Day 6: The River!

JOILET, IL USA

Sun up to sun down....45 miles, night arrival in Joilet, damn.  Otherwise it was a good first day.  I was awake, staring at the ceiling, at 0530 this morning.  I don't know why.  Excitement?  Not sure, my mind was probably racing.  We got off the dock just before 0800 and headed for the river.  Before we could even get in to the mouth of the river we passed two barges.  Oh boy, this is going to be interesting.  The first few miles went well, under the skyway and to the first lock.  I forgot to mention that Brady may or may not have missed a turn at the Calumet turning basin (I didn't tell you that though).  The first lock was a float through only about a foot drop.  We got to the fish fence and found out they weren't going to let us through until 1700 because of work.  We knew this already but were hoping that the workers might take a lunch break or something and let us through...nope.  Four hours later the fence opened up and we were on our way.  Not before a huge barge came through first though.  He hugged the wall only inches away from the concrete.  200+ foot barge, two wide, inches from the wall.  Amazing.  Lockport lock was waiting and open for us.  It was a 38 foot drop and getting dark.  We had a few more bridges to get under until Joilet, and we had to wait.  It was now dark.  It wasn't a huge deal but wasn't very encouraging when we closed the log at 45 miles on the day with a 12 hour day.  Duff cooked up some killer sloppy joes and some mac n' cheese.  We invited the Mr. Chips crew over for dinner as well.  The guitar is out, and everyone on board can play, and much better than me.  It should be an early night, and another early morning!

Sound Waves out