Off the Wall and Down the River

Here is how the river system works from Chicago.  Leaving Chicago by the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal, we merged with the Des Plaines River just north of the Old Joliet Prison at Fairmont, IL.  This river continues southwestward until it merges with the Kankakee River just above Dresden Island and Dresden Island Lock.  This forms the Illinois River, which runs southwest until it merges with the Mississippi River at Grafton, IL.  The Mississippi runs south, picks up the Missouri river north of St. Louis and continues south.  The Ohio River meets the Mississippi River at the Fort Defiance State Park.  Going up the Ohio River to where the Tennessee River enters in Paducah is where we will go to get back to Huntsville, AL.

Today, we said farewell to our son William as he Ubered off to the rental car place to get a car to drive back to Grand Rapids to catch his flight home. We had a great time touring Chicago with William, and he adapted really well to boat living and doing the ship shuffle.  That's when you are living in such tight quarters that each person seems to be trying to get out of someone else's way a lot of the time.

We left "The Wall" in Joliet, IL and cruised through three locks and 46 miles to get to Heritage Harbor in Ottawa, IL.  The river was busy with tug traffic after the Labor Day Holiday, and we were constantly dealing with them and watching for logs and debris hiding in the muddy waters of the Illinois River.  We were traveling with our friends in Gypsy Spirit, and the duo sailed into Heritage Harbor to wait out some weather forecasted to be coming our way due to a cold front and Tropical Depression Gordon.  This is a great marina, so we stocked up on things and enjoyed the comfort of being secure in bad weather.

That's the news and here's the views:

We are here

Today's route from Joliet Wall, IL to Heritage Harbor, Ottawa, IL

Typical  scenery all day

Weather Forecast (we r the blue dot)

Tied up for a few days