The trip down the Chicago and Illinois Rivers was a great time. 25 miles of the Chicago River with loads of bridges, high rise buildings, other pleasure boats, houses, people, (in other words, civilization). The balance of the trip (300 miles) was just the opposite. The Illinois River is a working River with barges, power plants, barges, agricultural loading docks, barges, quarries, and more barges. The Illinois River is definitely a "Working River".
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What I wouldn't give to have Lake Erie look like this every morning.
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One of a dozen homes we saw on the 325 mile journey down the Illinois River. This area is so desolate we didn't even see any wildlife until we were ten miles from the Mississippi (unless you count Saturday night in Chicago).
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Did you know there are pelicans in Illinois (no kidding, we saw 100's).
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This was our only docking opportunity in 180 miles of river. This is a tug repair facility that worked throughout the night. We rafted off to the crane/welding barge.
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Dave's expression as we left the tug repair overnight dockage.
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This picture pretty much profiles the entire length of the Illinois River. The only excitement we had was when we encountered one of several hundred barges moving up, down, and even across the river. There were times when we would meet a barge at a narrow spot in the river and have to pass by at 15 feet apart or less. To get an idea of what this was like , examine the following chart then click on the you tube video of an 18 barge behemoth we passed at around 15 feet. Bear in mind we were traveling at 14 mph and the barge was going around 10 mph in the opposing direction.
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Click on the address below to get a firsthand view of raw terror on the Illinois River.
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The white bluffs of the Mississippi River at the junction of the Illinois River. Tomorrow Mo and I tackle the "Big Muddy".
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