Illinois River System

On Wednesday, 9/21 we completed our travels down the Illinois River and landed in Grafton, IL which is at Mile Marker (MM) 0 on the Illinois River and MM 218 on the Mississippi River. We made much better time than we anticipated due to the nice weather (as in 3+ days in the mid-90's). We travelled 6 nights and 7 days down the river. We stayed 1 night at the Joilet town wall, 2 nights at harbor (Heritage Harbor in Ottawa and Peoria Boat Club - both had very nice and helpful people) and 3 nights in a row at anchor, tucked behind islands (Quiver, Bar and Willow Islands) and out of the way of river traffic. We travelled thru 8 locks, descending a total of approx. 160 feet. We met many more loopers traveling down the river and hosted an "anchortails" on our boat one night at anchor. John's dingy taxi service picked 3 other couples up from their boats and brought them to ours. It was a lot of fun! We are getting much more comfortable in communicating with tows (barges), and more importantly, staying out of their way! In Grafton, we took the Skytour lift up to the top and had a wonderful lunch at Aerie's Terrace.......and stunning view of the rivers and landscape. We are now buttoning up the boat heading back to Michigan for the weekend to our nephew Allen's wedding. We are very excited to spend some time with family! We plan to leave Grafton on Tuesday, 9/27 and start making our way down the mighty Mississippi for a night at the famous "Hoppies".

Locking tied to other loopers.

We've seen tows push as many as 15 barges.

Peaceful part of the river

Morning at Quiver Island with 13 other Loopers

Loopers love to take pictures of other Looper boats

John's dinghy taxi service

Anchortails with Table Six, Meridian and Karl

Beautiful morning at Bar Island

This is how we grill!!!!!

Le Grange lock - the last one on the Illinois River

Our home in Grafton

SkyTour lift

Lunch at Aerie Terrace

View from the top of the SkyTour

Aerie Terrace