Saturday, July 14

Western point of the Loop

Large Tow below lock

Lock # 8 -  Illinois River

Yesterday we went from Ottawa to Havana, sounds like we are on a bigger Loop than we thought!
Today was a pretty uneventful (boring) day on the Illinois River - so the blog gets a new contributor.
How boring was it?  The twin highlights were reaching the westernmost point on the Loop (Valley City, IL.) and making it to the Mississippi River, in that order.

I'm bored

Sand Bar Saturday

We passed through our last lock on the Illinois (#123 so far), as a large barge tow was waiting to enter.  We were able to hear the stats that he gave the lock tender - the barge tow was 105 ft. wide & 1125 ft. long and had a total of 15 cargo carriers - three across and five deep.  It seemed pretty large, but we could be seeing barge tows 4X as big on the Mississippi.
It's hot & it's a weekend thus many more recreational boats are out.  After 123 miles we pulled into
St. Charles, MO................ luckily the marina had a riverside pool where we headed to cool off.
Certain parties are to be dragged off to tour St. Louis tomorrow.  Oh boy!