Tuesday August 16: Hennepin IL

Sunday started as a nice day and went downhill from there. But still not very windy and travel on the rivers is all good.

We passed a bunch of the cutest little house boats. More houses than boats but cute nonetheless :-)

Maybe this type of residence after Yesterday's Dream???

While we continue to encounter tows on the waterway, most parts of the river are wide and straight enough that passing or overtaking has been quite easy to accomplish.

We have a new VHF radio that is an AIS (Automated Identification System) built in so we'll be able to "see" and identify the tows by name and will know the speed and direction of travel.

Definitely helpful when we are some of the lower rivers that twist and turn  - hard to see the tows coming around the bend!

The marina at Seneca on Sunday night had a courtesy car - truck in this case - so we rode into town Monday and had breakfast (Seneca Family Restaurant) with a bonus of being able to stop at a small grocery store.

It was foggy anyway so might as well enjoy the morning!

Besides, we were headed to Ottawa which was only a 12 miles run. Plus one lock - which can take anywhere from 45 minutes to several hours depending on the number of tows wanting to go through and which direction they are headed.

It was a good day: in and out  of the lock in 45 minutes!!

Did I mention it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and schools are beginning to start back up? The river was CRAZY buzy with tons of boats going here and there with many other boats pulled up on shore. So nice to see people enjoying the water! And then it wasn't so nice ....

It was raining by the time we arrived in Ottawa - seems to be a rule or something: if it's going to rain during some part of the day, it must always happen as the boat is pulling into a lock or a dock!

The city has a very nice dock just a couple of blocks from downtown - complete with power - all free! Su Sueno is docked in front of us with Tom and Carolyn aboard - and a wonderful cat, Ginger!!

Anyway, since no charge for the dock,  might as well have dinner out - especially since there was a Thai place that was very close.

Food and company was good - and the walk along the river very nice.

We were headed out this morning (Tuesday) with one lock and 32 miles

Steve called ahead to the lock to see if we should hurry or hang around a bit. The lockmaster was really nice and suggested he would be able to put us through about 11. No guarantees of course .....

We arrived at the lock about 10 or so and tied to one of the cells (big round chunks of concrete) as instructed and watched as the "double" came up the lock. A double, in this case, was a tow pushing 3 barges.

Which means there is a lot of maneuvering in and out of the lock and unhooking and hooking back up before the whole tow and its three barges are on their way again.

We were very close to the action while being well protected behind our cell!!

A tow with either 8 or 9 barges!

Dam at the lock yesterday.

                         

The Illinois River is changing again. Wider but shallow on the edges. Less industry but still not much in the way of any homes of any kind.

We continue to see a wide variety of wildlife - ibises, white herons, blue herons, sea gulls of course - and many eagles. A few full grown bald eagles but many more immature bald eagles.



Destination was Hennepin. This town provides an old barge and a few small finger piers for visitors. The cleat Steve tied to was crazy huge .... but then it is a barge! Not floating by the way.

You can see the dirt right on top of the barge - so it's also a parking area!

Worked just fine for us as several of the marinas are quite shallow due to constant shoaling and low water levels.

In fact, I ran us into the mud when we first attempted to go to the dock in Ottawa. Seems I got too close to the point sticking out near the river. No problem. It's just mud - not the rock bottom of the North Channel! Backed out and moved closer to the bridge to enter. Plenty of water there :-)