October 2, 2002 (Admirals Log)
We had to wait for the swing bridge to open but then we got out and the water was calm and a little hazy.  We pulled into Michigan City about 1:00 PM. We no sooner got tied up and this older gentleman drove over and asked us where we were going and where we were from.  Then he said he was just going to get his mail and he would come back and we could use his car (a Lincoln Town Car) to get groceries or do any running around we needed to do.  Nice Man!  We decided to head out on foot but hen opted for a cab.  Went into a restaurant to use a pay phone, both cab numbers were out of service.  The waitress said no problem she would call a cab for us.  She didn’t manage any better than we did.  No problem just sit down have a drink, she would be off in about 40 minutes and she would drive us as it was right near where she lived. Nice Waitress!  Got to the Place we needed to go, got groceries, ah ha now we had to get back to the boat about 4 miles.  The the hair on our teeth we caught the last bus for the day. The bus driver went a block out of her way to get us closer.  Nice Bus Driver!

October 3, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
Tried going out early this morning but the waves were hitting us sideways so we came back inboat and checked out the lighthouse museum.  That was kind of interesting.  Then we decided to discover the use of free internet at the public library.  Up to one hour free each.  I was in heaven.  When we got back we had lunch and made a second attempt at going out. Still too rough.  Okay lets try out the public transit system, I need a dose of Wal-Mart.  Public Transit Good........People who ride public transit definitely a little strange. We had no problems though.
Today was another red letter day... we got the T.V. working.  I still can’t stay awake to watch it.
Splash went for a run on the beech. The funniest thing you have ever seen!

October 4, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
This is our last day on “Ocean Michigan” Left early and it was not too bad.  As we crossed the last part on the bottom end of the Lake this huge big rain storm hit.  We could not see anything.  We were relying on our radar to spot barges and tugs and other boats as we were nearing our entrance into the Calumet River.  This has got to be the most congested industrial area I have ever seen.  Bridges, barges, tugs and miles of shore with foundries and mile high piles of coal and gravel and steel.  We got through the worst of it and then pulled into this little marina. Jeno and his dog, “Dog” were the welcoming committee.  Nice enough but I think maybe he smoked too much of something in the 60's and it depleted his brain cells.
We had to lower our radar arch here in order to continue the trip.  There was one bridge that was fixed at 19 feet and with everything up we 24.

Captains log: Almost was run over trying to pass this guy. Three 35 ft wide barges and 5  135 ft barges long, 15 in total, with the boat that's almost 2 acres and this is a small load!!!

October 5, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
Today after leaving we got right into what is affectionately known as “The 12 miles of Hell” No exaggeration.  This is a staging area for barges and pusher and they are coming at you from every direction.  Their prop wash can send you off a direction you never counted on.  You don’t argue with these guys.  They are huge.  They can run from a single wide and one long which is 35' by 100' to triple wide and 7 long.  And then you add the pusher behind which can be 100 feet long on it’s own.  The drivers are all very polite on the radio as long as you don’t mess with them.  In one place there were two single wides tied to each shore and a triple wide was going through the middle....he had about 2 feet to spare.  Than k god we were following him.  We finished our day in Joliet and parked across the river from the “Harrah’s” Casino at the town dock with hydro at no charge.
We went and had dinner at the casino and blew a whole $8.00 American at the nickel slots.  In the park beside where we were tied up they were having a pumpkin fest, with displays of pumpkins , fun houses and live entertainment.  At about 11:00 they put on this amazing fireworks display.  Really impressive.

Captains log: Note the chips on the wall, BARGE DAMAGE

October 6, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
Stayed in Joliet today so Colin could do another oil change.  While he was working a police man came over and started talking to him.  He offered to come back the next day on his day off and drive us around for groceries and anything else we needed.  These people down here are just too nice.
 

October 7, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
Already to leave,   Woops, no reverse gear.  Colin fiddled with it for a about 2 hours and then admitted defeat.  We will have to find a marina.  We carried on down the river on one engine as best we could and spent the night anchored off behind an island at the side of the river.  Around midnight our boat was lit up like daylight.  A barge was coming by and he had all his spotlights on us.  That was a bit tense but it all went fine. We were not in his way at all.

October 8, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
We started out okay.  Left our anchorage in hopes of finding a marina to look at our shifter.  When we got there the mechanic told us that from what he could see we would have to be hauled and the second part of the bad news was he was not able to do it.  When we left the wind was pushing us against his dock and we had a really hard time getting off it.  We did finally manage but we left some paint behind. We got to the top of the “Starved Rock Lock”, called the Lock master and asked to go through, he said no problem he as bringing the lock up and would be about 20 minutes.  Suddenly the boat would only go in circles.  This was too scary.  We dropped anchor and Colin checked in the back.  A bolt in our steering linkage had broken and we had no steering.  He did a quick makeshift repair, and then we went through the lock.  With all our stops and starts we didn’t make very good time and ended up where there were no places to anchor at dusk.  Then we saw it the perfect spot.  There was a bridge under construction with work barges around the bridge buttresses .  We snuck up tied up and spent the night with a huge crane looming over us.  We left at 6:45 Am just as the work crews were coming in.  They only wanted to know what was for breakfast.

Captains log: Margaret was terrified!

October 9, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
Today was just real bad.  At one point we had no reverse gear, no steering, and no way to carry on.  Then we thought we were okay and the boat just up and decided to start heading for a moving barge. We did manage to miss, but not by a whole lot.   After some creative mechanics on colin’s part we have one engine in forward and we have steering on that engine.  The other engine will go in reverse but it won’t steer.  We have contacted a marina that thinks he can help us out.  This place is 30 miles farther along so now all we have to do is get there.  We were so stressed we stopped early in a little town called Hennipen Illinios.  There main street consists of a grocery store, a hardware store and a little restaurant that serves awesome food really cheap.  They have a library a few blocks away with internet access and guess what they have 6 computer stations with brand new computers, all donated by guess who?.........Mr. Gates himself.  Tomorrow has got to be better!

October 10, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
We have run the 30 miles to Hamm’s Holiday Harbor, no problems.  We have anchored off just out side the entrance which is marked with about 6 hard aground barges. Interesting.  Dick Hamm the owner, came out in his run about and surveyed the size of the boat and seemed to feel he could at least get our back end up.  He brought us into a dock and got us settled for the night.
Dick Hamm is an interesting man.  He collects stuff......BIG stuff.  River boats, barges, tow boats and any other kind of boat thing you can imagine.  He is very willing to help us out, which is a lot more than I can say for other places we have contacted.  One of his neighbors has offered to drive us into town for groceries already.  These people are too much around hear.

Captains log:  REALLY BIG SMART BEAVERS HERE

Captains log:  Pelicans way up here??? Called "Vagrant Pelicans" probably related to the Beavers

October 11, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
We cleaned up the boat first thing and by the time Dick Hamm arrived we were ready to move over to the lift.  This man is amazing!  He pushed our 52' boat with his little steel runabout, into the slip where his lift is, even spun it around so it was facing backwards, no problem.  As soon as the boat lifted out of the water, it was apparent what the problem was.  A pin had snapped on the outdrive and we had actually lost a piece as well, thus no steering on that engine.  The other side appears to have some kind of shifter problem.  They will have to order some parts.
We were glad to know what the problems were and that it was not real serious.  We decided to get cleaned up and walk the mile into town and have dinner out.  Catfish is the specialty around here so Colin ordered it as it was today’s special.  They brought him 2 huge catfish, 16 oz. ..... delicious!  Walking back was a bit scary because the road had no shoulder on it to walk on, but we made it back fine.

October 12 & 13 2002  (Admiral’s Log)
They left the back end of the boat up in the air since yesterday and it makes it a bit tricky to negotiate the stairs and keep drawers shut.  I feel like I have been walking around in a drunken stupid for 2 days as everything is on a tilt.  The dog is having a heck of a time with the stairs too.  Colin got looking at his mapping program and discovered that only 6 miles down the river there was suppose to be a Walmart Super Centre.  Lets get in the dingy and go shopping.  Off we go.... 6 ½ miles later there is no Walmart in site let alone any civilization.....Hmmm.  Ask the sailboater going by.... “Oh sure but it’s way down the River, 8 more miles to be exact, but it’s a nice day and we don’t have a lot of anything else to do so off we go again.  Finally there it is.  We have to tie our dingy to the rocky shore and scale a 40 foot vertical steep shore line covered in vines and as we reach the top we can see  we are indeed in the parking lot of the Walmart.
We did all our shopping and stocked up on all our needs, take the shopping cart back to the top of the hill to carry our goodies down to the dingy.....Steep hill!  When we get back to the dingy we see someone else has done the same thing.  We meet the people belonging to the other boat and find out ....guess what, they are from Canada and know Bill Corby the Lawyer in our town, go figure.  We really have to get going as it is getting windy and we are running out of daylight to get back.  As the water is really rough and  we have so much stuff we can’t get up on plane and every small wave is breaking and spraying me with water.  By the time we got back we were both frozen and soaked to the bone.  What some people won’t do to go shopping!!

October 16 - 23 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
We have spent all this time at the Marina waiting for parts, but we have been working on the boat the entire time.  Colin has acid washed all the decks and the swim platform and wire brushed them.  I have  painted them all a nice blueish gray.  I have painted all the rails except for a small section at the back.  We also added a nice bright red strip to the fly bridge (3 coats....WOW) Colin also made one of the covers for the storage compartments at the front and I sewed a canvas bag that fits in the front of the dingy to hold the life jackets and anchor and also a cover for the upper helm chair.
We have made several trips into town to go to the library and also the grocery store, but Colin is getting anxious to get going again.

October 24, 2002     (Admiral’s Log)
We got talking to the Librarian today and found out that she was from Mount Hope Ontario.  She offered to pick me up at the boat and take me swimming for something different to do the next day.

Prepared for foul weather (Hat compiments of Centre Wellington building Dept.)

October 25, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
Liz from the library picked us up so we could get groceries and then she took Colin and I for a swim and hot tub at the Rec Centre.  We had a really great time and we decided to take her out for dinner afterwards.  We enjoyed the evening immensely and enjoyed her company. It was such a nice change from sitting on the boat.

October 26, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
Liz was kind enough to pick us up and take us to the library today again.  All the parts are in now in so hopefully we should be underway again soon.

October 28, 2002 (Admiral’s Log)
Finally the last of the parts are here and everyone is scurrying around to get the work done. by 1:30 we were sitting out at the end of the dock having lunch and we are finally ready to go.  As we rounded the corner to leave the marina, they had a barge and tow boat sitting right across the entrance so we had to wait for them to move it but then we were on our way.  We made it to Peoria and anchored at the back of the infamous Walmart store.  This time the trip by dingy in was much shorter and dryer.  We decided to go to “The Texas Road House” and have dinner to celebrate our  being on the way again!  Naturally we stopped at Walmart to pick up a few things   only when we came up the hill for the second load this time there was a security guard standing there wanting to know just what we were up to.  We showed him our boat anchored out in the river  and assured him that we had paid for everything and he seem satisfied with that and took the cart back to the store for us.

October 29, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
We woke up to blustery wind and pouring rain.  We had set two anchors the night before to avoid swinging and it took us almost two hours to get them both up.  The rest of the day was uneventful till we ended up anchoring in the dark and that was a little tense but we did manage without incident.

October 30, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
Not a very exciting day today.  We traveled 60 miles and anchored behind an island for the night.

October 31, 2002 (Admiral's Log)
Today at about 1:00 we finally reached the mighty Mississippi.  The very first part of the river was beautiful with high chalk cliffs and lots of fall colours to see.  It was really too bad that it was not sunny out.  We spent the night at a Marina in Alton Illinois.  It was fabulous.  8 X 20 hot tub and nice clean showers and washrooms with all the amenities.  We took the shuttle to the Alton Belle Casino and had dinner and came out $7.00 up with our winnings. Not too shabby.  We met some people from Minnesota, that were also staying at the marina, and  on their way south who gave us some books that Colin has been looking for but has been unable to purchase. More nice people!