Our day began with a knock on our boat at 6:25 a.m. One of the Loopers we met last night had called the lockmaster at the first lock we had to go through today and was told if we could get there ASAP we could get through with no delays. He said everyone was planning to leave the wall at 6:45, so we jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes, fired up the engines, and off we went. No time for coffee or tooth brushing – boo and yuck ☹️ We made it through a drawbridge and the first lock with no waits. There weren’t enough floating bollards for everyone (there were 7 looper boats) so we ended up hanging on to ropes off our bow and stern which were fastened to the top of the lock wall that the lockmaster handed to us – another first!

We made it to the second lock about 9:00, only to be told it would be a 3 1/2 hour wait before they could lock us through. There was a large turning basin just before the lock and we were told to anchor and wait there. Unfortunately when we tried to put our anchor down we discovered the chain  had twisted and we couldn’t get the anchor all the way down. We ended up rafting (tying) to another boat for the duration – yet another first for us. When will we run out of firsts? We were able to get the anchor up and secured and tomorrow will pull out all the chain to get the kinks out.

The lockmaster called us into the lock 45 minutes earlier than predicted! We got a floating bollard and the boat we rafted off while we waited ended up rafting off us in the lock. We were very nervous about going through locks, but we’ve discovered the lockmasters are very helpful and patient. It’s nice to see our tax dollars at work!

We still had more than 20 miles to go to the last lock for the day. This lock has had long delays for several days now, so again one of the boats called the lockmaster to see how soon we could get through. He was told if we could get there before 3 we could lock through right away. Needless to say, we all made sure we would be there before 3. By the time we got there, there were 9 looper boats needing to go through! We had to wait about 20 minutes while the lock was filled back up, but then they got all of us in and down we went.

All ef us were headed to the same marina so we were like little ducks in a row going there. This marina is unbelievable! They had us come in one boat at a time so they could make sure they had people positioned to grab our lines and help us get tied up and hooked up to shore power. By 4:30 we were tied up – nearly 10 hours to go 40 miles. The bathrooms are individual small bathrooms, complete with soap and shampoo in the shower. They do pumpout at your boat, they’ll bring ice to your boat, there’s a good restaurant at the end of our dock, there are 2 courtesy cars available, the list of amenities just keeps going. This is obviously a good stop for Loopers. There are at least 12 looper boats here right now, including one we met when we were still in Holland.

We plan to stay here for at least two nights. We need to get our radio antenna fixed because it looks like the cormorants in Holland ate the top. And we need to get a couple of new batteries for the stern thruster and the electric windlass. It seems like an never-ending list of things to replace or repair.

There was still a lot of industry, but also lots of natures. Who knew there were pelicans in Illinois?

Little ducks in a not so very straight row. Notice the barge at the upper left portion of the river – is that mama duck?