Day 94 September 22, 2022

Day 94 Thursday, September 22, 2022

Henry Harbor Marina to Peoria, Illinois

First day of Fall.  A few leaves are starting to change.

We are traveling with Grand Wazoo and Arion.  The weather is cool, in the 60's, almost welcome after the 90 degree days we were having.  It should be a relatively short day.  We are headed to Peoria, hoping to make it a 2 night stop.  We've had difficulty finding a marina since water depth on the river has been down 4 feet for the last week.  This limits access for boats that draft at or greater than 5 feet.  We have a 4 foot draft.  Many marinas are full with boats that can't anchor out due to their draft, meaning less slips available for us.

Many eagles along the way today, even bunched together on shore, along with herons and more pelicans.

 

At Blue Creek Point we met our 3rd barge for the day.  The point is a very narrow spot making it difficult to pass.  We let the tow captain know we were there and he advised us when it would be safe to pass him.  

 Bridge work along the way.

We received confirmation from Peoria Boat Club (private but takes transient boaters) that they had enough water at their entrance for us to come.  Yay, we have a spot, or so we thought....  We arrived at the Boat Club entrance where an escort boat came out to the channel to guide us in.  The water level was so shallow that they wanted us to follow them for safe entry.  Grand Wazoo was first and was headed to their slip when we started our approach. Joe couldn't get his boat to the dock; he was hitting bottom and actually got stuck.  We got stuck in the channel.  Easy decision.  We carefully picked our way back out and to the channel.

                    Tug and barge scrap yard.

Plan B: Peoria City Wall.  No water, no power but free.  Will there be room for us? Only 2 other boats when we arrived and mostly designed for smaller boats.  Very windy but Rachel and Greg from 2nd Chance were already there and helped us dock.  Docks, but no cleats!  We had to wrap our line around a large metal pilon and tie to the frame of the dock.  We also tied to 2nd Chance across from us due to the wind and lack of cleats.

Rachel lived in Rouses Point as a kid! Her Dad was CBP.  Small world.

A visit to The Caterpillar Museum was on the agenda. Interesting, it outlined the origin, development and innovation of the company.  An introductory movie was held in the dump portion of a CAT 797 truck!  We sat in the dump of a 4000 hp truck that can travel 44 mph.  It was equipped with CAT MINESTAR that allows the truck to travel autonomously, without an operator!  

 The dump of this truck is the auditorium.

 How Caterpillar  got their name!

 

In addition to the history we also got to sit in equipment and drive via simulators.  I will keep my day job.

Kelleher's Irish Pub for dinner and then planning our upcoming travel stops.  

 

Original Purington Paver bricks into Kelleher's

 

Peoria River Front Park is along the railroad tracks.  

Weather isn't as big an issue like on Lake Michigan.  Water level is the big factor now, as well as all of the other Loopers looking for marinas and anchorages.

                                    View of the bridge from our boat at the Peoria City Wall.