Ocean Breeze: Great Loop Date: 09.26.2010 (Sunday): Just a Night at Mel’s (Hardin, IL)…

Day #45: 1052.9 total miles (67.3 miles 11.75 hours 9.0 mph)
Locks: 8 total (today: 1)
Port #19 – Hardin, IL

The crew was up and biting at the bit to take OB out of the dock at the very crack of dawn. We had a long day ahead of us. There was only one port between our Looper friends from Caseville, MI and us.

The morning was overcast, cold and misty. The lines were off and OB was underway by 6:30AM. Our destination was more than 60 miles. Todd has kept OB at 9.0 mph. Doing so does make our days longer. However, we are saving an amazing amount of fuel. OB hasn’t had any diesel put on since we left Hammond Marina at Calumet on Lake Michigan.

OB had another day of passing upbound barges and overtaking downbound barges. We had one lock to make today. Squivot and locals at Tall Timbers told us it is usually open with no waiting.

Todd had two downbound barges on the AIS. We passed one early on and finally caught the second, Dell Butcher.

We got to the LaGrange Lock at 10:30AM. You guessed it…there was an upbound barge in the lock. OB is pretty used to dancing around in slow idle circles at locks. We finally entered the lock at 11:50AM and exited at 12:00 noon. A lot of waiting to be lowered in 10 minutes time. This was our last lock on the Illinois River!

Ten minutes out of the lock, we came upon another dredging operation. Todd couldn’t get a response out of the dredge captain. We held off for a few minutes and finally decided to navigate our way around him. The passing was somewhat difficult because of tight quarters and skinny water (shallow).

Once past that obstacle, the rest of the trip was non-descript…just long. The scenery continued to be interesting with many abandoned river supported operations.

We did begin seeing more color developing in the trees. The terrain was becoming hilly with limestone bluffs. We also passed an abandoned river steamer that had to have been a beauty in her day.

OB arrived at Mel’s Riverfront Restaurant Dock just before sunset. It only offered us a tie-up. No power or water. We don’t really need those amenities. We have them all on board.

Today was a long day that put us one port away from our Looper friends. Tomorrow we will try to catch them in Alton, IL.

*Editor's Note: Blogspot has changed the way we download pictures. I will start posting all pictures related to the current blog immediately after the essay complete with comments. Thanks again for reading and all of your comments along the way. This IS an amazing adventure.

Abandoned Elevator...another derelict along the way.

Morning mist...notice the even tree line. That's the flood line along the Illinois River.

First barge of the morning...coming out of the mist.

We first saw what we thought was some kind of lodge. Notice even the butane tank is on stilts. Another sign of the expected flood plane along the Illinois River.

This abandoned fuel station (barge) sat on the other side of the 'lodge'.

Seeing this made us think it had been a river fueling station and carryout at one time, not a lodge. Clearly there used to be a sign next to the building.

Many little creeks and rivers are tributaries along the way. As I navigate, I check these off on the river maps we have from the Army Corps of Engineers.

Another loader that bit the dust. These abandoned river facilities really made us wonder why they hadn't be razed, what caused their demise.

Red nun off station. Nun buoys were supposed to appear IN the water on our port side. This one was grounded on our starboard side.

Daymarker with obvious flood line. I check these off on the Army Corps maps we're using too. I track all these landmarks so we know where we are should our electronic charts fail for some reason. It's called dead reckoning.

There were lots of nice cabins along the way...all on stilts in this area.

Finally a granary that was still functioning!

Overtaking a barge on the way to the LaGrange Lock. We were really hoping to beat him so we could lock down first. We did beat him! By the way, when we are overtaking a barge OR see an oncoming barge, Todd has to contact the Captain and find out what side we should pass him on. This one told us '0ne whislte' which means our port to his starboard side.

So we beat the other downbound barge BUT look what we found! No lock...I mean, no luck!

We could tell from the wing dams on the left, the drop would not be very much. Looks like through water over there, doesn't it? There are diagonal cement dams under the water to slow the flow.

This is what we wait for...the barge clearing the lock! It has been interesting to watch the process though. Most barges are too long for the lock. The barge workers and lock workers divide the barges in half and load them in two rows in the lock. It's quite a process.

More signs of fall...the trees are trying to change.

Another active granary...things are looking up.

It was interesting to see a small tree growing out of part of the granary mechanism above the barge!

The terrain began to change as well. More limestone outcroppings and hills we coming into view.

This was the abandoned steamer we saw just before we got to Hardin. We wondered if there might be a few ghosts onboard.

Our dock at Hardin. We were by ourselves. It was a very peaceful night. We did keep our anchor light on as well as a portable LED lantern in the bridge window and one in the back salon window. We thought it would be good to let the passing barges see us!