Mile 30 on the Illinois River

Departing from The Barge at Beardstown at 8a this morning we soon came to the LaGrange Lock.  We are entering it here and will tie up just below that two story Lock master's building.  We were alone in the lock and could have “floated” without tying up but the wind would have made it a challenge staying in the middle of the lock.... I have probably mentioned this before... our isinglass... all that plastic enclosure on bridge and around sun deck... makes very good sails!

Leaving Lock.

We passed a huge dredge on a barge... with a large pipe on the opposite shore, it was pumping out sand from the bottom of the river.

 I took this next photo into the sun so it is hard to see but at this end of the dredge is where the pipe goes under water & a big rotary cutter loosen the dirt and then the pipe sucks it up.

Green Marker on shore with rocks all around it to protect it and keep it from moving in high water.

Then we passed an enormous grain elevator.  It had 46 storage silos! and plenty of barges waiting nearby for loading the grain.

We are anchored out tonight at Mile 30... which means we are 30 miles from the Mississippi River which on water for us is about 4 hours travel time.  Could MS river possibly be muddier than the Illinois River?!  

This will be a brand new experience for us  tonight.....anchoring in a river.  So far the Captain has had to move the anchor only one time and this time it caught on something hard..uh oh!... hope we can get it up in the morning. The depth here is about 10 feet and we are fairly close to shore.

This is looking the other way toward other shore.

The red marker is on the edge of the channel.   Going down river we keep the red markers on the port or left side of the boat.  Our boat is turned around here with the bow into the current.  So we are not anchored in the channel but still we will be rocked by any barge traffic tonight. The anchor alarm, Drag Queen (don't you love that name?!), will probably be set also.   Right now on the bridge we still have the chart plotter on and Walter checks it now and then to see if the boat has moved... anchor dragging.

I don't want to say that the trip down river today was a bit dull but at one point the Captain moved the boat rather fast over to one side. ??? I saw a bird take off flying..... turned out he was following the bird trying to make him fly!  Okay, so he was bored!!

The cool breeze is blowing into our bow hatch and through the salon..... we don't even need the AC on... loving this cooler weather! And loving the wonderful quietness with just the sounds of the water sloshing softly against the hull.  Captain is now checking the anchor for the third time..... so far so good.   I am glad we stopped early to have plenty of daylight time left to set the anchor.  I am looking forward to sleeping while swinging on the hook tonight.

Chicken in our little tiny crockpot cooked as we motored along so dinner is going to be ready soon. :-) Tomorrow night we will be on the Mississippi River!