Chicago and The Start of the Rivers
September 5, 2018
We had a nice departure from Hammond Port Authority Marina as we headed off to Chicago. I’ve never been to the Windy City. I could see the skyline for the past several days. So close but yet so far! The tour time was about 15 miles, back on Lake Michigan, my very favorite place! 😂
The day was bright, and the sky was blue. The clouds were amazing and the wind and waves, not too bad. As we approached, I felt a certain exhilaration and once again, thanked my God for this amazing journey. Jim and I are blessed.
Today we are picking up Jennifer from O’Hare International Airport for a weeklong visit. Jennifer is my friend and I’d have to say my biggest cheerleader in life. I promised her when we moved from Los Angeles, that we would get her to us at some point along our journey. Today is the day! I’m very excited to share this life of mine with her. I think she will be amazed before she is halfway through. We will be enjoying Chicago for a few days, and will be staying at DuSable Harbor, which is a beautiful marina right on the lakeshore. And then we will start our River System journey. This should be fun!
As we started to enter DuSable, the wind picked up. It was blowin pretty darn hard. We got to our slip, and got ourselves secure. The sky was so pretty, but we could see off in the distance a ways, that this would soon change. There is another storm a brewin, and it was just a matter of time before the rain starts. I was grateful, one more time, how it never fails, that when I ask God in the morning to keep Jim and me and our Happy Destiny safe as we travel from port to port, that this is exactly how it works out.
We got settled and walked to Enterprise Rent a Car to pick up our ride. Jen’s plane arrives at 6:30 and O’Hare is only a 35 minute trip by car. We wandered through The Riverfront and along the Chicago River. I can’t explain how beautiful this is. Beyond spectacular! Breathtaking!
We got our rental car and with time to burn, set out towards the airport. We made a stop to look at some motorized bikes and then stopped to treat ourselves to a manicure and pedicure. Both of us enjoy doing this and it was the perfect opportunity.
As predicted, the rain came. It poured buckets as we sat in the nail salon, and I realized at that moment we had forgotten to batten down the hatches on the boat. We had left a few of the window enclosures open and I knew immediately that the indoor/outdoor carpeting would be soaking wet when we arrived back home. Good thing that it’s made for that. Shit happens!
We arrived at the airport, found parking, (ugh) and headed into the terminal. O’Hare is a huge airport. Jens plane was delayed (imagine that) so we just people watched. And then, she was here.
Welcome to the Adventure Jennifer!
Next stop- Real Chicago Deep Dish Pizza! Giordanos Famous Pizza in downtown Chicago. The real deal! Jim has had deep dish before, but for Jen and I this was a new experience! We were so hungry and it was around 9:00 in the evening. Making deep dish pizza evidently takes awhile. By 10:00 we were eating this scrumptious Slice of Heaven!
After pizza, we drove back to the marina and sure enough, returned to a very soggy boat!
Thursday morning, Jennifer and I set out on foot to find a meeting. Chicago Area Service Office, our destination. About a twenty minute walk through downtown again. It was a crisp, although humid sort of day. We found the noon meeting without a problem and enjoyed thoroughly, our Chicago AA meeting.
Afterwards, we walked back to the boat to collect Jim and headed off to Chicago’s Navy Pier which is a 3,300 foot long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. It hosts a Children’s Museum and a few carnival type rides. Most everything was closed. It was a very stormy day, but we persevered, and walked the whole pier. We took a ride on the Ferris Wheel, which I thought was awesome. I took pictures from the top, where we could see the Happy Destiny in its slip. It was so beautiful. Jim snapped some photos of me and Jennifer clowning around at the pier!
Happy Destiny at DuSable Harbor
It was a really fun day. Lots of laughter, lots of rain, lots of memories that will last a lifetime.
That night we hit another meeting in Chicago. This one, at the Mustard Seed Club, was fun and energetic. It was a young people’s meeting, and there were at least 60 people here. We love getting to meet new people in new cities and this was no different! Funny thing - this meeting club had a vending machine, a real vending machine, that you could purchase literature from. Something none of us has ever seen before.
Jim, Kim, Jennifer and the Happy Destiny start our trip down the rivers which ultimately will take us home.
We started out from Chicago Friday morning. Back onto the snotty Lake Michigan for 15 miles. It was worth the 5 foot swells and the howling wind to finally arrive to the Calumet River. We were unable to travel down the Chicago River because the Happy Destiny is too tall. That would have been a really pretty start to the River System, but alas, that was a no go. As soon as we got off Lake Michigan I was the first to do a great big Yahoo and I think I shed a tear. Entering the Calumet, we encountered our first bridge of probably 500 that we will go under as we travel down the rivers.
Entrance to the Calumet River
The scenery changes drastically from anything we have seen thus far. Bridges, barges, tow boats. Men working on cranes. Industrial plants. The River will be jam packed with commercial traffic. These are “working” rivers, and truth be told, pleasure boaters like us, are not very welcome. We are in the way, and we have the lowest priority as far as travel goes. We will wait at the locks, for hours maybe, because working tugs and tows will always go first.
The weather is crappy. Rainy, but humid. Our destination on Friday is Joliet, Illinois and a free city wall where most Loopers stop. It’s a 62 mile trip from Chicago to Joliet. We traveled on the Calumet River to the Cal-Sag River, to the Des Plains river. We went through two locks, in the rain, and reached our destination around 5:00 in th afternoon.
Joliet Fee Wall
We got tied up and had some dinner. I think Jennifer was pretty impressed with how our life on the Happy Destiny looks. It’s nice to have her on board. She was initiated as a full fledged crew member! She and Jim walked into the town to get some milk. I stayed with the boat. The free wall is a bit sketchy. Being a Looper stop, we were tied up with nine other boats, who we would travel with the next morning to our next stop in Ottawa, Illinois. Being in a group of Loopers as we start a whole new way of living on the rivers is comforting to me. I like following other boats when I am uncertain of my surroundings.
We left bright and early the following morning with all nine Looper Boats. Traveling in a pack helps when you are going through locks. We were able to catch the railroad bridge at an opening and The flotilla headed to the first Lock of the day. The first in line boater will normally call the Lockmaster and tell them of our wishes to lock through. Again, pleasure craft have no priority, and when we arrived at the lock, there were a few tows needing to lock through. A Lock cycle can take up to an hour for these tugs and barges. That’s just for one. We had to wait on several, so we had to throw our anchor and we all waited patiently until it was our time.
Patience wore a bit thin when 3 hours had passed. It was rainy and I was just about over it. We finally got the green light, pulled up our anchor and in we went. Just then, The starboard engine on the Happy Destiny sputtered and died! Jim diagnosed a dirty fuel filter! Ugh! One engine down, wind, rain and on our way into a lock! The lock was about 1 mile away, so, Jim sprung into action, I took the helm, Jen helped me relax and breathe. Jim is so amazing. He went in the engine room and handled that repair quickly while we were underway. At that point we were sent back to anchor because another tow needed to come up the lock before we could enter. It would be another hour or so before we locked.
Finally, we got to go through the Lock, with all nine boats. We still had another lock to get through, The Marseille Lock, before reaching our destination in Ottawa. Another very long wait ensued when we arrived to the lock gate. It was around 4:00 by this point. We all anchored again waiting on the tows to get through. The lock master stated it would be a few hours. Rats! Two hours... three hours... I started the spaghetti sauce. We all decided at this point, we would stay as a group and anchor for the night right where we were. It was just getting dark, and I, for one, was a nervous wreck! Just about then we got the all clear to head for the lock. Mind you, the lock is about a mile from where we were anchored. Everyone pulled up anchor, running lights on, and we paraded to the Lock.
By the time we got to the Marseille Lock, and all our fellow loopers got situated, the lock looked like this!
Locking in the dark of night.
This lock is a big drop. It was 8:30 at night and I knew we still had 2 miles to go to get to our destination. My jaw hurt from clenching it all day long. I was worried about us, I was concerned for Jen, and how this long, long day had affected her. It certainly was not your typical day on the Loop. She was a trooper all day long, even as she wore the ugly orange life jacket! This day was bad, interesting, and one I’ll never forget. So, as we were locking down, guess what happens? The Starboard engine fucking dies again! Jim and I are hanging on lines in the lock. Jim yells to Jen to restart the engine. NOPE! Not going to happen! My heart sank knowing we would be on one engine leaving the lock. Jim stayed calm as usual, and reassured both Jen and I we would be just fine. I internally know this, but I also know we are going to be going into an unknown marina in the pitch black, with one engine. I tried to breathe, and continued to be the eyes on the bow to help Jim get us there safe. As we all exited the lock, we were met with a huge upbound tow. We all maneuvered around and set our sight, well what we could see, towards Heritage Harbor Marina. It was 9:15 at night and we had been on the water for 14.5 hours.
I have to admit, when I saw the small boat with Dennis the marina mechanic, on a small skiff with a light out in the river, I knew we were going to be fine. We would be safely tied up soon. Kristi, the wife of the harbormaster at Heritage Harbor, brought all nine boats in, one by one and there were people with flashlights ready to catch lines. We went in last, and the little boat with Dennis on it let us follow him right in and they gave us a slip at the fuel dock. There were people to catch our lines and as soon as the line I threw was around a cleat, I just started crying! It was a very long, stressful day, that, one more time, God saw us through safely.
This is the morning Jim, Jen and I awoke to.
Heritage Harbor Marina, Ottawa, Illinois
With the sun shining, and 0% chance of rain, I was pleased as punch! What a great day we had. Jen and I went to their beach for a while and we had a great lunch at the Red Dog Grill. Megan, our Server, was a bright spot in our day! Such a lovely gal. She made our lunch experience so nice and afterwards we had our picture taken with her in the big chair. They allowed us to use their loaner car. We went into town and hit the grocery store. We had the spaghetti, that I had started the day before, while we were anchored at the lock and we all got a good nights sleep.
Bright and early, September 10, we shoved off for a 75 mile trip, which included 1 Lock, with our destination being The Ivy Boat and Canoe Club in Peoria, Illinois. We only had to wait at the lock for about and hour, which was great! Once in the lock, we had to “Raft” with another boat which was a first for us. It was easy peasy for us. We just tossed Tom and Dorothy on Felix our lines and they tied them to their boat. Our fenders kept us off their boat and theirs off ours. It was fun and relaxing. Our trip to Peoria was beautiful! Wonderful warm weather. Amazing green trees lined the sides of the river. Jen and I sat in the sun on the bow. Jennifer has had an array of different days here on the Happy Destiny. She really got a pretty good taste of how we are living and what it takes to make this adventure happen. We arrived at the Yacht Club around 4:30 and got settled. We had a nice dinner, we chatted, and we had “docktails” with a few of the other Looper’s. Our day was great!
The following day got an Uber and found a meeting. It’s always a good day when we can be with our people! The little club was just adorable, with bright yellow walls, and very welcoming people. They made all 3 of us feel right at home. it was a fabulous meeting and after the meeting a new friend named Dennis offered us a ride back to the marina. It always touches our hearts when a fellow member gives so freely of themselves. Being without a car can get pricy when we need to venture out into the community. People like Dennis are one in a million! He was nice enough to stop at a market real quick so I could run in and get milk, and then proceeded to take us on a little tour of Ottawa. We had a stunning drive back to the marina. We were high atop a spectacular road, with bazillion dollar homes that looked right over the Illinois River. Quite the view!
The morning of the 12th, I watched the sunrise and Jennifer waded in the Illinois River, we fueled up the boat and delivered Jennifer to the Peoria City Docks and stuck her in an Uber for her trip home to Los Angeles. It was a very quick goodbye unfortunately, but Jim and I had to keep moving as we had a few loopers waiting on us to get through a lock and continue our trip down the river. I’m so glad she came and I’m quite sure she enjoyed her time with Jim and me on our Happy Destiny.
I want to allow Jennifer, at this point, to express her feelings about our week long journey:
Greetings from Illinois everybody!
When I arrived in Chicago from Los Angeles I have to say, feeling excited was an understatement! I had been missing Kimmy and Jim ever since they left in February, and I could hardly believe that I was being reunited with them in Chicago! I had always heard really neat things about the Windy City, and it all felt thrilling to me.
Seeing Kimmy and Jim was one of my happier moments as of late. I couldn’t believe I was there with them! We have really experienced a lot together this past week. We went to a couple of meetings in Chicago, enjoyed deep dish pizza YUM!, Walked in the rain, experienced the winds, saw beautiful flowers everywhere, walked the whole Navy Pier, went on a Ferris Wheel, enjoying delicious home cooked meals made by Kimmy. We spent quiet time looking out at the water, and my favorite parts have been the time we’ve spent together talking and laughing while we were cruising on the Illinois River. All the while taking in the breathtaking sights, sounds, and oh yes, the insane Locks. We experienced one lock in the black of night after one of the engines went out! But Captain Jim and First Mate Kim kept us safe!
I have watched Kimmy and Jim work so hard together from sun up until sundown, to make it all happen aboard the Happy Destiny and all that it takes to keep her afloat. Mind blowing work for such breathtaking and at times treacherous experiences.
I have really enjoyed the marinas. The Joliet Free Wall, where we literally tied the boat to a wall, Heritage Harbor marina, where we went to in the dark night and awoke to a beautiful sunny morning, and The IVY Yacht Club in Peoria, where we are at as I write this note.
What I will be taking home with me will be the beauty, nature, peace, happiness and love of it all. I have seen first hand, that dreams can come true.
Kimmy and Jim, thank you from the bottom of my heart for this amazing week, where I got to experience your world and being able to get away from Los Angeles for a bit, has been good for me. I am inspired and will return home, believing even more so, that I can achieve what I dare to, if I work really hard and keep my eye on a prize! Safe and happy travels, and as always, God Bless you both and us all. I will miss you both and I love you both, with all my heart and soul.
❤️Jen
After we dropped Jen we caught up with Marshall and Judy on “Let’s Go” and Rick and Linda on “Recess”. We had one lock to go through and we were the only boats in the lock which only had a short drop. We were able to free float in the lock which was pretty darn cool.
Free Floating in the Lock
The 3 of us stayed together all day. We ran up against many tows pushing their barges, passed under many bridges and to my utter disbelief, finally got to see the Bald Eagles 🦅 I’ve been waiting my whole adventure for! I saw one back in Canada, but today I counted at least 15! It brought tears to my eyes!
Our destination for today was Tall Timbers Marina in Havana, Illinois. We all arrived and settled in. The 6 of us wandered into town and had a nice dinner at a local restaurant.
We are all going to the same place in Alton, Illinois. We have another two days of travel to get there. In fact, it is 140 miles from Havana. Alton is the place Jim and I will leave the Happy Destiny as we travel to Los Angeles for a week. So getting to Alton is pressing for us. It’s nice to travel in a group. I know I’ve said that before, but I really do mean it. We all have the same goal in mind. Safely getting from port to port. From Tall Timbers we went 67 miles and we anchored at a lovely spot called Big Blue Island for the night. It was quiet and so tranquil except for the floating logs and debris rushing by in the current! A log got stuck on our anchor line which I removed and pushed away with the boat hook, and I’m sure a telephone pole passed us by also! The debris in this river is amazing. Also, most all night there were tows traveling down the river. They gave our boat quite a Wake!
I snapped this photo of Marshall and Judy’s boat “Let’s Go” early in the morning. It was a bit misty and the fog around their boat was beautiful.
LETS GO
Our last tour before we fly off to Los Angeles is the 73 mile trip to,Alton, Illinois. Our weather has been fantastic this week. In the 80’s. The skies were blue and the river currents pushing us along at quite a clip. I enjoyed sitting on the bow, all the while making sure I directed Jim around the logs and debris in the water. At around 3:00 pm we crossed into the Mississippi River! How cool is that! We are in the Mighty Miss, another milestone for sure! We truly are bona fide Loopers now! Badasses!
Well, if you got all the way through this novel, I applaud you! Our last 10 days have been a whirlwind of excitement and very interesting twists and turns. I have learned many new things about my ability to cope in stressful situations. I have laughed and cried. I have felt joy and gratitude. Sometimes all in one minute! As I anticipate our trip back to California, I have to say I’m not quite sure how to act. I’m happy that I will get to see my children and grandchildren. Hopefully I’ll be able to spend an hour or so with my sister. Jim and I will attend a few meetings with our “real” tribe. We will see Jim’s former colleagues and I’m quite sure we will be telling quite a few stories about our adventures so far. Being on land, driving on L.A. freeways, and sleeping in a hotel is going to be really freaky!
Cheers!
❤️
This is a picture of all the Loopers here at Alton Marina.
