Southern Illinois River

The best thing about this title is we are going south. The sun is out and it is shorts weather again. Halleluiah!  The barges are still here but they are fewer and far between.

Stopped at Peoria but there was no room at the Inn. The marinas were full and those that weren’t full were not deep enough for Dream Seeker.  Many of our Looper friends rested up in these marinas but we had to press on. The town wall was available but the current so fierce that Denny didn’t want to try the difficult maneuvering with one engine. The starboard engine died again en route.

With the blessing of the Lockmaster, we anchored just below the Peoria Dam and Locks, in an Eddy that caused the boat to rotate on the anchor, even with the bridle in place. But, it was a safe harbor and we needed to regroup.  It was late, the flying insects were at their height, so we closed the doors and windows, turned on the generator and the air conditioner wouldn’t work.

Denny had his dinner at midnight that night. The engine problem was electrical so he replaced a few wires and somehow worked his magic and we slept in air-conditioned comfort. My experience has been that every time we have a problem Denny goes to the engine room, which he calls “the Holy Place” and the problem is solved.  I think he goes there to pray.

There is good and bad with pressing on. The bad is that after four days of anchoring we were running out of fresh food, water and clean clothes. Dream Seeker holds four hundred gallons of water but there was a lot of laundry to do, and Denny needed water to flush out the air conditioning system. The good is that we can get to Alton faster to meet our Looper friends, Ken and Celeste, on God’s Grace.

quiet river

another barge

getting quieter