Sunday, 9/7/14, Angela and Dave met us at the boat around 7:30 am and we headed out for our trip to Joliet. The first thing you do is go thru the Chicago Lock and that puts you on the Chicago River going down the middle of downtown Chicago. One of the requirements to go down the river is you can not be any higher than 17 1/2 feet. We are 16 feet so it we made it with no problem. It is a real trip taking your boat down the middle of Chicago. We also had Dane and Angela with us who did a architicure tour for us of the various buildings. Once you get out of the downtown area it starts to turn more industrial and then more and more commercial barge traffic. One area we had to go thru was the electric field in the river to keep the invasive specifies, Asian Carp, out of Lake Michigan. These fish jump out of the water as you go by and can be hazardous if you are in an open small boat. We were making great time for our destination of Joliet when we finally reached our second lock called the Lockport Lock and saw several looper boats tied up to the wall waiting for their turn. We tied up with them and ended up wiring for five and a half hours before we could go through. Remember, commercial traffic has priority. We finally arrived in Joliet at 6:30 pm and met up with Attitude Changer and with all the boats we were with from the lock, filled up the wall in Joliet. We went over to Harrah's Casino across the river and ate at the buffet. After dinner we said our goodbyes to our friends form Chicago, Angela and Dane, who walked over to the train station a couple of blocks away to head back home. Next morning at 6:15 am we were awakened to knocking on our door to find out if we didn't leave in the next 15 minutes if we leave now we wouldn't be able to lock through at the next lock for at least a couple of more hours later. So we rushed off and made it in time, only problem the second lock we came to we waited for three and half hours. We anchored out while waiting and Attitude Changer side tied to us. We arrived in Ottawa around 4:30 and stayed for a couple of days. We stayed at Heritage Marina that had a courtesy car we took advantage of to do our laundry, have lunch and do some sight seeing.
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| Heading down the Chicago River |
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| Sometimes I just have to pinch myself, it's so hard to believe we are here on Panacea all the way from Lodi |
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| We're in freakin' Chicago! |
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| I think they were taking a break in the shade of the bridge |
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| We're not in downtown anymore. We are entering the electric field barrier to keep the Asian Carp out of Lake Michigan |
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| Do not fall in the water! |
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| This is why we were at the lock for 5 1/2 hours |
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| Did you know there is a Harrah's in Joliet Illinois? I didn't. |
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