Last night we made arrangements to meet our close friends Mike and Lenore Maglione who live in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Mike and I have been friends since 1985 when we jointly wrote and produced a 55 minute sales training video. Mike plans to meet us Sunday noon at the Alton Marina. So, between now and then we have to cover 183 miles. We plan to spend several days in St. Louis.
We departed The IVY Club at 8:00AM as planned. The weather again was CAVU with light winds and warm temperature. By 9:30am we had removed all of the camper top windows.
Kodi, now that she's three years old, decided that she would helm the boat. I pointed out that she was still too young and she offered to assist with navigation.
We passed downtown Peoria, which is impressive from the water.
And 70 minutes later, we reached at the Peoria Lock lock and our first "real" delay; an estimated two hour wait for a tow that could not lock through in one unit.
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| Tug pushing a "bunch of barges into the lock |
So, we joined two other Loopers and rafted off.
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| Guided Discovery with Syzygy and Goofin Off |
This was our first exposure to the very friendly and inclusive Looper culture. We asked if we could raft with them and without hesitation they said yes. We then spent the next two hours talking "shop" with Rich and Linda (Goofin Off) and Dan and Donna (Syzygy).
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| Les chatting with Dan. The lock is in the background. |
The time just flew by and at 11:34am we were cleared to enter the lock. Peoria has an 11ft lift (drop). The Lock Master allowed us to drift in the lock while it was being emptied. This made the process totally painless.
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| Syzygy and Goofin Off floating as we descended 11 feet |
17 minutes later we were all on our way.
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| Down river view of the Peoria Lock and Dam |
Three hours later we arrived at Tall Timbers Marina at mile marker 120. This is the last marina between here Grafton, which is at mile zero on the Illinois River. Tall Timbers is very small and very shallow. Note: River depths are low on the Illinois River at this time of the year and, according to Bob, the Harbor Master, this year is particularly low. Click on
here to see how small the marina is. Look at the photo just below the "HOME" button. The entrance to Tall Timbers is narrow as shown in the photo of Syzygy gingerly entering the harbor.
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| Literally one boat width (15 feet) on each side |
As to shallow, we kicked up allot of silt as we parked the boat but did not touch bottom. We parked at the far end next to the Harbor Master's office.
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| View from the Harbor Master's Office |
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| View of the ENTIRE marina |
Despite its size, Tall Timbers was very nice, extremely well run and dog friendly (see photo).
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| Dog area. Note fire hydrant |
Building a marina on the Illinois River is no small task. The Illinois River can rise as high as 27 feet from "low pool." This means that the entire marina must be able to rise as the water level rises. Note the ram in the photo below.
After dinner we walked into town a briefly explored Havana (population 3,260). Havana is a very clean small town.
All in all, another easy day on the river with beautiful scenery and a pleasant place to stay.
Here's the data:
- Miles Traveled: 47.4
- Cumulative Miles: 205.8
- Locks Traversed Today: 1 Peoria (11ft lift)
- Fuel Used Today: 19.6 Gallons
- Average MPG: 2.3 - Very Nice efficiency
- Average Speed: 8.0 MPH
- Engine Hours Today: 5:51
Kodi appears to be a much better navigator than our two. I put them up on the helm seat, they spread out and they go to sleep. Come to think of it, I think they learned that from Rick! Perhaps you could teach Kodi "one woof for a red marker and two woofs for a green"?
ReplyDeleteI was relieved to hear you finally had to wait for a lock. Heck, that's part of the fun. Besides,I am sure you were starting to believe that all of us who said you had to allow lots of time for the locks were just trying to frighten you.
By the time you see this you I expect you will have made it through the last Illinois lock at LaGrange. Seriously, I hope the locking through goes as smoothly as did the first five.
And, I think you will be glad you are deciding to spend your few days at Alton. One should not miss Hoppies, but not the ideal place to stay for any length of time unless you absolutely have to!
Best to all of you.
can you tell me how far the mileage is from peoria to havana
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