9/14/2017

The fridge was delivered a day early.  It was installed on Monday (9/11) & we left Three Rivers on Tuesday (9/12).    We were headed for a free municipal dock in Ottawa.  The big draw was it was in town & within walking distance to grocery stores.  Unfortunately, when we arrived it was full.  We were unable to find anything close further down the river, so we turned around for about 5 miles to Heritage Harbor Marina.  As luck would have it, we should have just stopped here to begin with.  They offered a free car to to town & a nice marina with restaurant on site.  Live & learn.

Plotting the rest of the journey on the Illinois, Mississippi, & Ohio is difficult.  Not many marinas, so we will probably have to anchor out.  My favorite Mistake, AKA, Riley, presents a problem.  We need to know where we anchor has some sort of shore line for him to visit.  Have been trying to check it out on Google earth.  Wish us luck.  We did meet some loopers that were kind enough to share information.  Have been trying to download a site Jean showed me that would help with this, but so far no luck.  Our connection is sketchy.

Another wrench in the Plan:  Lock 52 on the Ohio is closed for repairs.  If all goes well it will be open on Sunday.   If it doesn't open on Sunday, it will probably be a month.  That means a lot of commercial & recreational traffic stacking up.  Fingers crossed.

Plan to head out in the morning.  Hopefully the fog will not be as thick as it was this AM. It didn't burn off until 10.  We have plotted a tentative course of stops for the rest of the week.  It will probably be long days of running for the next few days, so you may not hear from us for awhile.