Wednesday Oct. 1, 2014

Got up at 7:15 am to do our machinery checks ( engines, transmissions, and generator). We had a very restful  night anchored  behind Lower Henry Island just south of Hennepin, Illinois.

 

This is a view of Beulah Belle who is anchored directly in front of us. We pulled up anchor and headed out  into the river at 8:03. During the evening I had gotten up and checked to make sure we were still anchored well and heard a large owl. The moon was brilliant with the total darkness being out on the river away from civilization.

 After our departure from the anchorage we immediately began seeing  more eagles. We had noticed about a half dozen yesterday some just flying around others seemingly playing games as they flew. Also we saw large numbers of herons and white pelicans. It was an uneventful trip thru Peoria Lake. That is good. Peoria Lake is very large, very shallow outside of the channel, and wins around quite a bit. I cannot imagine running thru this area at night  like the tows with barges do. I don’t know if I mentioned it but tows run 24 / 7 so navigating thru these areas has got to be tricky. We had planned on a short day today after running for almost 12 hours yesterday. We pulled into the Peoria City Docks at 11:45. After some confusion about about  where to tie up we got situated. The docks are free with 30 amp power. Remember  free is good. First chance we had to get off the boat and walk around. Walked thru downtown Peoria at lunch time. A number of food carts thru out the downtown area over lunch time. We then stopped at Beulah Belle and met of of Wally and Mary Sue’s relatives who had driven in to meet them here. After visiting for a while returned to the boat for boat chores. This trip is not all fun and games. Raining  tonite with storms forecasted on coming thru tomorrow. We will wait and  see if we depart.

                                               out in the middle of Lake Peoria a bunch of white pelicans