Illinois River - 10/02/05

Today marks our last day of adventure on the Illinois River. We've seen great American Industry, tug boat/barge traffic, navigated 8 locks and about 40 bridges. We've seen wonderful nature in the interior of Illinois. We've even seen a deer swimming across the river in front of us today. We've met people from all walks of life including a fellow from R.I. who is single handedly doing the loop on his sailboat - well almost single handedly... he has help from his 3 small collies and one cat. It is interesting how easy it is to make new friends.

The last two nights we anchored near islands right off the Illinois River and have usually had the company of fellow boaters who are also on the loop. Today we tied up early to a dock in the small town of Hardin, IL. This dock is outside of a popular restaurant we have heard about from other "Loopers". The brisket is to die for we hear. Well, we will find out tonight. While we were having lunch on back of the boat, just after we tied up, a big helicopter flew right over our boat and landed about 100 feet from our boat. They had landed there to have lunch at this restaurant. We found out later that Mr. Busch (Beer) was the passenger.

As we sit here in Hardin it is 89º and humid.

Monday we pick up our first mail drop in Grafton, Illinois and onto the great Mississippi for the next leg of our journey – about 210 miles south until we head east on the Ohio River.