Author: Mike & Jonell Murphree

Hey Blog Followers,
Since Monday, we have been in Counce Tennessee on the southern border of Tennessee, near the Mississippi/Alabama border. We are currently at a place called Grand Harbor Condominiums & Marina.

Our trip on Monday October 9th began with some thick fog. We took the initial ride slow until the fog burned off.

After the fog burned off, and while under way down the Tennessee river, we again found some beautiful homes on pristine pieces of land.

The travel day consisted of about 60 miles & 2 Locks.
1st mate Nellie is Gettin’ pretty good at her job tying up in the lock.

We arrived at Grand Harbor Condominiums & Marina on Pickwick Lake about 5pm. We were met by new harbor master Neelie Potts (not Nellie). Grand Harbor is a large complex with ; 325 slips, Condos, Tennis Courts, Pool, Fitness Center, & Cable TV. Pickwick Lake is a small lake near the intersection of the Tennessee river & Tenn-Tom Waterway.

After a long tiring day, we were both very tired, and there are no restaurants directly on site at the marina. Nice guy Mike gave Nellie the night off and made an exotic dinner for two on Monday night.

On Tuesday we caught up on bills, errands, cleaning, and went to dinner with ole pals “Odyssey” (Bud/Sue), and new Looper pal John from “Gump Stump”.
All of these folks are very interesting people to talk with.

Bud/Sue from vessel “Odyssey”, have traveled to places like Greece, Etheopia, and have spent 2 weeks in the jungles of South Africa.
John from vessel “Gump Stump”, has went Peacock Bass fishing on the Amazon river.
John is currently doing the Loop single-handed, but will meet family in Florida.
The name of his boat “Gump Stump” originates from the name of a fishing/hunting club he is in with 7 other longtime buddies in Florida.

We had dinner at a place called “Freddy T’s” Restaurant & Beach Club, a tiki-themed restaurant & bar featuring a menu of steak, pasta, seafood, and large wine cellar. It is a large complex with lots of flat screens, TVs in the floor, live bands, dance floor, and rooftop bar.

On Wed/Thu we did something that I have always wanted to do in my life, we went to the home of Elvis Presley @ Graceland , located in Memphis Tennessee.
To get to Memphis, we rented a car from Enterprise about 30-40 minutes away from the marina.
Recently new Gold Loopers from Memphis, “Robin’s Nest” (Eric/Robin Barnhart), gave us a ride from Counce to Corinth to get the rental car. Robin also gave us some great tips on local stuff to do in Memphis.
When we arrived in Memphis, we checked in at the “Guesthouse at Graceland” a new 450 room complex just built last year in 2016. The place is beautiful and still smells new.

After checking in, we hurriedly changed cloths and went for drinks at a place in downtown Memphis called the Madison Hotel. Robin Barnhart had told us that the rooftop bar at the Madison was a “must-see”. She was correct, the view was spectacular, and the locals were very friendly, inviting us to share the fire pit on a chilly Memphis night. The river below is the Mississippi, the route you would take if you wanted to enter the Gulf of Mexico in New Orleans. Recall that Gettin’ Looped (& most Loopers) took the Ole Miss – the Ohio river – the Tennessee river – and soon the Tenn-Tom Waterway, to allow our entry into the Gulf at Mobile Alabama.

After pre-game drinks at The Madison, we went to dinner at a place called “The Rendezvous”, also located in downtown Memphis.
We were actually able to walk from The Madison Hotel to The Rendezvous.

The Rendezvous is a landmark BBQ restaurant in Memphis opened in 1948.
Memphis claims to be the pork barbecue mecca of the world, and for over 60 years, the Vergos family has been serving their signature dry rub ribs in a basement through a downtown alley across from the Peabody Hotel. The stories also say that you have to be invited to work at the Rendezvous by an active worker, it is apparently a difficult job to come by.

After dinner we returned to the beautiful Guesthouse at Graceland and watched a very good trio of young fellas play a bunch of old 50,60’s favorites in the lobby.

After a long day/night on Wednesday, we awoke early for our 9:15 am tour appointment at Graceland.

Graceland was built-in 1939, and Elvis purchased it in 1957.
Graceland was opened to the public in 1982.
Graceland is on a 13.8-acre estate in Memphis Tennessee.
The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991, and declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006.
Graceland is the second most-visited house in America with over 650,000 visitors a year, second only to the White House.

The Graceland Home/Estate Tour shows the following places where Elvis, Priscilla, Lisa-Marie, and Elvis’ parents spent their time after Elvis became famous;

After the Graceland Tour, we also visited several Elvis memorabilia museums show-casing his ; cars, motor cycles, show outfits, & tributes from other musicians.
But the most impressive display was his wall of Gold/Platinum Records.
I was also surprised to learn that Elvis had made 31 movies during his acting career, there was a complete building dedicated to his acting career.

 

If a few weeks, we also plan to visit the childhood home of Elvis in Tupelo Mississippi. Interesting facts – my dads Aunt Jerry babysat for the king when he was a child in Tupelo. My dad’s uncle, who lived most of his life in Tupelo, was named Elvis Murphree.

Out of all the blog posts we have made, this one may be the least interesting to the blog followers. But it was one of the most interesting from the human interaction perspective.

Clifton Marina & our previous stop at Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, are known on the Looper circuit as two of the friendliest stops on the Loop.

There was nothing fancy about Clifton Marina, there were no “great shots” from a photo perspective, but the folks down here really made you feel special. They made you feel like you were a local, like they truly appreciated having you around, and truly seemed sad when you told them you had to get on down the road.

Gene, Sonya, Amy, and all the locals (Wooley, Coach, Bob) made the weekend very special. In addition, we spent the weekend at Clifton with Looper pals Odyssey (Bud/Sue) & made yet more Looper friends who we already are bonding strongly with ; “Heaven to Betsy (Steve/Betsy) & Resolute (Pete/Pat).

The Clifton Marina has a very unique outdoor patio with flat screen TV. It is a place where all the problems in the world are solved daily by “Wooley, Coach, Dennis, Bob, and others (sorry, no photo of the boys). All of the world problems are solved with humor and a lot of southern accent.
The outdoor patio became the bonding place between visitors & locals.
Gene & Sonya cooked up the very tasty burgers on the grill, there was plenty of beer and plenty of football this weekend, complete with Saturday nights stunner between Mich State & Michigan, and Sunday nights thriller between Green Bay & Dallas.

On Sunday, we went with Bud/Sue to the Walmart about 45 minutes away. We took the owner Gene Davidson’s personal Cadillac STS to the store. Gene is a special ole guy, he speaks every word from the heart, he reminded me of my late uncle Elvis from Tupelo Mississippi.

We had some pretty sightings during the weekend. A rainbow surprised us for about 30 minutes during the Mich/State game, and some of the trees are starting to change (not many yet, besides this one).

Oh yea, by the way – when we were coming down to Clifton, we saw some pretty nice homes along the Tennessee River.

Oh yea, by the way #2 – we are still eating very healthy !
Prior to leaving New Johnsonville, we had a pretty nice dessert (shown below) , after some incredible catfish (not shown, but fully eaten).

 

Next stop = back to opulence, Grand Harbor Marina in Counce Tennessee.

On Wednesday Sept 4th we left the wonderful Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers Kentucky, for Pebble Isle Marina located in New Johnsonville Tennessee (about 2 hours east of Nashville).

The ride further south was on the Kentucky Lake & the Tennessee river. Unlike the past week, there was no commercial traffic. The only boats we had to deal with were other Loopers & about 50 high powered bass fishing boats (potentially a tournament).

The ride down the Kentucky Lake & the Tennessee river was very nice, calm, pretty. The ride was filled with nice homes, tree-lined/curved shores, an old rail road bridge and a strange building structure.

 

Discussions with Clay and Billy at Pebble Isle Marina, after we arrived, revealed that the old building structure above is known as the Old Danville Grain Elevator or Danville Transfer Station.  It was built on the banks of the Tennessee River about 300 yards from the L&N Railroad in 1914.  The purpose of the building was to transfer barges of grain and other goods from the river to rail cars.
It contained six levels with the bottom three being open for boats carrying cargo to unload their goods from the river. The lower levels accommodated the water level fluctuation of the river. Two twenty-horsepower elevators carried cargo from the lower levels to trains docked at the fourth level. Primary commodities were peanuts, grain, limestone, iron, and cotton.
It was in operation until the early 1940s when TVA began clearing out the area for the creation of Kentucky Lake.  The lake would be created by building a large dam downstream at Grand Rivers, Kentucky.  The waters would permanently rise 55 feet which would flood most of the building and the surrounding area.

Further down river, we arrived about 4:30pm at Pebble Isle Marina. Unlike Green Turtle Bay, there was no pool, spa, or yacht club. There was just a very nice marina with a bunch of good ole boys. We had several folks who came to help us tie up and say howdy; Mark from the marina, and locals Gene & Jim. The setting is beautiful. When you come off the Tennessee river, you enter a very narrow channel (don’t deviate from the marked channel, I never do), and when you round the corner of the narrow channel, it dumps into a secluded small bay which reminded me and Jonell of the movie “On Golden Pond”. The photos don’t due justice. The harbor is small, and the marina is known by Loopers as one of the friendliest on the Loop. We are having the same experiences. Mark, Clay, and Billy have treated us like royalty.

Shortly after arriving and tying up we got settled in and invited locals Gene & Kathy Spears up onto Gettin’ Looped for some welcome drinks. We were soon joined by new Looper friends Mark/Sandee from Holland Michigan and Larry/Betty Matlack from Kansas. The 6 of us and Larry/Betty’s kids all used the 2 courtesy vans at Pebble Isle to go to dinner at a Mexican restaurant about 30 minutes away.

On Thursday we began the day with the Pebble Isle famous ” Billy’s Cinnamon Rolls” and coffee. The cinnamon rolls are well-known on the Looper circuit. I met Billy in the morning before my shower when I returned the keys to the van from the night before. When I got back from the shower and picked up Nellie, Billy had to go on a Tow Boat US run. So we had the morning cinnamon rolls with owner/operator Clay. We were treated to the rolls and about 30 minutes of Clay’s stories about ; Bass Fishing, Cat Fish noodling, the local fungus in the water that looks like a sponge, and a story about a friend or relative who is now intimately involved with the Army Corps, because he has invented some chemical which kills the Asian carp but does not harm the local game fish. Clay told us that last year that when you drove in/out of the marina the Asian carp would be flying all over. This year after the chemical treatments you see the Asian carp only floating up dead.

 

After the morning cinnamon rolls, we again borrowed one of the courtesy vans to go to the Loretta Lynn Ranch in Hurricane Mills Tennessee. The ranch consists of ; Loretta’s Plantation Home after she became rich/famous, a Replica of her Butcher Holler Home where she grew up, a replica of the Coal Mine #5 where her father worked, and The Coal Miners’ Daughter Museum. The grounds were very pretty with a waterfall on the creek which runs thru the property. Unfortunately photos were only allowed outside of the buildings.

The replica house of where Loretta grew up included many pieces from the real place in Butcher Holler Kentucky. Loretta grew up as 1 of a family of 10, with many members of the family being musically talented, but Loretta and her sister Crystal Gale became the most famous. Loretta Lynn, was originally Loretta Webb, but married Doolittle Lynn at a very young age and became known as Loretta Lynn Webb. Crystal Gale was originally Brenda Gail Webb, and assumed her stage name of Crystal Gale because there was already a singer named Brenda Lee with Decca Records, and she was asked to change her name. Loretta Lynn suggested the name “Crystal” after seeing a sign for the Krystal hamburger restaurant chain. Brenda Gail Webb thus became Crystal Gayle. Their childhood replica house was very rustic inside & out.

The plantation style home where Loretta lived in after becoming famous, is big/nice/etc, but is not as opulent as you would think. She lived here mainly in the 1970’s, and currently lives on the ranch property, but in a more modern single level ranch.
Many scenes from the “Coal’s Miners Daughter” movie were filmed in the plantation home. The home was originally built in the late 1800’s.

The coal mine was also interesting, attempting to re-create the feel of where/how Loretta’s father spent most of his life.

Finally, the museum was a wealth of Loretta memorabilia. It was filled with all her awards, show dresses/outfits, a tour bus motor home, Loretta owned cars, and gifts from other famous entertainers. Most of the memorabilia had hand written notes from Loretta on how she came to own the object, and what the particular piece meant to her.
Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside.

Thursday afternoon we re-met some ole friends/Loopers Bud & Sue Hansen, who we had originally met at the Rogersville Alabama Looper rendezvous that Jonell & I attended in 2014. They are a wonderful ole couple from Cedar Falls Iowa . Jonell & I attended the Looper rendezvous in 2014 when we were just Looper Dreamers. During that week long seminar, we met Bud & Sue during a looper crawl on their original boat an aluminum hull 32′ Marinette called “When I’m 64”. Their trip in 2014/2015 was cut short due to family issues with aging parents.
Bud & Sue are now completing the Loop in their new boat “Odyssey”, a ’38 Ocean Alexander. They are the sweetest couple ever.

On Friday, I went for cinnamon rolls with Clay, and then went in for a long over due haircut at Stewart’s Barber Shop.
Owner/Operator Jason Stewart did a fine job, but nothing to compare to “Pat’s Barber Shop” in Royal Oak Michigan (1632 E Lincoln Ave, Royal Oak, MI 48067).

Tonight, Friday night, we will go for a farewell dinner at the Pebble Isle Marina Restaurant with Bud/Sue, Mark/Sandee, and Gene/Kathy, who are all now very good friends. We WILL see Bud/Sue at the next stop, and may see Mark/Sandee again, but may not see Gene/Kathy for a long time. It has been a wonderful stop.

Next Stop is Clifton Marina in Clifton Tennessee.
It should be another “laid-back” stop with good down home folks.

 

As we reported on the last post, we arrived at the beautiful Green Turtle Bay Marina & Resort on Friday September 29th. After our excitement of running the port engine out of fuel & grounding the boat on Friday, our Looper Life has settled down nicely over the last few days.

Green Turtle Bay Marina & Resort is a large complex with ; Condo Rentals, a 400 slip Marina, a Yacht Club, a Boat Works Repair Center, a Spa & Health Center, Tennis Courts, 2 Outdoor Pools, and 1 Indoor Pool. It is located on Barkley Lake along the Cumberland river, in Grand Rivers Kentucky.
http://www.greenturtlebay.com/

The Green Turtle Bay History is quite the story.
It was the vision to create this large complex by Bill Gary III, father of the now harbor master Bill Gary IV.
Bill Gary III, a lawyer by trade, and lifetime boater, spent a lot of his teen years and time with his children in the area waters and what was known then as Port KenBar. Port Kenbar was quite run down and poorly managed. During one of the summer trips with his kids, he looked around and had the vision of what the area could be.
In 1984 his vision started to happen with approval from the Army Corps to develop the property, attracting a few initial investors, and the incorporation of Green Turtle Bay.
But the area still had limited drawing capability until 1985 when the Army Corps opened the Tenn-Tom Waterway, essentially connecting Tennessee river to Mobile Bay (and creating a safer/shorter alternate Great Loop Route besides the Ole Miss to New Orleans).
The final piece of the puzzle was when Hollywood actress Frances Langford & husband Ralph Evinrude, came thru the newly opened waterway on a 108 foot yacht named Chanticleer in September of 1986. Their new found love of the area enticed them to invest in the family run business now known as Green Turtle Bay. Since then many family members have contributed to what is now known as “Western Kentucky’s Premier Resort”.

Bill Gary IV currently acts as the harbor master & vice president of operations.
Bill’s wife Machelle, a 20 year nurse by trade, acts as the director for the Jade & Earth Spa and Health Complex. Many other family members are involved, the rest of the staff acts like family (esp dockhand Bleu).

Our time at Green Turtle has been a mix of chores, fun, and great meals.

We spent Saturday doing chores; cleaning the boat & going grocery shopping to re-provision from the week of anchoring (Bill Gary loaned us his golf cart with large rear tray for the shopping trip).
We went to dinner at the Thirsty Turtle restaurant/bar on Saturday, with the folks who helped us get un-grounded – Jim & Debbie Pyke.

Sunday we took the boat out for a low/med/high speed test ride, checking for abnormal vibration from the grounding. Luckily, Gettin’ Looped was free of vibration and the stuffing box nuts continue to run cool at all speeds.

On Sunday night Nellie & I went to dinner at the Commenwealth Yacht Club within the Green Turtle Complex.
The club was very nice, with lots of wood accents and many wooden placards of all the boat names of the yacht club members. The club members were very friendly.
I had, maybe, the best meat loaf I have ever had.

On Monday we did more chores.
Mike changed the engine oils & Nellie did some cloths washing.
Gettin’ Looped is now at about 150 hours on the trip.
This was the 1st of 4 oil changes I have planned during the trip.

Just for info, we have travelled about 1500 miles so far, on our journey of about 6000 miles. We left Lake St Clair on July 15th, and plan to return to metro Detroit about next August.
If you haven’t already done so, Check out the GPS Tracker Link = https://share.garmin.com/GettinLooped2017

Monday night we had a blast going out to dinner with 6 other Looper Couples;  Lab Partners (Rip & Beth), Firestorm (Mike & Laurie), Mother Ocean (Dennis & Jan), Thistle (Greg & Reenie), Craic (Tim & Patti), and Donna Mae (Derek & Lori).
The Looper Gang is quite lively & the humor was abundant.

We went to dinner at a place called Patti’s 1880’s Settlement .
It is the nicest restaurant in Grand Rivers.
Patti’s 1880’s Settlement is a recreated historical log cabin village.
The place was all decorated in a Christmas theme, but I am not sure if this is the yearly look or if it was done with the approaching holidays. It is also the 40th anniversary of operation for Patti’s this year.

Patti’s 1880’s Settlement had a very unique restroom (not meant to be used as such), complete with tenant “Indian Joe”.
Who is Indian Joe?
In 1975, the Tullars lived in hotel without a personal bathroom or tub. Patti found a clawfoot tub she fell in love with at the Swanne Flea Market. Bill built a living room and bathroom onto the hotel just for Miss Patti’s tub. When the owner of the flea market decided to sell, he asked Patti if she would like to purchase Indian Joe. Joe had sat at the entrance of the flea market greeting customers for many years. Miss Patti decided he would be a perfect fit to what was then Hamburger Patti’s Ice Cream Parlor. Indian Joe sat in the foyer of Hamburger Patti’s until he was moved, due to making the children scared, to a corner in one of the dining rooms. Indian Joe sat for years enjoying a pork chop but he continued to cause customer jitters and Miss Patti decided he needed a bath. He was moved to the clawfoot tub and has remained there ever since. Originally the bathroom had a toilet along with the original whiskey barrel sink, but many were frightened to turn around and see the Indian. The room now remains a quiet spot for Joe to relax in the tub.

Nellie & I split the very famous 2″ thick pork chops & also split the Patti’s famous Chess Pie.

We are going for round #2 tonight with the Loopers, with docktails at the slip of Lab Partners (Rip & Beth) shown below. Their slip is normally occupied by a local, and most of the very nice Pier-5 is equipped with significant outdoor furniture, outdoor bars, etc.

Next Stop = Pebble Isle Marina in New Johnsonville, Tn.
Home of the Loretta Lynn Museum (so we hear ???)

Hey Blog Followers,

It’s been a heck of a week.
Gettin’ Looped has conquered the Mighty Mississippi & the Ohio Rivers !
We covered 300 miles in 4 days (whew).
We tied to a barge one night & were on the hook (anchored) 2 nights.
There was limited cell text/call service, but the 2G/3G service did not allow blog updates.
Also the days were very long and we were too whipped to write blog posts.
Therefore, we are now posting the entire week on this one blog update.
We think you will like this post, it’s a doozy !

Tuesday Sept 26  – Grafton to Hoppies Fuel Barge (Kimmswick,Mo).
We traveled from Grafton Harbor to the very Looper famous “Hoppies Fuel Barge”.
The trip was about 56 miles, and included 2 Locks ; Melvin Price & Chain of Rocks.
Hoppies is the last fuel stop on the Ole Miss for 200 miles.

Most of our friend Loopers spent Monday night in Alton Mo, but due to our power cable issue we spent an extra day in Grafton, and left from Grafton Tuesday morning.  We left Grafton about 7:30am and kicked Gettin’ Looped into high gear (22mph), and met 9 other Loopers right as they reached the Melvin Price Lock, yippee the lock was open and we could drive right in. All of the bollards were full, but our pals Firestorm (Mike & Laurie) allowed us to raft off of them in the lock. As we entered the lock – holy debris !
The Mississippi is known for lots of debris. We had to steer around a lot of small debris & a large 8 ft log inside of the lock, to raft off of Firestorm.

After leaving the Melvin Price Lock, we traveled thru downtown St Louis (farewell Jake & Mollie) and took photos of the Gateway Arch and other Looper boats passing the arch.

After departing St Louis, a 10 boat flotilla led by Gypsies Palace (thanks Steve & Debbie), snaked our way down river between anchored barges, northbound barges/tows coming at us, and southbound barges/tows that we had to pass. All the while under a 4 mph downstream current push. It was both nerve-wracking & an exciting adrenaline rush. This was especially true at the very narrow “Chain of Rocks Canal”, a man-made passage which allows vessels to avoid a very shallow section of the Mississippi.
The very narrow passage made the 10 boat flotilla snake train even more challenging to get around all the tugs & barges.

After passing thru the Chain of Rocks Canal & Lock, we were then in the home stretch for the very “Looper Famous Hoppies Fuel Barge”, the last fuel stop for 200 miles.
I must admit that I was a little nervous about the docking at Hoppies. The approach tips are listed as “head upstream into the current, and crab the boat over to the Hoppies Barge”. We made the approach one time to attach to the barge for fuel, and a second time to attach to the barge for our overnight mooring. Both docking events went very smoothly (yippie).
The Hoppies barge is just a very old/rusty set of tied up barges with fuel pumps and power, no water.
But the Mississippi & Ohio Rivers tutorials from the very famous “Fern” were price-less.

Now safely tied up, I was finally able to experience one of my looper dreams, which was to meet Fern & Hoppie, at the Hoppie’s Barge.
The Hoppie’s fuel barge has been on the Mississippi since 1934, and Fern has been giving advice on how to navigate the rivers since about 1973.
Hoppie is the ole fella & Fern is the ole woman (they reminded me of some of my old Murphree relatives met during my younger years in Mississippi & Alabama).

Fern is a sweet ole woman with a wealth of knowledge. Her advice changed our plans for one of our anchorages, and our path into the Green Turtle Bay Resort (changed from the Tennessee River/Kentucky Lock to the Cumberland River/Barkley Lock (due to high risk of long lock times).
About 10 boats full of Loopers gathered around for Fern’s tutelage, actively taking notes and asking questions.

Our second goal at the Hoppies stop, was to visit the famous Blue Owl restaurant in Kimmswick Mo. The Blue Owl is famous for their pies, especially the “Levee High Caramel Apple Pecan Pie”. The owner/operator Mary is a peach, and is also quite famous, having made pies for Paula Dean & Oprah.

That’s about it for Tuesday Sept 26 !
56 miles / 2 Locks / a 10 Vessel Flotilla / Hoppies / the Blue Owl.

Wednesday Sept 27 – Hoppies to Little Diversion River/Canal (Scott County, Mo)
We woke early due to the 110 mile journey from Hoppies to the Little Diversion River anchorage.
Upon leaving Hoppies we had 3 events within the first hour.
Event #1 was seeing the biggest waterway debris that I have ever seen, a floating log which had to be 50 feet long. In the photo below the log looks like a serpent with a body and head, it is actually the same log peeking out of the water in 2 places.

Event #2, a little further downstream, we also noticed a large log which apparently became stuck on the bridge during times of higher water.

Event #3 was the dreaded thump/clunk, followed by a “Loss of Steering”.
After a few seconds of “Oh-Crap”, I put the transmissions into reverse then forward, and the steering returned.

With no locks on the agenda for Wednesday, the voyage was fairly calm other than the “now normal” passing of barges & tows. We arrived at the Little Diversion anchorage about 3:15pm, a 9 hour / 110 mile day. Little Diversion is a drainage river/canal, but in non-rainy times provides Loopers a safe place to stay on the long voyage between Hoppies and Green Turtle Bay. The entrance/exit to Little Diversion is on a large bend in the ole Miss, and current is 4-5mph. Entry is simple via coming in against the current. Exit requires a “Sécurité” call on the vhf radio to make sure there are no tows coming around the blind corner.
We anchored that night with looper friends Mother Ocean (Dennis & Jan) and Thistle (Greg & Reenie), and two other unknown boats.

Thursday Sept 28 – Little Diversion Anchorage to Anchorage @ Mile Marker 948.5
Thursday was a very long /tiring day with about 80 miles to cover, but also 2 locks well known for delays.
The cruise went very nicely, but the lock delays were terrible with 2-3 hour waits. Olmstead lock is a new lock not yet complete, and we had to do a simple drive-thru. The problem was that we had to wait about 60 minutes for the Ok to drive-thru. The next lock #53 is an old lock being replaced by Olmstead. Once inside, the lockmaster directed us to “hover” during the 12 foot drop. It was quite the challenge keeping the boats off the walls due to the high current pushing us to starboard & high wind pushing us aft. Even the boats with thrusters struggled. But all was well after exercising the transmissions for about 45 minutes during the very slow 12 ft drop.
We departed about 7:30am in the morning and arrived at the anchorage at 6:45pm, an 11 hour/15 minute day !
We anchored with ; Mother Ocean, Thistle, and Tyre-Less.
Tyre-Less had arrived earlier due to their higher travel speed, and helped us all negotiate into the 10ft water around the 3-4 foot shoals.

Friday Sept 29 – Anchorage @ MM 948.5 to Green Turtle Bay Marina Resort
New Looper pal Leslie from Tyre-Less awoke at 6:30am to call the lock #52 , ten  miles down river (now on the Ohio River). It is usually much easier/faster to get thru the locks if you have multiple pleasure craft, so we agreed the night before to have a 6:45am vhf radio call to find out what the lock #52 said to Leslie about traffic that morning. The lockmaster told Leslie it was a normal day, and go ahead and head down for a potential 8:30am lock-thru.
Check out the sweet sunrise at 6:45am, maybe we should be gettin‘ up at 6:30am every morning (nope !)

We departed about 7:45am for the potential 8:30am locking, a 10 mile ride down river.
After arrival at #52, it was another 1 hour delay, followed by another “hovering” session. The Hovering in #52 was easy, current & wind were lower than the day before at #53.

After exiting #52 we were on our way up the Ohio river to connect to the Cumberland river, and make our way to Green Turtle Bay. The Ohio river, like the Ole Miss, was a very winding route with barges/tows parked in the middle, coming at us, and travelling in the same direction. The barge dodging was now starting to feel like normal business. Following pals Mother Ocean & Thistle, both equipped with AIS and Radar, made the journey easier to know what/who was coming around the next corner. (Note to Self – purchase AIS & Radar if we ever do the river systems again).

After lock #52, Mother Ocean & Thistle spent the night in Paducka, Ky.
Gettin’ Looped went directly to Green Turtle Bay.

This is where todays story gets interesting.

We continued traveling north on the Ohio river to get to the Cumberland river. Recall that Miss Fern recommended taking the Cumberland due to potential long waits at the busy Kentucky lock. The route on the Cumberland was a little longer, but we wished to heed the direction of Miss Fern.

Once on the Cumberland, the complexion of the day changed from all the barge traffic on the Ohio river to a more peaceful/tranquil setting.
We had only one single wide barge and one pleasure boat to pass.
The Cumberland had ; pretty homes, several working plants, rocked walls, several boat launch ramps, and was also a very winding narrow route leading to Lake Barkley & Lake Kentucky.

Just as things seemed like they were finally settling down, and about 2 miles away from the Barkley Lock, THE PORT ENGINE DIED !
After the initial 10 seconds of “oh-shit”, I went down and looked at the hard gauge on the port fuel tank, it was empty.
This occurred, in spite of the accurate digital gauge at the helm reading that I had only used 246 of 290 gallons. But the digital gauge at the helm reads total fuel used between both engines.
I then remembered from all the reading I had done about Gettin’ Looped, that there was a set of fuel manifolds in the engine room that would allow me to pull fuel from the generator fuel tank to the port side engine. After switching the proper fuel valves (closing the port eng tank, opening the draw to generator tank, and closing the generator valve) the port engine fired back up. I knew that after 2 days of anchoring and using the generator, I still had 40 gallons of fuel in the generator tank, so the port engine would now be ok. But, the starboard engine would still be a risk, and unfortunately the starboard hard gauge on the tank had went awol , and the new fuel gauge/sending unit that I installed a month ago in Michigan City was not reading accurately (another long story, not a direct part to part replacement for the original bad gauge).
Bottom Line = the port engine has consistently used more fuel than the starboard, and the actual range of the boat is closer to 250 miles vs the 290 miles I thought I could count on (@ an average of 10-11mph & 1mpg). I have kept good records of speed & fuel usage.

So we now arrive at the Barkley Lock, only 2 miles from Green Turtle Bay. I had called the lockmaster to explain our fuel woes. He tried to get us thru asap, but the wait outside the lock was still about 30 minutes. We used a start/stop strategy on the engines to maintain position between the dam/lock/and bridge, and conserve fuel (anchoring was not allowed).
After what seemed like an eternity, we were finally thru the Barkley lock, and Green Turtle Bay was only 2 miles away.
As we approached Green Turtle Bay, I noticed that the sailing line led to red/green markers about another 1/2 mile ahead of our location. We were in about 18ft of water, I chose an “alternate” entrance to hopefully get to the fuel docks before I potentially lost the starboard engine.
Big Mistake !
Follow your sailing lines & red/green markers !
After looking away from the depth gauge for only a few seconds, the 18 feet of water I remembered was rapidly turning into 8ft/4ft/CRUNCH.
Crap – Grounded.
I attempted to nestle the boat off the bottom, but hearing clank/clank made me stop.
I initiated contact with the marina for potential Tow Boat US assistance, but the Tow Boat was pre-occupied with another grounded vessel request about 20 miles away.
During the call with the marina, I received a vhf call from my new best friend Captain Jim Pyke on Looper vessel “Drift Away” (I wished that I could have drifted away).

Jim asked “are you ok ?”
I responded something like, “yes I am physically ok, but my props may have a different opinion”.
Jim advised “don’t do anything, remain in neutral, I will be right over”.
Jim and wonderful wife Debbie were heading for an anchorage nearby, because they could not get into Green Turtle until Saturday.
They deployed their anchor, unloaded their dinghy, and Jim approached Gettin’ Looped in HIS DINGY ?
Jim said after the fact, that he could see the lack of DINGHY confidence on my face.
Jim asked me to join him on the dinghy with my telescoping boat hook pole.
We circled the boat, using the extension pole to determine which side had the deeper water.
Jim then engaged the front of the dinghy into the bow of Gettin’ Looped and went to WOT on the 15hp outboard. After 5-10 seconds the bow began to rotate around. He then engaged the dinghy into the swim platform and pushed. Within about 1 minute, Gettin’ Looped was back in 6-8 feet of water and able to proceed to the correct entrance to Green Turtle Bay.
After the grounding, we entered the Green Turtle Marina at low speed, so I was not able to determine yet, the level of damage to the props.
On Saturday I scheduled a haul-out for Monday at 1pm.
Today/Sunday, we took Gettin’ Looped out for a low/med/high speed test drive.
Results = No vibration at the helm or at the stuffing box nuts & the stuffing box nuts remain cool under operation.
Mike , you are a lucky guy, FOLLOW YOUR CHARTS !

Obviously Mike & Nellie, treated Jim & Debbie to dinner last night. They are a wonderful couple out of South Carolina, about 8 months into their Loop. Jim had a lot of tips for Mike and our upcoming voyage up the east coast.

A wild week to be sure.
300 miles & 6 Locks in 4 days.
Nervousness, Excitement, Fatigue, Adrenalin Rushes, Meeting more great people !
We are loving this Looping stuff.

So now we can begin to enjoy our stay at Green Turtle Bay Marina & Resort (Grand Rivers, Ky).

The resort has ;  Condos, a Yacht Club with Restaurant access for visitors, a Yacht Sales Office, a Ships Store, a Boat Works Marine Service Center (who needs that), 400 Slips, Cable TV at each slip, Tennis Courts, a Beach, 3 Pools (2 outdoor/1 indoor), and a Grill Restaurant.

There are also 2-3 more restaurants in the nearby town, one well-known for their 2″ thick pork chops that we will evaluate later this week.

That’s it for now from Team Gettin’ Looped.
Talk to you in a few days.
Happy Birthday Lauri Scheller !

 

From our previous post you may remember that we arrived in Grafton late Wednesday afternoon,  after a long ride from Bar Island complicated with the “reported” barge blocking the river. A lot has happened in Grafton and it has been an excellent/fun port !

Wed – Sept 20
After we arrived in Grafton about 5pm Wednesday, we hooked up all the power & water cables and hoses. We turned on the 2 AC systems to cool down the boat from the 95F heat, took a shower, and then went to dinner about 7pm. We ate dinner at the Grafton Harbor Oyster Bar connected to the marina. When we were almost done with dinner, all of the lights in marina went out including the lights in the restaurant. I said to Jonell “Oh-boy, I feel sorry for the joker that caused that”. After about 5 minutes the power came back on and all was good. We paid our bill and returned back to the boat about 8:30pm. When we returned back to the boat there were about 6-7 people gathered around the shore power station of the SS Gettin’ Looped. Evidently while we were cooling down the boat with both AC units on (40 amps) the shore side connector in the Y-splitter was making poor contact and building up heat, ultimately leading to arcing/sparking/and power shutdown . Earlier in the afternoon when we checked in, I had met the Owner/Operator of Grafton Harbor Joe DeSherlia. Joe helped us relocate to a new slip (the shore power connector was toast) & helped with a replacement loaner splitter to reconnect the two 50A shore power cables. When I reviewed the Grafton Harbor splitter vs my splitter with Joe and the marine mechanic Brad, we noticed two things; the diameter of the outer grounding ring on my splitter was a little wider than the loaner splitter & the teeth on my splitter were chamfered, not flat like the loaner splitter. On the chamfered connector teeth you could actually see the arcing marks. The bottom line = old connectors on both the splitter and shore power stations allowed enough gap to allow small arcing which built up heat over time. The remaining question that Joe is trying to get answered is “why did the main marina breaker pop before the local shore power station breaker”.
Recommendation to all my boater friends = after connecting your power cables at every new harbor, run your normal high loads & after an hour or so do a hand check of the connectors at the shore power station and the boat. If something is wrong (gapped connections/corroded connectors) you will feel the heat in the connector. A similar event recently happened to my boating pal Joe Grace in Michigan.

Thu – Sept 21 (Ashley Murphree’s Birthday !)
I started the next day ordering a new splitter from Defender Marine. About $550, but they did have the splitter in stock and 2 day shipping, which would allow us to stay on schedule for the next move on Monday to the Hoppies Barge.

We spent a few hours washing the boat, doing laundry, and Gettin ready for a visit from my nephew Jake Baldwin & 1st mate Mollie.

Jake & Mollie arrived about 6:00pm.
Jake is going to Chiropractic school in St Louis, he is in his sophomore year at Logan University. Jake already received his bachelors degree at Ashland University in Ohio a few years ago (in biology I think ?) . While he was at Ashland, he also was a very good baseball pitcher who won the GLIAC Player of the Year in his sophomore season & almost got drafted by the Oakland A’s before he injured his arm and had to have Tommy John surgery.
Jake’s 1st mate Mollie is a doll, she accompanied Jake to St Louis and works from their apartment for a medical billing service that she originally worked for in Ohio, where Jake & Mollie met.

We had a few drinks on Gettin’ Looped with Jake & Mollie, they had not yet seen the boat because they live in St Louis.
We then went to dinner at the Aeries Winery Terrace, a restaurant on top of the hills of Grafton. The views were spectacular. From one direction you could see the convergence of the Illinois & Mississippi Rivers, and from the other direction you could see down the Mississippi all the way to St Louis. At night we could see the lights from the Gateway Arch.

Fri-Sept 22
On Friday we were planning on heading in to St Louis to see the Gateway Arch.

Prior to leaving, I went on-line to check the shipment status of the new splitter before we left and found out that the two-day shipment that I paid $50 for was shipping the new splitter to our home in Royal Oak Michigan, not Grafton Harbor Illinois (Crap ! ).
I initially attempted to have my son Dan go to our house and collect the splitter from the folks renting the house. But Doctor Sauber’s wife had already taken the UPS box to the post office. So the new splitter was now on its way to our mail forwarding service in Florida.
After an hour of phone calls, I called Defender Marine and ordered a 2nd new splitter to be delivered to GRAFTON, and obtained a Return Authorization for the original splitter. Now we just hope the USPS indeed delivers the 1st new splitter to my mail service folks.

Finally we were on our way to St Louis, thanks to a lift from Captain Kenny. Kenny is a boat captain on the local river tour boat, but gave us a lift into St Louis because there is no taxi or Uber service from Grafton to St Louis.

While in St Louis, we visited;  The Gateway Arch, Busch Stadium, Ballpark Village, and The Loop.

The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot monument in St. Louis clad in stainless steel and is the world’s tallest arch, and the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere.
Construction began in 1961 and completed in 1967.
There was a movie about the construction before you went up in the tram/pod which carries visitors to the Top of the Arch.
The construction was quite the engineering feat.
Construction consisted of the fabrication & assembly of a series of 12 ft tall triangular sections. These stainless steel triangles, which narrowed as they spiraled to the top, were raised into place by a group of cranes and derricks attached to the legs of arch itself. The arch was assembled with 142 / 12-foot-long prefabricated stainless steel sections. Once in place, each section had its double-walled skin filled with concrete, & pre-stressed with 252 tension bars. The north & south legs were built separately, then attached together with the final triangular section in 1967. In order to keep the partially completed north & south legs steady, a scissors truss was placed between them at 530 feet, and later removed as the derricks were taken down and the last section attached the two legs.
The movie was very educational.
It is called the Gateway Arch, because at the time of its original conception in the 1930s, St Louis was the western most city, so it became the gateway to the west.

Our next stop was Busch Stadium.
Busch Stadium was pretty cool with a lot of memorabilia of the Cardinal stars of past (Stan Musial,Bob Gibson, Curt Flood – see the statues in front). Recall that the Tigers beat the Cardinals in 1968 to win the World Series after falling down 3 games to 1 (Denny McLain the 31 game winner in 1968 was not the hero. Mickey Lolich won 3 of the 4 games the Tigers won in that series, he typically pitched 300 innings per year).

We had lunch at the Fox Sports Live Entertainment Plaza (part of the larger Ballpark Village Complex). It looked like a really sweet place to watch the game on screens if you could not get in to the game. The Ballpark Village Complex was attached to the stadium near the center field area.

Next stop was “The Loop”
The Loop was billed as a place with a bunch of restaurants/bars and sidewalk placards with famous people born in St Louis.
To get to the Loop we heard from some folks that we could take the Metrolink railcar from the ballpark in downtown St Louis to The Loop in northern St Louis. It was about a 20 min ride and dropped us in a not so great area. We had to walk about 8 blocks to get from the metrolink station to one end of The Loop. Not sure which way to go when we got off the metrolink car, we were escorted by Krishna to the start of The Loop.
The Loop was “OK” and we did see several placards of famous folks, but we were worn out after a hot 95f day of walking in St Louis, and called the Uber car for a ride back to Grafton after having some ice cream on The Loop.

After a siesta back at the Gettin’ Looped, we went out for a dinner which included a Rum/Coke & the Best Bread Pudding I have ever had in my life

Sat – Sept 23
We spent most of Saturday doing Trip Planning – Next Ports, Course Plotting, Locks/Bridge Reviews, Reservations @ Green Turtle Bay.

We also helped review Dan & Megan’s wedding invitation list draft.

We ordered more boat cards, running low already only 2 months into the trip.

Jonell washed the front windows which had become heavily water stained.

We spent a few hours by the Pool with Lab Partners & Firestorm.

We ended the day with dinner at the Grafton Harbor Winery & listened to 2 bands at different bars. The 2nd band played Metallic Hard Rock, and were pretty darn good, even though we are not big hard rock fans.

Sunday – Sept 24
We had several Loopers & Grafton Harbor residents over for drinks on the aft deck of Getting Looped. The Loopers included previous friends; Lab Partners (Rip/Beth) & Firestorm (Mike/Laurie), and new Looper friends One Eyed Dog (Larry/April) & Gypsies Palace (Debbie Russell, still need to meet Steve). The Grafton Harbor residents included John/Cindy Roeslien & next door boat neighbor Bill.

Later that night we also went to dinner with Grafton residents John & Cindy (Elvis photo-bombing).

Summary
In spite of the initial power cord issues, the stay at Grafton has been very nice. The assortment of restaurants & bars is very large for such a small town. The owners Joe & Jan are the nicest I have ever encountered. They will do anything you need. Jan has loaned me her ATT phone 4-5 times, Joe was willing to let me take his splitter to keep on schedule and replace it later, Jan hooked us up with Boat Captain & part time shuttle driver Ken for a ride in to St Louis. Everyone at this marina bends over backward to help. And all the locals near our slip treat us like family (Jim, John, and Bill).

Next Week will include a very aggressive schedule with our first real experience on The Old Mississippi !

Tuesday (late departure waiting for splitter which should arrive on Monday)
Grafton Harbor to Kimmswick , and the Looper Famous Hoppies Barge
Last fuel for 200 miles on the Mississippi
Mississippi River = 56 miles / 2 locks (Melvin Price & #27-Chain of Rocks)

Wednesday
Hoppies Barge to Anchorage @ Little Diversion River
Mississippi River = 108 miles/ 0 Locks

Thursday
Little Diversion to Anchor @ Cairo Angelo Towhead
Mississippi River & Ohio River = 50 miles/0 Locks

Friday
Green Turtle Bay Resort on the Kentucky Lake
Ohio River, Tennessee River, Kentucky Lake =72 miles / 3 Locks (#53, #52, Kentucky Lock)
Green Turtle is supposed to be an awesome place, we will spend 5-6 days there.

Parting thoughts from St Louis = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwFGJxRBRUs

 

Hey Gettin’ Looped Followers,
Sorry for the delay between postings, but we have been w/o internet & phone for a few days.

Monday Sept 18th was our 34th Wedding Anniversary !
We celebrated with a very long 9 hour/1 Lock day going from IVY Yacht Club in Peoria Illinois to an anchorage near the small town of Beardstown Illinois called Bar Island.

Our original plan was to go about 40 miles to a marina called Tall Timbers, frequented by many Loopers. We had spoken to the harbor master  Bob at Tall Timbers 3 times prior to travel day about low water at the entrance, and thought that we could make it in. But the day before departure we found out from Bob, that our Looper pal ” Desperado” could not get over the shoal at the entrance, and they had the same 3’9″ draft as us.
So we decided to do the long day from the IVY Club at Peoria to Bar Island. Bar Island in Beardstown is about half way between IVY Yacht Club and Grafton Marina.

The day started out with a nice ride down the Illinois River thru downtown Peoria, where we had attended the German festival a few days before. During our stay in Peoria the city was visited by replicas of the Tall Ships. We did not tour the boats, but they looked pretty cool from the water side.

Further down the river south of Peoria, we experienced a 1-1/2 hour wait at the Peoria Lock. We had to wait for multiple commercial traffic to pass thru the lock. The final barge was very large and took up the entire 110ft x 600ft lock. The 1-1/2 hour wait included idling at the lock entrance, due to no mooring cells available.

During the ride down river after the Peoria lock, we had to pass about 5-6 tows, always asking for permission to pass and which side the tow captain preferred (1 or 2 whistle).

The last 2-3 hours were very nice with no locks or tows, and a beautiful scenic ride with nice homes up in the hills.

We left Peoria about 8am & finally set anchor at Bar Island about 5:30pm, just before a nice rain storm.

We had Grilled Cheese for dinner, and toasted with 1 Bud Light & 1 Miller Lite.
There was no internet or TV stations, so we listened to jump drive music from our youth (Huey Lewis, Fleetwood Mac, Journey, and Heart) and watched the DVD – La La Land.

Shortly after anchoring, we learned from other Loopers that the next day was also going to be a challenge. Due to historically low water (which kept us out of Tall Timbers), there was a reported barge stuck at mile marker 76 on the Illinois River, blocking all traffic. We were told that the “LaGrange Lock” at mile marker 80 was not letting anyone thru potentially for 2-3 days.

I woke up about 5:30am Tuesday morning and called the LaGrange Lock. The lockmaster Randy advised that he could let us thru, but the Army Corps & Coast Guard were not letting anyone past marker 76. I asked for a phone number for the local coast guard, spoke to a person who advised that there was a conference call at 9am that would determine if PCs (pleasure craft) would be allowed thru. We had decided to go for it when I saw two Loopers heading for the lock at 6:30am. We hurriedly pulled up anchor and followed the 2 Loopers toward the lock.
When we arrived at the lock, lockmaster Randy advised over the radio that he would lock us thru, but the coast guard had made a decision that only boats of draft 3’/6″ or less would be allowed thru, and all others would have to tie up on the downstream wall. The lock operators asked each of us what our draft was – We all responded 3’/6″ 

As we passed thru mile markers 79,78,77,76,75,74,73,72,71 we soon realized that this Illinois river barge blockage was more over-exaggerated than the year 2000/Y2K computer collapse or the Giraldo Rivera’s Al Capone’s Vault opening. There was a barge off to the side of the river at mile marker 76, but there was 8 feet of water throughout the channel. If nobody had said anything, we would not have suspected any issue at all. We called a few fellow Loopers upstream to give them the update that passage was possible thru LaGrange & marker 76, and we were finally on our way. The only problem was The FOG.
Shortly downstream from LaGrange at the lower water level, still only 8:30-9:00am, we encountered very thick fog. Luckily we were following friend Loopers “Lab Partners” who have Radar & AIS.

After a second long day we finally arrived to the comfort of our covered slip at Grafton Harbor, where we will spend the next 5 days, and visit with my nephew Jake & his first mate Mollie.

After the wonderful anchorage at Henry, we traveled on Saturday to the Illinois Valley Yacht Club in Peoria Illinois. It’s another beautiful marina with a very friendly staff and local boaters. Our plan is to stay 2 nights, Friday & Saturday.

Downtown Peoria is about 2-3 miles away, so we took an Uber into town. We were told by some folks at the marina that there was a big Octoberfest celebration this weekend.
We started our afternoon/night in Peoria with some discovery of the downtown. There was a very large structure which contained a Science Museum & Planetarium.

We ran in to a local on the riverfront and asked about the town & restaurants. The ole fello said “This town is dead, nothing here, it used to be nice but the locals did not support it, they spent their money outside of Peoria”.
The riverfront did show some of the signs of good times gone bye, with a few nice looking places closed (Joe’s Crab Shack on the river). But there was still plenty of nice stuff to see. We ate dinner at a BBQ place called the Blue Duck. The food, service, and friendliness were great. There were also some “Tall Ships” on the riverfront for the weekend.

The highlight of the night was the Octoberfest celebration on the river. It was a blast. Beer, Music, Dancing, German Outfits, German History, Wood Carvings, a Beer Mug Holding Contest, & very tasty nite time deserts for Mike.

The best part of the Octoberfest was the entertainment. Several bands, one was a more generic German band & the  second very lively younger alternative German band who had just returned from a German tour.
The first more generic band was very nice, and initiated some authentic German dancing.
See the attached video = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00UxRPChDwA

The second band was very entertaining.
They play a very high energy alternative form of German music.
The video shows one of their originals, but they did some modern songs like ; AC/DC-Back in Black & Bryan Adams-Summer of ’69.
See the attached video = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3xygKs0x_0

The night ended with the purchase of some fudge, cookies, and Uber ride back to the boat.

Hey Gang,

Friday night was our first adventure anchoring on the trip so far. Hard to believe that we could go 2 months without anchoring. The trips from Chicago to Joliet & Joliet to Ottawa, alerted us that we needed to reduce our miles traveled per day due to the delays at the locks. Otherwise our intended days of 5-6 hours turned into 9-10 hours, and very tired Loopers. You would not think that you could get so tired driving a boat, but you do !
The trip from Ottawa to Henry Illinois was filled with Locks, Fishin’ Boats, Duck Hunting Blinds, Nice Scenery, and a beautiful night time Anchorage.

The trip Friday was our first time docking at the “Mooring Cells” outside of the locks. We had previously been idling outside of the locks waiting for them to open and allow entry. This creates fatigue attempting to keep the boat in one area with the wind & current pushing the boat around. The lockmaster at Starved Rock Lock indicated that they were having trouble with a northbound tow in the lock, and the wait would be over an hour. So we and other Loopers tied to the mooring cells.

As we moved past the lock, the scenery became filled with Fishin’ Boats & home made Duck Blinds.

The scenery was again very cool.
Was Columbus correct, it looks like we are going to fall off the ledge ahead.

We arrived at the Anchorage about 5pm Friday night. It was a place recommended by Active Captain. It was just past the north tip of  “Henry Island”, just off of the primary sailing line of the Illinois River shown in white.

Our fist anchorage was AWESOME.
Not so incredibly beautiful, but very serene.
The setting was very quiet, all you could hear were crickets chirping & fish jumping. Nellie saw a deer on the shoreline, Mike missed it.

Hey Blog Followers,
We left from Chicago to Joliet Illinois on Monday, and to Ottawa Illinois  yesterday.
The 2 days were a whirlwind start to the river system boating.
The travel days were very long (9-10 hours) due to extensive waits at the various locks waiting for passage.

The summary for Chicago to Joliet to Ottawa is as follows;
Downtown Chicago = Awesome, everything we expected
Industrial Chicago & Northern Illinois = Commercial Plants & Graffiti
Undeveloped Northern Illinois (Chicago to Joliet) = Serene, Quiet, Calm
Barges/Tugs = Barges Blocking the River & Yikes, Get out of the way !
The Electronic Fence for Asian Carp = a non-event
The Locks = Fun, Cool, Engineering Marvels

Downtown Chicago
The trip thru downtown Chicago was breath-taking.
Sky Scrapers, Magnificent Skyline, & Low Bridges !
The Michigan Avenue Bridge (the 3rd bridge from Lake Michigan down the Chicago River) is a 17ft clearance bridge, our vessel height is 15ft/2in.

Industrial Chicago & Northern Illinois
The sights quickly changed after we left downtown Chicago.
The surroundings became lots of ;commercial plants, rock quarries, cement plants, cranes, silos, and graffiti.

Undeveloped Northern Illinois (Chicago to Joliet)
After passing thru a significant amount of industrial/commercial land, the surroundings turned very serene, quiet, and pretty. Beautiful vegetation lined sections of river, with some sections becoming a little narrow.

Barges/Tugs
The quiet/serene setting ended as we started to approach Joliet Illinois. The pace picked up significantly with lots of barges blocking the sides of the Illinois River, and lots of tugs wanting to move those barges. Slightly stressful for the captain of Gettin’ Looped, but also really cool to watch up close.

The Electronic Fence for Asian Carp
The electronic fence is an electrical barrier used in the attempt to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp that are moving up the Mississippi river. The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal Dispersal Barrier stretches two rows of electrodes across the canal (approximately 220 feet apart) to create an Asian carp fence. The electrodes pulse direct current into the water; this causes the fish to turn back rather than pass through the electric current. The fence was built in 3 phases between 2002 & 2011. The reported results have been mixed, and the Chicago Sanitary Canal engineers have also resorted to chemical treatments to deter the Asian carp.
For us, the passing was a non-event.
If the signs were not posted, we would not have known that we had entered or exited the zone.
We have not yet seen any Asian Carp jumping, but hear from other Loopers that we may still see that phenomenon near Henry or Peoria Illinois.

Locks
From Chicago to Ottawa, we have went thru 5 Locks so far.
Jonell & I had previous experience going thru locks with other Loopers in 2014, while we were dreaming about becoming Loopers.
But watching someone else take their boat thru a lock with 4 sets of hands vs taking your own boat thru a lock with 2 sets of hands, is a little different.
The nerves were up a little, but all 5 locks have went off without a hitch.
I have become pretty good at the approach to the attachment bollard (a post on the lock wall) & Nellie has become very good at getting the line around the bollard & on the cleats before wind/current have their way with the boat.
We also have experienced rafting to another boat & being rafted off of.
While tied on the Joliet wall, we became friends with Leon & Karen Scott from British Columbia Canada. They were our rafting friends in 2 of the locks.

Next stop will be Henry Illinois, where we will anchor for the night.
Probably no internet, so there may not be a blog update until this weekend at Peoria.
Thx for following.