Bye Bye Chicago *** Hello Joliet

 

   

Well what a day to leave Chicago.  It is Set. 3rd and the weather is beauitful.  Don call the other Looper's in the marina, Cathryn and Bob on the boat Next To Me, and the were leave also today so we both left together at 8:30AM.  It was said for me to leave the city but Don was getting ansy....  As were heading for Lock 1 just around the corner from our Marina.  The Chicago fire department gave us a nice good-bye with a great water display.  Just for us!!!!

Good cruising day and nice to have people along side. Very hot again around high 80's and it was not even 10:00 o'clock.  Check all the bridges, and there were lots of them, and their heights in our Skipper Bob book to make sure that we could clear. We needed about 16'4" after everything that we could was lowered.   A couple of them were very close but with the water down a bit it certainly helped. 

It was a nice smooth ride to Joliet.  Went through an area where they actually put electricty throught the water to try to stop the asian carp from heading upstream any further.

 

 

We picked up a couple of other boat that had come down the Calumet River.  Once we got into Joliet there were a total of seven Looper's and one sailboat Looper, Hinnerk on the Paulinchen.  He sailed the boat , mostly along all the way from Hamburg Germany.  He left in 2009.  These are serious boating people....  On the wall in Joliet we had Jim and Belinda on Rickshaw, Bev and Bruce on Paddy Wagon, Walter and coleen on Gemini Dream, Jim and Ann on Wild Goose, Rick and Diane on Toucan and Cathryn and Bob on Next To Me.  I am not sure that you could have fit another looper on the wall.  They had FREE power on shore, which we did not know about, which was nice.  After everyone got settled we met at 5 o'clock for  hors'doeuvres and drinks.  What a nice way to end the day, with old friends and new friends food and rum....  Time had gone by us and before we knew it, it was after 8:00PM.  We all packed up and headed back to our boats.  Not to hungry, I made hot dogs and beans for dinner.  We watched Mamma Mia, again and then went to bed.  I fianlly got some sleep....