago Yacht Club and they had dockage for us. It's right in the heart of the city. The yacht club asked us for our burgee to fly it over their club, quite an honor. The restaurant is unbelievable, (are you getting tired of my writing about food) everything from oysters to prime rib to salmon, all kinds of fish and of course all the normal stuff.
• You walk across the street and your at Millennium Park. We went to the Jay Pritzker Pavillion and saw the Chicago Symphony. A little culture never hurt no one. To my surprise, Mike agreed to take a double decker bus tour. We started at the Navy Pier, where the first thing we did was take a ride on the ferris wheel. This is not my favorite ride, I'll take a roller coaster any day over a ferris wheel. At the pier there is a stained glass window gallery; it's amazing what these artists can do. We walked for three hours.
• Some of the other sights were The Sears Tower, Art Institute, Field Museum of Natural History, Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium. Very busy and exhausting. We saw where Oprah lives, the top two floors of a beautiful high rise in the middle of the city. Mike was disappointed we didn't get tickets for her show. Ha, Ha.
• The place I liked best in Chicago was the Millennium Park. You could spend hours there and no charge for it. The crown fountain, it consists of two 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool. The towers project video images from Chicago citizens. It has a large fountain with gargoyles in it, they could scare any kid.
• As you can see from the picture, Mike found someone to listen to him forever. Bob Newhart was at the pier and told Mike to sit on his couch. All over the pier there are environmental globes. They illustrate the problems in the world today.

Lake Michigan

• Today is Tuesday, August 14, we want to go home for two weeks on August 28, Tuesday. The plan was to be past Chicago by Labor Day. First because the weather is supposed to change very quickly and second because we can't leave the boat in Chicago, it's just too expensive. We have 14 days to get to Alton, Illinois. The pressure is on.

Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana border Lake Michigan. It's maximum depth is 923 feet, it's 307 miles long and 118 miles wide.

We got up at 6:00 a.m. with every intention of pulling right out of Mackinac Island and heading south about 50 miles to Harbor Springs. I went on the computer to check the weather. All along it was telling me the waves were going to be 2 to 4 foot waves. After last week, I did not want to go in anything more then 3 foot waves. I checked with 4 other boats that were going in the same direction and they were leaving. (I asked the dockmaster at Mackinac Island Marina to put us on a waiting list to stay at the marina. My way of thinking, if I can't get out no boats can come in.) Gladys and Wright have a 41 foot Lagoon Catamaran, like the one we had in Tortola, only this is a sail boat. They were leaving for Beaver Island, an anchorage, which is also about 50 miles and starting out in the same direction as we were going. They decided to leave and would call us in a few minutes and let us know how good or bad it is out there. We started to put everything away, took the kids off the wall, (a 12x30 glass framed picture of our grandchildren), so it wouldn't be broken in case it was rough. When Wright called we just untied the boat and were on our way. We passed under Mackinac Bridge into the Strait of Mackinac and our journey began. As soon as we were out of the protection of land the water changed. We got another call from Wright saying he hoped we weren't mad at him. Forty-three years ago when we were married I was 118 lbs. I could understand being knocked off a seat in a rolling sea. Today, I'm a few...okay, a lot heavier - you'd think this butt would stay put. I was knocked off twice; the second time, I stayed on the floor with my life jacket on. At one point Mike was off his chair. Good thing he grabbed onto the railing or he would be down the stairs on the deck and probably hurt. We could not go to Harbor Springs, instead we went to Petoskey in Little Traverse Bay. A 3 hour ride took us 6 hours. The first thing we noticed was a steeple from the Catholic Church, tomorrow is a Holy Day, think it's a sign. We went to Mass, came home, even I had a cocktail and went to bed. The next day was clear and a little calmer, it was not windy. Since every day counts on getting to Alton by the 28th we decided to go a little extra distance . We went to Northport. A real nice town with tree lined neighborhoods, houses with white picket fences and beautiful green lawns. We have not gone to a grocery store since Little Current, I needed quite a few things, Northport had a supermarket. We ate at a pub in town and were ready to leave early the next morning. The winds were howling and the weather was bad. We could not see the Lake from Northport and again I did not want to go out in rough water. We decided to stay one more day. We took a ride to Bellows Island. The locals say a man called Ustick built a house there in the early 1900 and was driven off the island by feathered neighbors. There are thousands of gulls and black cormorants there, I wouldn't want to live there.

• Friday, August 17 and we are on our way again. We are going to Leland and its only 27 miles. We start off with 2 to 4 feet and as we get near Lighthouse Point I swear the waves went to 4 to 6 feet. We're committed just keep going. The breakwall runs straight across the beach. You have to go to the beach make a quick left and the entrance to the harbor is very narrow with a following sea. The water was so rough there were surfers at the entrance. We were very happy to be docked and safe. We watched others boats come in behind us. They looked like they were going to tip over. I know that's what we looked like, I felt if I put my hand on the side of the boat I could touch the water. I've learned that the boat handles the rough water great, I don't!

Leland is a real fun town. There are ancient ice and fish shanties that are now stores. This section is called Fish Town. You can shop till you drop. There are commercial and charter boats here also. Mike brought some smoked white fish and stunk out the refrigerator. Several good restaurants. We took the bus to church , the bus driver drove us right to the church and told us he would pick us up right after church. When we came out...he was there. There's a water fall coming from another small lake that adds to the charm of the town. We found out that you cannot take an inflatable or any fishing equipment from Lake Michigan to this small lake. The Zebra Mussels are destroying the ecological balance in the lake. The state is doing all that it can to prevent the mussels from contaminating other lakes.

• The next day, Sunday, we couldn't leave Leland. Again, it was just too rough. More boats came in and you had to raft off. The good thing about the State of Michigan is that they have ports of refuge every 20 miles providing protected harbors with anchorages and inexpensive marinas all the way to Chicago. We were in a slip, behind us were 2 boats tied off. The entire marina had boats tied 2 and 3 deep.

• The next day it was a mad exodus. Everyone was taking advantage of a more tranquil sea. Our next stop was Frankfort, it's the 19th of August. We stayed at a place called Jacobson, a private marina because it had a laundromat. After we docked we realized there were at least 10 other loopers there. We had plenty of company. This town has a 480 foot tall sand dune and is part of the Sleeping Bear National Park. We ate at a great pub call Dinghy's and had enough left over for lunch and dinner the next day. We stayed here 2 days again because the weather was bad. So far Lake Michigan has not been good to us.

• August 21, we went to Ludington. Again, all that is on our minds is to get out of Lake Michigan. We took a long walk and went to a really nice restaurant and had a very romantic dinner.
• On August 22 we went to Grand Haven and stayed at North Shore Marina. We were both getting anxious about heading home. We actually were thinking of nothing else to the point of spoiling our days in port. We wanted to see our children and our grandchildren and we promised Karen and Rich that we would be home for the Labor Day Auction at the club. Then it dawned on us...Why don't we just take our chances and go home now? Mike went to the dockmaster to find out what it would cost. It was in our budget. Then I called Enterprise Car Rental and had them deliver an American car. The only one they had was a PT Cruiser. They delivered the car at 4 on Thursday the 23rd and we left at 5:30. We drove straight through and were home in our own bed by 6:30 Friday morning. Turns out the grandchildren were going to surprise us with signs and posters, we spoiled their fun.

• While at home we did a lot of visiting. We had a wonderful time seeing our relatives and friends. We had an especially good time seeing everyone at the club. Our thanks to Gregg and Nancy for letting us stay on their boat for 3 days.

• We left home at 5:45 A.M. and arrived at the boat at 6:30 P.M. on Wednesday, Sept 5th. The electric on the boat had been turned off due to a storm. The refrigerator was off and wore down the battery. We lost all the food in the freezer and I didn't want to take a chance on the condiments so I threw them out too. We went shopping to restock, returned the car and were ready to go. Thursday, here we go again, the weather is bad, thunder storms and waves 3 to 5 feet. When is this going to stop, I HATE LAKE MICHIGAN! Friday it's even worse waves 8 to 12ft. Everyone at the marina is going crazy. We met Tom and Paula from Texas, they weren't happy either. We spent the night talking with them.

• Finally, Friday the Lake was what it should be, less than 2 feet. We fueled up and were on our way at last. We were going about 60 miles to St. Joseph, Benton Harbor. What a beautiful harbor with a brightly lit nuclear power plant at its entrance. There's a restaurant called Clementine's that's very popular and we can understand why. We stayed at Pier 33 Marina. The current on the river was very strong and docking was tricky. In town on every corner there are brightly painted carousel size little cars, any kid would have a ball here. There's a store that is like a dollar store for men. It has all kinds of weird stuff for boats, little boys like Mike think they're in a candy store. To Mass on our bikes and back to the boat to get ready for a long ride tomorrow to Chicago.