Day on the Cruise: 146
From: Illinois Valley Yacht Club, (IVY) Peoria, IL
To: Tall Timbers Marina, Havana, IL
Statute Miles: 48.0 SM
Time: 5.75 Hrs
Cumulative Miles: 3,544.5 SM
On Board: Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut
Tall Timbers Marina in Havana, IL is where we are docked tonight.
We are running out of marinas in which to stay on the Illinois River. Tall Timbers is the last real marina before we get to the Mississippi River which is now 120 miles away.
Early this morning, I filled up our water containers that we bought yesterday. We now have 69 gallons of spare water to last us on the wilds of the Mississippi.
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| 21 Gallons |
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| 21 Gallons |
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| 7 Gallons |
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| 10 Gallons |
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| 10 Gallons |
Four of us left IVY in another "Flotilla" down the River. New to our group today is "Reunion" from Racine, Wi. We have been at marinas and Looper Parties with them since Chicago, but have not traveled together.
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| "Always Five O'Clock" following us this morning |
Our first objective was the Peoria Lock which is about 10 miles South of IVY. At 7:30 this morning, I called the lock, and hey told me that they had a double upbound tow that they were working and another upbound that would be waiting. The Lock Master said if we got there by 9:30 or 10 that he would get us down between the tows. Great news! We have found it prudent to call the locks by phone before we leave in the morning to gauge the commercial traffic at the lock. This tells us really when to leave or how fast to travel to minimize our wait at the lock.
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| View Out the Front Door Today |
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| Peoria Waterfront |
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| Peoria Waterfront |
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| Caterpillar Tractor Co. Headquarters |
Reunion travels a little slower than we do, so he left at eight from IVY. The rest of us left at 8:15, and soon we had crossed under two bridges and were in downtown Peoria.
Peoria is an interesting town from the water. The City is home to Caterpillar Tractor Company, and has many facilities related to Cat. The company's headquarters are right downtown, and there is a new Caterpillar Visitor's Center right along the River. Unfortunately this was not open on Sunday during our lay day at IVY, so I missed it. Will catch it on a return trip via car!
Peoria is also a big industrial city, and we saw several big facilities along the River. There were also several more bridges South of downtown.
We arrived at the Peoria Lock about 9:15 and saw the big upbound tow making up his barges as he sat on the upbound end of the Lock. This tow was so big that he could not get all the barges and the actual tow boat in the lock at one time, so he had to break up the tow and come up in several lockings. After he has everyone up through the lock, he has to make up his tow again and tie the barges together. He was doing this as we arrived at the lock.
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| Big towboat making up his barges after coming out of Peoria Lock as we wait to enter |
We encountered a lot of congestion at the upper side of the lock. This was a staging area for barges and there were two or three tow boats moving about assembling barges and making up tows.
We were in the Lock shortly after 9:30 and dropped down 8' to the pool below. The Lock Master told us that they were starting to get really busy because the grain season was about to start. The harvest will be starting up here in the heartland, and grain is shipped by barge. They are staging empty barges now at the many grain elevators in the little towns along the river.
Agriculture has become much more prevalent along the river today since we got below Peoria. Less industrial has been seen. "Amber waves of grain" is being grown in huge fields along the banks of the Illinois. Dikes or levees have been built to protect the fields from floods. The aforementioned grain elevators are everywhere. We have seen a couple of big ethanol facilities also up here along the River.
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| Old lock that we passed |
We reached Havana in the early afternoon. It has been unbelievably hot today.....and very humid, so it was good to get in early. We actually ran the generator on the last hour of the trip to cool the cabin down, and we haven't done that since New York in July!
Tall Timbers is a small marina with VERY shallow water. We only had 6" to a foot under the boat in places. Flying carp are everywhere. We had to go into the marina one at a time and dock before the other could get in.
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| Women's Rest Room at Tall Timbers |
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| Tall Timbers Marina |
Docktails tonight were with our four boats plus another boat that had come in ahead of us named "Integrity" from St. Petersburg, FL. Integrity is a newer Huckins that we first saw up the Illinois at Wilmington, IL.
Dinner tonight was at the only restaurant in town. It was good. We walked around the small town.
Tomorrow we will run South about 30 miles to Beardstown, IL. No marina here, so we will tie up to some barges at Logston Tug Service. There is no power or water, so we will be running the generator. It is questionable whether we can get Maggie ashore off the barges, so this should be interesting.
Thanks for Reading!
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