As you can tell, we have taken a break from our blogging responsibilities after departing Chicago on the 16th of September. Frankly, there has not been a lot to say or to show in the way of pictures. This part of the trip is "river travel" which is a bit monotonous and without beautiful vistas...for the most part. Here is a recap:
Ashton and I returned from our trip to California (Cathy caught a flight back to D.C. from California) and did a late night provisioning run before dropping the car off the next morning. That day's trip consisted of mainly industrial cruising through lower Chicago
and then one Lock that took us to our destination that evening, a free wall in Joliet Ill...with electricity. There we met cruisers Joan and Steve, aboard Colorado Cat who we had last seen sitting on a the front porch of the dilapidated hotel in Killarney Canada. Joan invited Ashton and I over for dinner which was wonderful, as was the wine! We stayed in Joliet for two nights just because...The next day we traveled 77 miles down the Illinois river and tied up to a free dock in Ottawa Ill. We were met by the town's ambassador who told us where all the good places were etc. This led to me going by the farmers' market in the morning for fresh cherry pie and fruit. The next day we traveled another 80 miles and pulled into a nice anchorage occupied by Colorado Cat (they called and let us know it was a good anchorage) . We joined them for a wonderful dinner of steak, dessert of my newly purchased cherry pie, great wine and conversation. It was pretty neat as we were tucked back in this little river, out of the way of the tows that traverse this part of the world. These gulls would follow us down the rivers hoping we would chew up some of the famous jumping carp...which we did and that made these gulls happy...bad day for carp however.
We made the Mississippi the next day
and traveled to a barge/dock called Hoppies.
This was the only place to get fuel for miles but was a great overnight stop. The "experienced lady" there took us aside and gave us great tips on getting down the river ....basically all the way to Mobil. She was great...here is a picture. 
She has worked the river her whole lifeThere are not many places on the Mississippi to anchor so we called the lock master at Kaskaski River lock and asked if we could tie up to his wall for the night...he said "sure". Later we were joined by an 80 foot Coast Guard buoy boat who pulled up to our front (literally 2 ft away) for the night.
I watched as the Master Chief ran his folks through the evening rituals of readying the boat for the next day. Wasn't much else to watch there, trust me. The next morning I departed on "George time" with Ashton still asleep. There was a pretty good layer of fog on the river so I went slow and used the radar and GPS to monitor position and watch for tows....made me feel like I was back in the Air Force going into Europe in the winter!
We made the Ohio river the next day and anchored behind a small island which provides shelter from the tows, but not much else. However, we had a great night of stir fry and lots of cold beer...life does not suck.
Traveling up the Ohio River was a pain. Both locks we had to go through were having mechanical issues and we waited a total of 4 hours. Plus, we were traveling up river so we had about a 1 1/2 mph current against us. We made our anchorage late that evening which was occupied by four other looper boats....it was fun to see those folks again (Our Time...the folks we "tasted" scotch with in Frankfort MI were there)
Finally, on the 25 of September, we pulled into Green Turtle Bay Marina KY. I paid for a month marina slip here because of planned trips to see Mom and attend a wedding for my Cousin's daughter in D.C. Besides, it is still hot and the leaves are not turning yet and we see no reason to continue south until those two things change! So, we will talk to you when we return from visiting family.
All the best,
George, Ashton and Cathy
Aboard Waveaway
Currently Lying Greeen Turtle Bay KY
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