We started the day fairly early as we had a long trek ahead of us. We took Frank for his morning walk and had our cups of coffee to get us going. There wasn’t much to do for departure, as there are no electric or water hooked up. All we have to do is release the lines and go. This is our second night with no electric, so here we go again with holding our breath when we start the engine. I turned the key and…It started. No hesitation, started right up. Whew.
We pulled off the barge and turned downstream. Our destination is a restaurant called Mel’s River Dock. It is a known Looper stop along the way as it is a nice relief after traveling sixty miles of nothing except river, bald eagles and birds, trees and other wildlife along the banks. Occasionally we would see another pleasure boat, a fishing boat and we passed a barge or two, but otherwise nothing for much else for seven hours. We would slow down so not to wake the fisherman and anchored pleasure craft, but mostly maintained our speed around 8 knot or so. It was a pleasant meander down the river and I was listening to music as well as monitoring the VHF radio, while Lauren would relieve me for a while to relax and hang out in the shade and breeze. I’ve mentioned it’s been hot this week, and we are traveling in 80-85 degree heat. Thankfully we have a small fan on the flybridge to keep a breeze blowing, and it’s hilarious when Lauren or I forget about it and get our hand caught in the blades- they’re plastic so it doesn’t hurt, but it always startles us and makes us jump and swear at forgetting it’s there! I’m definitely not complaining, as I hope to not see snow at all this year and have an endless summer. We also realized today is exactly two months since we left on 7/25/19. Happy two month trip anniversary!
Eventually we reached our destination, and saw the floating dock on the downstream side. We pulled up and noticed a small houseboat docked at the near end. I wanted to be a bit further down, so we made toward the middle of the dock. With the approach, we had the current pushing us, so I could only slow down so much. We came in bow first and I was trying to get the rear end of the boat around. It was no match for the current. The gentleman in the houseboat had come out to assist with docking. Lauren had tossed him a line, but as I was having difficulty, I asked him to release us and I would make another attempt. Now I know what to expect and came in on the second attempt much better. I was not too thrilled we had our stern facing the current, but felt a little better he was in front of us upstream, and I had turned the dinghy sideways to help deflect anything floating downstream. We did our normal post trip Frank walk and mechanical walk through and hung out on the boat a bit.
The town has a population of around 900, and there wasn’t much to see or explore. The town also had just been devastated by floods this spring, and “Floodwaters were blocking the main route out of town, and people who live there feared that could be the case for months.” The restaurant and neighboring houses had a sandbag walls around them at the time, and remnants were still around and they were still cleaning up from this. The restaurant fared well and was open for business. We could see waterlines on buildings and signs of how high the flood waters were. It is difficult to imagine having to deal with something like this. We met the couple on the houseboat, Marcus and Mary Jo, as they were walking their dog. They were not Looper’s, but traveling south a little for experience and seeing if this is something they may want to do. We ate dinner at Mel’s and paid for our slip. They only charge $25 regardless of size for overnight docking. Day docking is free if you eat there. Looking at their website they not only have docks for boats, but also landing for helicopters! The restaurant was nice and clean, and the food was delicious. We shared a fish sandwich and a pizza, and Looper’s have raved about the brisket. The hospitality being shown to Looper’s down the Illinois River has been a very nice highlight of the trip.
We retired back to the boat and took Frank for another walk. There is no power or water here again, so we ran the generator for the hour and half, and eventually called it a night. Our next trip from Hardin to Grafton, which is only about twenty miles. There is no hurry, so we won’t have to depart at an early hour, and can take our time. Grafton also is a known Looper stop, and supposedly the facilities there are nice. This will also be one of our last chances to get fuel before we have to travel almost two hundred miles before there is another fuel stop.
Thanks for the comments and keep them coming! We enjoy hearing from everyone and Lauren is posting pictures on Instagram. One day I will figure out how to upload them here.